5 easy sensory activities for spring

Hands up, I’m a bit hit-and-miss when it comes to organising sensory activities.

I go through phases and recently it’s been a big old phase of nothing. But last weekend we rediscovered the Bears’ favourite activity: a homemade car wash using a bowl of soapy bubbles, some toy vehicles, and a sponge.

Big Bear doesn’t like most toys , but give him a bowl full of bubbles or a tray of rice and he’ll sit there for at least half an hour. Little Bear loves imaginative play so he’s happy too.

The water fun kick-started me into thinking of other easy sensory activities we could do at home. The rules were: they needed to be quick to set up and mess-free.

So, after a bit of a think and a short trip to the supermarket, here are my 5 Easy Sensory Activities for Spring:

Rice sensory box

You will need:

A shallow plastic box. I used an under-the-bed storage box

6kg rice

An egg box

Spoons/cups/jugs

Easter themed objects. I used plastic eggs and hid things inside for the kids to find.

When it comes to setting up easy sensory activities, this is one of the best and you can easily change the theme. After an initial pep-talk about keeping the rice inside the box, the Bears set to work on pouring the rice and filling and emptying the eggs and egg box. They enjoyed finding the hidden eggs in the rice and opening them up to discover what was inside.

Easter chick playdough garden

You will need:

Green play dough – bought or made.

A tray

Easter-themed objects, chicks, easter bunnies etc, for imaginative play

Big Bear enjoyed pulling the Play dough apart and feeling it through his fingers whereas Little Bear liked  playing with the different characters and objects sitting in the Play dough. You could also use objects like buttons or straws to press into the play dough.

Spring garden

You will need:

Compost or brown rice

plant pots

Spades and trowels

Carrots with a feathery end so the kids can pretend to plant them and pull them up.

Another sensory bin. The Bears loved messing around in the soil, filling up the plant pots and planting the carrots.

Play dough Easter eggs

You will need:

Different colours of shop-bought or homemade play dough

Buttons and anything else you want to use to decorate the eggs

Big Bear in particular loves sticking his fingers into play dough so he enjoyed pressing different coloured buttons and wobbly eyes, into the egg.

Pom pom eggs

You will need:

Egg box

Pom poms

Tweezers

A great one for improving fine motor skills and colour sorting.

Spectrum Sunday