Bamm Boo

I struggled to think of a  January sensory tub. I wanted it to have a white base but I didn’t really want to use rice (my carpets still haven’t  recovered from the stars) or cotton wool. In the middle of January we went to a messy play group. There was shredded paper and animals in one of the tuff-spots so I stole their idea!

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Contents 

• Shredded paper. I couldn’t bring myself to actually shred clean paper although it only took about 5 sheets!
• Stones. I’ve had these for years (not from amazon) I’m not sure this is actually the best place to get them from but I’ve included a link incase you don’t fancy going to the shops 😉
• Milk bottle lids
• Old chocolate tin. My idea was that this was the water. It also makes a good noise when you drop things into it!

• Cut up egg box . They were supposed to be for the animals to hide in – she’s basically ignored them. If your child is at the chewing stage, egg boxes aren’t considered safe because there can be salmonella on egg shells.
• Polar Animals.  These are the ones we have and I would definitely recommend them.

If you’re interested in how we use sensory tubs and some of the benefits I went into more details in the Autumn post. 

Outcomes

( I don’t like this heading because it sounds really formal but I couldn’t figure out another way to say it!)

• There’s been lots of really good exploration. The paper falls really slowly when you throw it up in the air. 😉
• Generally I encourage my kids to play with the contents of the boxes inside the box but this didn’t work for this tub! Possibly the shredded paper is to big but she just wants to get everything out and stand or sit on it!

• She’s particularly interested in the stones. She’s been lining them up and carrying them around.  They’re smooth and cold to the touch so she probably likes that they are quite different to her toys.
• She’s not been especially bothered about the animals. She’s definitely beginning to play imaginatively but perhaps these are a bit small for her.

For more ideas for sensory play see my pinterest board 🙂

I finally made this month’s Winter Play Dough!

I’ve been meaning to make up some new play dough for ages. After the chaos of Christmas I always find it hard to get motivated in January. I found this list of play dough ideas organised by months last week and I loved the January one so that gave me the push to get organised.

Contents

• White play dough – I used this recipe. When I’ve made white play dough in the past, I’ve just used a standard recipe and not put any colour in it but it does end up kind of grey so this worked better.
• Silver stars
• Glass pebbles
• Shiny pipe cleaners
• Play dough stampers – I got these from The Dotty Dough Factory She doesn’t seem to have the same ones is stock anymore but she has similar tools and makes lovely homemade play dough. We’ve bought lots of bits from there over the years.

• Star cutters – snow flake ones would make more sense but I didn’t have any!

*** Obviously none of this is actually toddler proof. Please use sensible judgement. The glass pebbles in particular pose a choking hazard and are not suitable for children who are still at the stage of putting things in their mouth Nor is it suitable as a ‘busy toy’ while you get on with other things unless the child is older. ***

For general information about how I use play dough go to my post about Autumn play dough

Benefits 

• Play dough in general is good for fine motor skills and hand muscle development.
• Objects of different sizes and shapes required different grasps for Little Miss to pick them up.
• Both children were able to fully engage at their own level

• Although it doesn’t actually look like it from the outcome(!) Little Miss was looking carefully at what was available and choosing what she wanted.

• I was able to model language and counting as she played (this is a fancy way of saying I talked to her about the choices she was making 😉 )

This has been really popular which is why we now have tiny stars spread over our house!  I’d better get planning for February please let me know if you have any ideas 🙂

For more winter activties check out my pinterest board