Sensory Messy Playdate

Last year I hosted my first Messy Playdate which I learned about (and gathered ideas) from Crystal of Growing a Jeweled Rose.  It had been almost a year, so I decided to plan and host another one. 

There were 5 stations:

• Shaving Cream Cooking- A pool filled with shaving cream, plastic food, various cooking utensils, plastic containers, and a few pots and pans
• Dino Sandbox- A sandbox filled with plastic dinosaurs, plastic eggs, shovels, and a few other plastic containers
• Painting with Balls- Sam and I taped paper to our shed and secured a tarp on the ground.  I filled several tubs with washable tempura paint and had textured balls for them to dip and throw against the paper.
• Construction Rice- A pool filled with rice and Bennett's construction equipment.  I found construction hats at the Dollar Tree to use, as well.
• Water Bead Sea- A pool filled with water beads, various plastic sea creatures, and plastic containers.  I also had a box with lei's and sunglasses that could be worn.

The play date began at 10 a.m. and it was much cooler this year than last year.  Several of Bennett's friends were able to come and like last year each family paid $10 to cover the cost of supplies and a small lunch for the kids.

The Shaving Cream Cooking station was not a favorite in the beginning (minus my son), but after a little exploring it became a favorite to many.  While it created a huge mess that the moms may not have enjoyed ;) the kids LOVED it!!

Bennett was hilarious and was quite the host.  As people were arriving he would run to each station and tell them all about it.  He would say, "Welcome, to the Messy Play Date!"

As a whole, I would say the kids enjoyed the water bead sea most of all.  Water beads provide a great sensory experience.  I haven't met a kid yet who is not intrigued by them.

It took about 30 bags of water beads to fill the bottom of the pool.

We I see these photos of Bennett and think about how much fun he had I can't stop smiling....and LAUGHing.

Most children love a sand box.  You can simply give them a shovel and a bucket and they will play for a long time, but it was fun to repurpose some of Bennett's toys by including them in each station.  

Painting with Balls was a huge hit with my son and Wyatt!  Of course, Bennett enjoyed every station as you can see.  This station made a huge mess, but it was sooooo worth it.  The kids who got into it played for a long time, while the others only spent a few moments and then moved on.

The finished product made for some really neat artwork.

Last year, the rice station was the favorite, but it took a backseat this year.........at least for the first 30 minutes.  Then, the kids were thoroughly enjoying themselves.  

While the set up can be intense it is totally worth it when I see the kids enjoying themselves and am able to converse with some dear friends.  Now, that summer is in full swing I am not sure when I will host another one, but I do hope to do it again.

I can honestly say it is the most fun I have ever seen Bennett have (outside of our trips to Disney World).

Toddler Trays 7: Pattern Blocks, Counting Cans, Rainbow, Bean Bag Toss, Picnic Play-Doh, etc.

If you want to know a little more about Toddler Trays and why I started doing them with my son you can read more here: Toddler Trays: The What's, Why's, and Where's.

(my son was 2 years and 7 months old when he completed all or these activities)

1. Mickey Mouse and Cars Foam Puzzle: These came from the Dollar Tree and have been great for B's fine motor skills and counting in order.  Every piece will fit together (it is not a self correcting puzzle) and each piece has a number from 1 to 9, so it requires some thinking to put them together in order.  
2. Melissa and Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards: I actually found these at Lion Hearted Toys (if you live in the Tampa Bay area be sure to visit - they excellent toys at a very reasonable price) for less than $5.  The P.T. in me loves pattern blocks (although it is more O.T. related).  They are great for logic, spatial reasoning, shape recognition, pattern making, and fine motor skills.  
3. Learning Resources 1 to 10 Counting Cans:  We use these for counting, stacking, making soup, etc.  There are 10 cans and each can contains the number of food items printed on the front of the can (ie. 6 mushrooms, 9 beans, 1 tomato, etc.)
4. Wall Coloring: Occasionally, I tape paper to the wall allowing B to draw and color.  This teaches a child to apply pressure through their upper extremity without the assistance of gravity which engages muscles differently than when they write or coloring with paper on a table or the ground. 

1.  Water Bead Cooking:  I have talked about water beads before and how they are excellent for sensory play.  We use them in a variety of ways, but in the photo above B is using them for pretend cooking with his pots, pans, and utensils.
2. Alphabet Blocks:  What to do with alphabet blocks? Line them up in ABC order.  Build a pyramid in ABC order.  Make a tower and knock it over. Build simple words.  Place them in a container, draw one out and name an object that begins with that letter and the list goes on.
3. Number Bean Bag Toss:  I printed some Sesame Street numbers and arranged them in a semi-circle.  I would call out a number and he would toss a bean bag to that number.
4. Felt Rainbow:  This was part of our busy bag swap (tutorial can be found by clicking link).  He built the a rainbow while I read What Makes A Rainbow?

1. Play-Doh Picnic: You don't have to have the molds to have a picnic, just make your own play-doh pretend food.  B loved setting up a picnic with his stuffed friends and plastic plates.  We made them all sorts of treats and had quite the conversation going on.

*all Amazon links are affiliate links

You can view more Toddler Tray ideas here:

• Toddler Trays: The What's, Why's, and Where's

• Toddler Trays 2 

• Toddler Trays 3

• Toddler Trays 4

• Toddler Trays 5
• Toddler Trays 6

Toddler Trays 5: Glue, Flap Books, Brown Bear Matching, Duplos with Ribbon, Letter Puzzle, and More

If you want to know a little more about Toddler Trays and why I started doing them with my son you can read more here: Toddler Trays: The What's, Why's, and Where's.

(All of these activities were completed when my son was 2 years 6 months of age.)

1. Construction Paper, Glue, and Stickers-  Simple, yet fun and engaging for young children.  I cut shapes out of construction paper.  I give B a glue stick and allow him to glue the shapes onto another sheet of construction paper adding stickers as he desires.
2. Mini Alphabet and Number Books-  These books were passed down to us from B's cousins.  I have not been able to find them, but B really enjoys them.  They include numbers, colors, and various pictures to help children learn.
3. Brown Bear Matching-  Most children enjoy Brown Bear Brown Bear.  This is a way to further engage them by encouraging matching.  These free printables can be found at DLTK (she has a number of free resources).  I read the story while he finds the corresponding animal.  
4.  Duplo Play with Ribbon-  This is another activity that I came across while searching Pinterest. Blog Me Mom shared the idea of adding string to your building blocks.  I thought it was a great idea since B plays with his Duplo's on a daily basis.  He had the most fun using the ribbon to make a Duplo train that he was able to pull around the house.

1. Flap Books-  Most parents with toddlers own a few flap books, but they often get forgotten.  B rarely chooses a flap book during story time, so I will occasionally pull the 3 we own out for him to explore or to look through during quiet time.
2. Melissa & Doug Self-Correcting Letter Puzzles- My son loves this puzzle, but he loves letters (there is a better photo of him playing with it below).  This puzzle is great for letter recognition, letter sounds, and matching the letter with the object that begins with the same letter.
3. Melissa & Doug Joey Magnetic Dress-Up-  I found this magnetic set on sale when B was really enjoying magnets.  It is great for fine motor skills, pretend play, encouraging self dressing, and matching.
4. Dinosaur Tracks with Play-Doh- My friend Branson's son loves this activity.  B lost interest rather quickly, but it is an easy activity and almost every kid loves Play-Doh.

You can read and see more Toddler Tray ideas here:

• Toddler Trays: The What's, Why's, and Where's
• Toddler Trays 2 
• Toddler Trays 3
• Toddler Trays 4

Toddler Trays 4: Geometric Stacker, Alphabet Dot Paint and Tracing, ISpy Bottle, Counting Cans, Pipe Cleaner Threading, Feed the Hungry Caterpillar, Letter Sensory Bin

If you want to know a little more about Toddler Trays and why I started doing them with my son you can read more here: Toddler Trays: The What's, Why's, and Where's

(All of these activities were completed when my son was between 2 years 5 months to 2 years 6 months of age.)

1. Melissa & Doug Geometric Stacker-  This toy is excellent for fine motor skills and advanced problem solving as one peg has shapes that will only fit on the peg if stacked properly.  Here is a post of 5 other ways to use the Geometric Stacker.  I was fortunate to find a used one for $3.  New it currently costs $12.19 on Amazon.  
2. Alphabet with Dot Paint- Carissa from 1+1+1=1 is a great resource for free printables and tons of ideas.  You can print 26 pages of alphabet dot paint fun.  B really loves this one.  He will sit for 15-20 minutes, which is a long time for a 2.5 year old.  
3. Alphabet Tracing- Again Carissa from 1+1+1=1 created this free printable and it is FANTASTIC!!!  He can't trace them perfectly (yet), but he loves trying.  
4. iSpy Bottle- We had these from the Busy Bag Swap Anna and I hosted.  A plastic bottle is filled with rice and various small objects that can be found on the photo he is pointing to in the photo above.  The goal is to find each object listed in the photo.

1.  1 to 10 Counting Cans- We purchased these with a gift certificate that was given to B for his birthday.  It is really helpful for learning to count and is a lot of fun if your child enjoys to pretend grocery shop and/or cook.  Each can has a number and a fruit/veggie printed on the outside.  The inside contains that number of fruit/veggie.  This day we were stacking the cans, counting the fruit/veggies, and hiding various fruit/veggies in our nesting barrels and guessing what was inside. 

1. Pipe Cleaner Threading- We simple use pipe cleaners and thread them through a colander.
2. Feeding the Hungry Caterpillar-  I found a free printable for each item from the book on Make It Cozee.  I printed and laminated them, then taped the Hungry Caterpillar to a gift bag.  As I read the story, B fed the caterpillar the food.  At the end of the story, we walked outside to get a green leaf to feed to him, so that he wouldn't have a stomach ache any more.  This was a really fun activity.
3. Letter Bean Sensory Bin-  We use beans and rice for most of our sensory bins.  Here B is searching for specific letters, placing them in the container, and covering them with beans.

You can read and see more Toddler Tray ideas here:

• Toddler Trays: The What's, Why's, and Where's
• Toddler Trays 2 
• Toddler Trays 3

The Legend of The Candy Cane Sensory Play

Have you read The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Wallburg?  Following a recommendation, I purchased the book this Christmas season to read to my son.  The reviews were fantastic and the book did not disappoint.  Besides Room for a Little One, it is by far my favorite Christmas book for children that I have read thus far.

A man refinishes a community store front, but the members of the community are unsure what he is going to open.  A little girl decides to find out and ends up helping him organize and open a candy store.  He also tells her the story behind the mysterious candy cane.  Eventually they share the story with everyone in their community.

This book tells the story of the birth of Christ and His sacrifice for us on the cross in a simple way that children can understand.  My son sat captivated by the story from the first time we read it.

So now that I have raved about the book, here is how we used it for sensory play.

I used our rice sensory bin and added objects discussed in the book:

• real candy canes
• plastic candy canes from a Christmas train set my parents bought for B last year
• candy cane ornaments from our tree
• a male and female lego character to represent Mr. Sonneman and Lucy
• magnetic letter J's
• sheep (I originally forgot to add them)

and a few extras for color and fun.

I read the story while B played.

Then, he ate his very first candy can before playing some more.

After playing in the sensory bin we colored a candy cane that was a free printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  She has some fantastic free printables.

I reiterated the truths from the book using the objects in our sensory bin.

• J is for Jesus
• The candy cane looks like a shepherd's staff.  Shepherd's were the first to find out about baby Jesus
• The red stripes remind us of Jesus suffering and His blood
• The white stripes remind us that his blood washes our sins away making us white as snow

*I was not paid to review this book, but truly believe it is a fantastic book that tells the redemption story in a way that is easy for children to understand.  While I was not paid to review this book, the link above is an Amazon affiliate link in which I benefit, but it is of no cost to you.

Click the links for more Toddler and Pre-Toddler ideas.

Linking up with Living Life Intentionally