Not only is sensory play fun, it is also educational for young children. It teaches children to use their senses – touch, smell, taste, look, listen. It can be clean or messy but most of all it is fun! It can be something as simple as putting water in a bucket and having them play in it or playing in mud outside. You could also put jello or whipped cream in a bucket, and they could play with that (this is good for touch, smell, and taste!) If you’d like to get crafty with it you can make play dough or slime. You can freeze some shaving cream, or put some animals in a balloon with water and freeze those… There are so many different things you can do!
I am going to attach some cool Easter sensory activities you can do with your little ones. Majority of them are things you can do with things you already have around the house but never thought about using for a sensory activity. We do a lot of them in the classroom and the children love them! You can do some of the same things over and over but with different themes or colors. For example, dye spaghetti noodles light blue, purple, and pink for Easter, but for Halloween dye them orange, black, and purple. Cut up some tissue paper or construction paper, get some confetti glitter, bead necklaces, little figurines that match the theme and throw it all in a bucket and you have a sensory bin!
Easter Sensory activities:
- Peeps Play Dough- All you need is peeps, shortening, and a little bit of flour! This is an edible play doh so if your little one takes a bite, it’s safe! Mix shortening and peeps after warming in the microwave, then knead it until it makes a dough.
- Sensory Bin– Colored rice and plastic eggs. Use white rice and dye it pink, purple, yellow, green and blue. Use plastic eggs for the kids to scoop and pour rice. You can add some egg cartons if you’d like.
https://busytoddler.com/2017/04/easter-sensory-bin/
- Pom Poms and Plastic Eggs– All you need is pom poms and plastic eggs. This activity encourages sensory and math skills. Your child can match the pom poms to the same color egg. For older children you can put numbers on the eggs and have them put that number of pom poms in the eggs. If you don’t have pom poms use whatever you have, whether it’s crumbled up tissue paper/construction paper or colored noodles.
- Shaving Cream Easter Egg Dyeing– Shaving cream, hard-boiled eggs, food dye, and a straw! Most of these things you probably already have, but if you don’t have shaving cream you can use whipped cream. Put some of the shaving cream on a cookie sheet and put food coloring on it. Then use the straw to draw a design with the food coloring. Put the egg in it and make sure it’s covered with shaving cream, and let it sit for 10 minutes — after 10 minutes wipe it off.
https://www.craftymorning.com/shaving-cream-dyed-easter-eggs/
- Easter Egg Rescue Sensory Bin– Plastic eggs, painters tape (or any kind except clear tape) cooking spoons or spoon ladles, and a large bucket. Put the eggs in the bottom of the bucket, and put the tape on top like a web. Have the kids “rescue” the eggs with the spoons!
These ideas can be adjusted per the child’s age. They can count the items, sort them, or simply name the colors if they want an added challenge.
I hope that these give you some helpful ideas for Easter!
Stay healthy,
Ms. Caitlin