Sensory Play: Shapes Rice Bin

I was slacking a little with their activities. I have been feeling lethargic and they did mostly worksheets and coloring. But yesterday, Y came running to me and asked for "activity time"! I was pleasantly surprised and of course it gives me great motivation. So, I took out the Green and Red rice we colored the previous week. I had wanted to do a Christmas sensory bin but haven't got to gathering the materials. With this request, I had to whip up something fast, so I poured the rice in the bin and threw in some shapes. I like the colors! They were supposed to scoop the shapes I asked for in their respective bowls. It was a lot of fun and they moved on to explore the bin on their own for a long time.

Y, concentrating on his scooping.

He calls this "Rain"

K, mixing the rice.

It look me a while to gather the bin and the boys waited patiently for me, following me in and out of the room, looking curiously at what I'm doing, shouting "activity time" from time to time. I can never associate the word Patience with a toddler so I can see that they really wanted their "activity time". They even let me take a picture of the bin before they dashed for it. There are many times when I feel like stopping the learning activities I'm doing with them and just switch on the box. But they never fail to stop me.

Coloring Rice

Rice is a regular for our Sensory Play. Hoping to make it more interesting, we colored the rice today. There are lots of tips and recipes on coloring rice online. Here are a few by:

DLTK
E-How
Suite 101

Most of them combine rubbing alcohol or vinegar with food coloring. Again, I'm lazy, I just poured food coloring into a Ziploc bag of rice and get the boys to shake. It's not too bad. But as you can see from the pictures below, the rice is not evenly colored. I used about 1 or 2 tablespoon of food coloring to dye this small bag of rice and I think that's a lot. So, maybe you shouldn't be lazy like me if you are intending to color rice.

Green Colored Rice

Red Colored Rice

Can anyone guess the theme of upcoming Sensory Bin with this Green/Red color combination?

Sensory Play - Goop

I have been looking for Goop recipes that does not requires Borax (I have no idea where to get Borax in Singapore, please let me know if you do) and I was happy to find it over at Be A Fun Mum.

What You Need:
300 gms of cornflour
1 cup water
Food coloring (option)
Tray or containers

All you need is to mix the water and the flour. The preparation only takes a few minutes. I'm not sure if it's due to our humidity here. I think we need less water but I've got to try it out again.

Goop is an amazing substance that even I was intridged by it. It feels like solid when you touch it and when you try to lift it up in your hands, it just melts into liquid. Y&K enjoyed exploring with it very much. And they spent 45 mins at it and was very unwilling to leave. K even burst into tears asking for more Goop when I brought him to the bathroom. I think they can play for hours.

I like how sensory activities catches their attention and keep them occupied for long periods of time. 45 mins is a long time for a toddler to be concentrating playing with something. I like to talk to them during the experience. "What are you doing?", "What is that?", "How does that feel?" and I like it even more now because they can talk to me. K nodded, in smiles when I asked him if this is fun and he repeated "fun". Y told me the goop is like rain when it trickle from his fingers.

Sensory Play - Paint Table

The boys are not into messy play. They don't like to get their hands dirty! But I WANT them to! They refused to do hand painting. So, here's my trick. I lured them to the paint table with cars. Ha!


What You Need:
Small Table
Plastic Sheet (to wrap the table top)
Paint
Car (optional... you only need them as a bait)

They were shaking their heads when asked to go to the paint table but they dashed to the table once the cars were out.

K rolling the car.

Hah! Y finally used his fingers! And he told me he was drawing a train.

And then his hands! K followed suit when he saw Y having fun.

Y: "oh oh... dirty hands"

Misson success! This is a great activity. Cars are a nice addition. It was nice to see the wheels texture on plastic. it's nicer than on paper. And they explored the smooth texture of plastic with paint. They were at the table for 40 mins. K was reluctant to leave the table and I had a hard time coaxing him into giving the fire engine a car wash.

I think a great way to preserve the "painting" is to press a big piece of paper over the plastic. I didn't do that this time but will definitely try it the next time round.

Sensory Art - Painting with Feathers

The boys like to go to our craft box to check out our craft materials and specifically asked for paint. So, I did a painting activity with them using feathers.

What You Need:
Paper/Drawing Block
Paint
Feathers

First, I started choosing the paint colors that goes with the feather colors I have and I did a matching activity with them. They weren't keen as they were anxious to start painting.

They were free to do what they want with the feathers and paint.

K smiled at the camera! :)

K got a little frustrated as the feather is too soft to hold like a brush/pen.

I like to give them the freedom to do what they want with the materials provided. The basic rule is, they should not end up on the floor. I think they react differently when they were told right the begining of what to do and when I left it open. For crafts, I give instructions and will demostrate on what to do but with Art, I like to leave it open. It's interesting to see them exploring with the feathers and thinking what they should do with the feathers and paint. And actually, no explaination is required, they just paint. They tried to hold the feathers like a pen, they tried to brush the feathers over the paper, etc. I just love to see them explore.

Painting with Homemade Paint

After the last messy painting session, a friend gave me a splendid idea of making my own paint. I have never thought of making my own paint. It sounds like a crazy idea for a twin mom. My hands and legs (literally) are kept busy countering their fights and meltdowns, “Where got time?” (in Singlish) But since I’m not willing to part with more money paint for another painting session, I kept that in mind but I didn’t expect to do it so soon.

Y crept up to my computer sneakily on this day and saw the pictures of the messy painting after I finished blogging. K was rummaging the shopping bag and dug out the squeeze bottles that I bought. They were a steal at S$0.40 each at Japan Home and I swept the whole shelf. Then they started harassing me to let them paint.

Of course I’m not willing to take out my brand new bottles of Crayola paint so I told them we are going to make our own. It’s so easy that I managed to whip something out when I have no idea at all how to start. I simply put some corn flour and water in a pot and put to boil on the stove. While waiting for the starch to cool, I got out my box of water color tubes and let them choose their own colors to put into the squeeze bottles. After that, pour the starch in and shake. Tata!

Ok, I know this sounds like crap tutorial but since it was so impromptu, I didn’t know how much flour and water I used and with sticky hands, it was not possible to take pictures while doing it and making sure that my 2 toddlers won’t fight themselves to death or run round the house with the corn starch. I will do this again and next time, I’m gonna share with you a better tutorial.
Here’s Paint in Progress.

Y was making tracks with the paint.

K kept shouting "My car is stuck in the mud!!" while painting.

Writing and Drawing Practice - With Sand

Eversince the small "accident" we had after our first Sand Sensory Play at home, we did not touch the bag of sand I bought. I didn't want to let it go to waste, especially after so much effort of finding it and lugging the 10kg load back home on public transport. I decided to do some writing and drawing practice with them today. Papa is home to join us in this activity, which is great because it's also safer with another adult supervising the activity.

What You Need:
2 trays or any shallow dish or container
Play Sand
Sticks (optional, I used disposable chopsticks)

I had originally wanted them to write/draw with their fingers but they refused to let go of their new motorbikes and were a little finicky about having sand on their fingers. I find it very weird. They don't think twice to touch the sand when we are at a beach but they need lots of encouragements to touch it when we are home. I guess Sand and Home just don't go together. :)

We went through some of the alphabets that had been taught and drew some objects that starts with the letter.

We used sticks to draw and smoothen the sand for new drawing.

Fine Motor Skills Activity - Scooping Beans

Scooping is a Montessori inspired activity. This is a very easy activity to put together to keep your children occupied for at least half an hour. It was 45 mins for mine. You can let your children practice scooping with all many materials available at home, rice and all sorts of beans, etc. But keep a close watch, though my boys have out grown tasting, they still attempt to put the beans in their mouth.

What You Need:
2 Containers
Spoons
Beans (I got those big red beans)

Y, practicing his scooping but he soon got impatient and just poured the beans over the other container.

K is for Textured Kite

Another Kite craft we did last week for Letter K. We did a kite with 4 different materials.

What You Need:
Construction paper
Marker to draw a kite on paper
4 types of different materials for them to paste on the kite.
Glue

The 4 materials I chose were:

• Glitter Foam (rough)
• Corrugated Paper (uneven)
• Tracing Paper (smooth and transulcent)
• Hearts Sequins (Shiny)

I cute the glitter foam and corrugated paper into triangles for them to paste on the kite. I let them explore the different textures.

We then pasted triangle cut out from tracing paper. We also revised the shape, Triangle.

The sequins next.

Let dry and let them touch the different textures again when they dry.

K for Kite

 

Our Letter of the Week was K last week and this is the craft we did for Kite. 

What You Need:

Sandpaper

Paint

Hole Puncher

Strips of Crepe Paper or Ribbons or Tissue Paper

Marker

I drew a Diamond shape on the sandpaper. We talked about the shape of the Kite. (Diamond was the Shape of the Week) And I let them use finger/hand paint on the sandpaper. We also talked about the texture of the paper as they did that. 

They got bored with finger painting and asked for Cars. Their wish was granted and they enjoyed rolling their cars over the sandpaper. It was great as they could feel the difference when they roll the car on the sandpaper and on the newspaper. It was interesting to see them exploring with their cars. So, remember to listen to your children, they give you the best ideas!

That's Y's finger pointing to the Kite done by his Brother. They know which is their work! Once this is dried, punch hole on the top and bottom. Attach ribbon/string on top and crepe ribbons at the bottom. They can hold the top ribbon can start running around. However. as the sandpaper is a little heavy, it can't really "fly".

Sensory Craft Beads

What You Need:
Craft Beads
A big container to contain the craft beads
Containers of different sizes
Scoops/cups/spoons of different sizes and design
A Funnel
Magnet letters for some letter hunt fun

Preparation:

• Pour the craft beads into a big bowl or bin

•  I put some magnet letters in the bowl and they sink to the bottom. The boys were surprised to find some letters at the bottom of the bowl.

• Have some containers of different sizes and add a funnel for them to pour the beads into. Prepare different types of scoops/cups/spoons for them to start pouring.

Y busy pouring

 Tips:
 Always check how breakable are the containers you offer to your kids. I was careless. I wanted something tall and heavy so the container won't fall easily but I didn't test if the container is safe enough and Y broke it, very easily. We had a hard time trying to get the boys' hands off the glass bits and cleaning up.

Accidents happen, though this could and should have been prevented but the boys still had fun with this sensory pouring activity with some letter surprise.

Sensory Sand Tub

I had been looking for play sand for the longest time and I was elated when I saw ELC selling them. So, I happily lugged the pack of 10kg sand home and couldn't wait to let them play with it. I think sand play is so fun but the boys don't get to play with sand very much. That is because there aren't any sand pits near our home and the beach is too far and dangerous for me to be bringing two toddlers alone.

I filled two tubs with the play sand and gave them their sand tools to play with. K was uncomfortable with the feel of sand on his hands (he is getting a little finicky about things on his hands). The funny thing is, he was alright when we were at the beach few weeks back but was uncomfortable with sand at home. The sand was moist enough and it's so easy to mould them into shapes.

My mum came over and the boys kept asking her for help with scooping the sand into the containers. 

This is Y

This is K

All was well and fun until Y accidentally got some sand got into his eyes and he started rubbing his eyes with his hands full of sand. He got very upset and started screaming when we held his hands to stop him from getting more sand into his eyes. We had a huge struggle trying to get him into the bathroom to wash the sand off his face and hands. K was a little shocked by what happened to his brother and got upset too when we got him to wash up.

And with that, their grandmother issued an ultimatum that no sand play is allowed at home.

More Sand Play

What do you do on an afternoon when your twins are harassing you to bring them to the beach when it’s mission impossible for you?

Lay a disposable plastic sheet on the balcony floor, get 2 trays, pour a cup of sand into each tray, bring out their Bob the Builder construction toys and you can have some peace for the next 30 mins.