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Baby Play: Sensory Boards - Book Cart Queens

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What you need: For this activity you will need to create the sensory board before having your infant play with the board. You need any kind of cardboard, and textured items like uncooked pasta, fuzzy fabric, calculator, and buttons. You will glue these items onto the card board and after the glue dries you can give it to your child and watch them feel the different textures!

The developmental areas in this are physical and cognitive because they are using there hands to feel the different items and they will learn what the textures mean.

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After each of my baby storytimes, I include a Discovery Time free-play session that encourages parents to talk to one another and to interact with their children. I include a variety of fine motor, gross motor, and sensory activities that appeal to 0-2-year-olds.

Sensory boards are not new. Babies love to explore different textures, some of which they may be experiencing for the first time. Sensory boards allow little ones to explore textures in a controlled environment, including small materials that would be choking hazards if loose but are interesting to explore when secured to a flat surface. Boards can lay flat on the floor, be propped against a wall, or can be free standing depending on what they are made out of.

I have a made a few sensory boards over the last few years, with my favorite versions visible in the pictures. Some of my personal tips:

I like using trifold boards, as these can stand up on their own in the middle of a room. Cutting them in half horizontally makes them more accessible for the smallest babies and make them more durable.

Colored trifold boards were a game changer for me. Having a colored background makes the textured materials on these boards that much more appealing to small hands and eyes.

Always, always check everything on your board before giving it to little ones. Babies have the strongest fingernails and are determined to tear everything off of your sensory boards. Hot glue can only do so much. Keep an eye on these during play too, especially if you have anything on the board that would be a choking hazard if removed.

I also have a second style of board that I made recently for a science/stem-focused baby play program, a textured shape board. While I wish this was a colored background, the white was what I had available at the time. It focuses on shape-based exploration, especially for toddlers and older babies.

How to Make Sensory Boards

Materials: colored trifold board, hot glue, various textured surfaces
Steps:

Cut colored trifold board in half horizontally, so each piece can stand on its own.

Use a hot glue gun to attach pieces of various textured elements. Consider cutting textured pieces into shapes.

Cost: $5+

Time to Make: 15 minutes

Conversation Starters

Start conversations as babies play with this tool by asking questions like:

Which texture is the softest?

Which texture is the roughest?

What color is that texture?

How does that texture feel?

What is this texture?

Which textures make a noise when you touch them?

Stretch Vocabulary

When talking with little ones, use big words and small words. The more new words a child hears, the larger their vocabulary will be when they start to learn to read.

Consider using some of the following vocabulary words when using this activity:

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Baby Play: Sensory Boards - Book Cart Queens

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Explore DIY baby play ideas. Sensory boards develop fine motor and sensory skills while allowing for exploration of different textures.

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Infant’s (0-18 Months) - Sensory sponge bombs

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Infant’s (0-18 Months) - Sensory sponge bombs

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What you need: you will need colorful sponges, rubber bands, and a bucket of water. Follow the instructions on the website and watch your infants play with the fun sponge bombs. This activity could be used for any age in different ways but infants will use it by feeling it and playing with them inside the water bucket.

The development areas for this activity is physical and cognitive because they are feeling the sponge bombs and the texture of the water soaked in them and they will learn about the different colors of sponges and the textures.

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So today was the big boys' last day of school. Aside from not being able to possibly wrap my head around the fact that I now have a 4th grader and a 1st grader {I seriously feel like I just wrote about Con Man's first day of Kindergarten!}, I am a little panicky about what the heck I'm going to do with these jokers all summer.

To make matters worse, it was cloudy with rain off and on all afternoon, so we couldn't even go to the pool. But it was also hot and muggy and gross, which meant that they needed something to cool themselves off.

Which is why I decided to make them some sponge water bombs.

I have seen about a million tutorials all over Pinterest for these, and the idea is pretty much the same in all of them, but everyone does them their own way in terms of how to cut the sponges, how many to use and what to use to tie them together. This tutorial is just my way of sharing what worked best for me. If you find a better way to do it, knock yourself out.

All you need to make these is sponges, rubber bands and scissors. I tried a few different methods of tying them together, but rubber bands were what worked best for me. I first tried zip ties, as suggested in a couple of tutorials that I saw, but I was nervous about the end of the zip tie sticking out to poke someone in the eye. {I know my kids well enough to realize that no matter how many times I say, "Don't throw them too hard at people!" they're going to get whipped around.} I tried cutting off that end piece, which them left a hard, sharp little shard just waiting to jab someone. Um, no. A few other tutorials used fishing line, yarn or other string, and I vetoed that idea as well, because I thought it would be hard to tie them tight enough.

I got my sponges at Target; they were about $1.60 per pack of 4. I got a total of 6 sponge water bombs from 5 packs, and I had the rubber bands on hand, so this whole project only cost me about $8. Well worth the hours of enjoyment my kids have already gotten out of them, especially when you consider that they are reusable!

To start, a lot of people cut the sponge lengthwise into thirds. I tried that with my first bomb, and I didn't like it. For starters, I was having a really hard time cutting them into even thirds. {I realize that most people wouldn't even notice that, but being me, it was making me twitchy.} I also had to keep adding sponge pieces to the first bomb until it was as full as I wanted, and I realized I was going to use up all my sponges pretty quickly.

So I decided to cut them into fourths, which made it easier for me to make them all roughly the same size. I ended up using 12 pieces for each sponge, which made them nice and full.

I just stacked up 12 pieces, pinched the center together and wrapped a rubber band as tightly as I could get it around the middle.

That's seriously all there is to it. I made 6 of them in about 10 minutes.

Then I threw them all in a bucket of water in the yard and told the boys to go nuts.

And they did.

They played with them for almost 2 straight hours. Even Mason loved them, and I thought he'd get annoyed if someone hit him with one. Because they're soft, they didn't hurt when you got hit with them. {I may know this from experience: trying to take pictures of such an event is a dangerous undertaking.}

These sponge water bombs are better than water balloons for a number of different reasons. First, water balloons can really hurt when you get hit with them. We had a water balloon fight at David's end-of-season baseball party last year, and I'm pretty sure every kid cried at least once, and Connor came home with a huge welt on his leg. Second, it takes for-freaking-ever to fill them all up, and once they pop, they're done. With these, you literally just dunk them in water, and you can use them over and over. And, you don't end up with little tiny pieces of rubber all over your yard. {Bad for your lawn mower, dangerous for animals, birds, and little kids. Lose-lose.}

They got rave reviews from the boys:

Mason: "I love these! It so funny to throw these at D!"

Connor: "Mom, can I just tell you: this is just SO FUN!"

David: "Those water bombs are the best thing that's ever happened to me. Except, you know, being born. And eating."

So there ya have it.

If you're looking for some other fun summer activities, be sure to check out these posts!
Scavenger Hunt Lunch for Kids Multi-colored Crayon Shapes Nature Scavenger Hunt
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be affiliate links. Among others, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

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So today was the big boys' last day of school.

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 Toddler (18 months-3 years)- Nature Walk Activity 

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 Toddler (18 months-3 years)- Nature Walk Activity 

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Supplies Needed-

Cardboard

Marker

How To:
For this activity you’re going to want to draw a flower vase and poke small holes above to slip flowers through. Go for a walk! On your walk you’re going to look for all types of flowers, such as dandelions or daisies. Have Fun!

Development Areas-
The nature walk allows your child Physical Activity by walking or running to find flowers it make their cardboard bouquet. It also allows them to use the intellectual development and identify flowers.

https://www.passionforsavings.com/nature-walk-cardboard-vase-activity/

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Supplies Needed-

Access to some dirt

Bucket

Toy Cars

Soap and Water

Unused Toothbrushes

How to:
Fill up one bucket with dirt and cars, and another bucket with soap and water. Don’t be afraid to let your kid get a little dirty. Allow them to use tooth brushes on the cars to scrub them clean and dunk the cars into the soapy water!

Development Areas-
This activity allows your child to be hands on using their fine motor skills to clean the toy cars. Kids can use their imagination and pretend they’re a real worker cleaning cars.

https://busytoddler.com/clean-the-cars-outdoor-sensory/

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Preschool age (3-5 Years)- Marshmellow tower 

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Preschool age (3-5 Years)- Marshmellow tower 

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https://pin.it/1tzqrBbBs

Supplies Needed:

Marshmellos

toothpicks

what to do: Build what every you want. Use your imagination and put the toothpics and marshmellows together.

Development Skills:

Physical:This activity helps the kids with fine motor skills and coordination

Cognitive: the kids have to plan there design, solve problems, and to learn more about shapes.

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Supplies needed:

two buckets

one spunge

water

what to do: Fill on bucket with water and have the other one empty. Take your spounge and put it in the bucket with water and let it get wet. Then put it in the empty bucket and squeez out the water and try and get all the water to the other bucket.

Development skills:

physical: this is a hand on activity and helps kids understand more porportions

Cognitive: the kids are learning how to problem solve this activity, and thinking hard.

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Supplies Needed-

tape

Sidewalk Chalk

How to:
Find a large area of concrete to make your art! Then you’re gonna want to take the tape and make one big box. Inside that box use the tape to make tons of lines, in the end it’ll look sorta abstract. Lastly, color the shapes in with chalk and peel of the tape to see your creation!

Development Areas-
This activity allows your kid to use their art skills, but also their fine motor skills to make patterns using the tape. As well as their cognitive skills.

https://www.theidearoom.net/sidewalk-chalk-art/

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What you need: For this activity you will need to go on a walk with your kids and collect some rocks and of course some paint. On the link provided there are some fun painting ideas you could use, or you can have fun with your imagination.

The development areas in this activity is intellectual because they are using their brain to unlock their creativity to paint the rocks!

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Paint on one of the nature’s greatest canvases - rocks. Browse through these creative rock painting ideas and get inspired.