Freezer bag art

I saw this mess free and fun art activity on a television show last year and I had been waiting patiently until my daughter was old enough to try it out.  I know it's important for children to get messy and use all their senses to play and discover the world around them, but sometimes you just want a quick and fun activity that requires little clean up or preparation.  You probably have all of these items at home already.  You'll need:

Materials:

• plastic freezer bag
• thick paper cut to fit into the freezer bag
• paint- as many colours as you'd like
• glitter (optional)
• masking tape

This activity is basically finger painting without actually touching the paint.  You move the paint around while it is inside the plastic bag.  Adding several colours of paint makes it interesting to move around and mix together.  Of course adding glitter paint to it adds a little something extra :).

I taped the bag to the floor and put the paper and squirted paint onto the paper then sealed it shut.  Next my daughter pressed down on it, poked it and moved the paint around, creating an interesting piece of art.  It's a quick activity that you'll have fun trying out with your little one! 

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Hot Rocks

Objective

To help my toddler understand hot(warm) and cold using river rocks (Sensory Discrimination)

Materials

• Two containers that are similar 
• river rocks (to be divided equally into the containers)

As mentioned above, I divided the rocks into two. I put one set into the freezer about an hour before I did the activity.  For the hot rocks- I put them on a tray in the toaster oven and "baked" at 200 degrees for slightly less than a minute.  I set them aside to cool just to be absolutely sure they were not too hot for my daughter to handle.  Please double check the temperature of the rocks prior to letting your child play with them.
Then I placed each set of rocks into identical containers and asked my daughter to join me on the floor.  She immediately took the lid off of one and then the other.  She picked up one of the cold rocks and raised her shoulders and smiled at me, then3 quickly put it down. :) I asked if the rock felt "cold" or "hot".  I guess she thought both containers had cold rocks, because she just kept taking rocks out of the container with the cold rocks.  I decided to put a cold rock in one of her hands and a warm one in the other.  I repeated saying cold and warm and she did the same.  We also tapped the rocks together to make sounds.  My daughter seemed to enjoy taking all the rocks out and putting the lids on and off the containers.
(Note:  I supervised my daughter the entire time as she still has a tendency to put things into her mouth)

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Sensory Surprise Bag

Objective

To encourage the use of senses through exploration of new objects
(Skill: Sensory Discrimination)

Materials

For this activity, you can use any assortment of objects as long as they are safe and objects in which you think your child will be interested.  Some of the ones I used are:

• scented pinecone
• a clean sponge
• ribbons of various colours
• spikey rubber ball
• lids from tubes of lotion
• feathers
• bath puff
• a kid friendly bag or container to put it all into

My daughter had not seen any of these items prior to the activity so I was especially interested in seeing what she would do with them.  I placed the bag on the floor and Bean came to it and began reaching in and taking all of the items out.  She gave me each item as she took it out of the bag, so I used the opportunity to describe the " cinnamon scented, pointy pinecone", "spikey ball", "smooth ribbons" etc.  She was most interested in the ball as she really enjoys practicing playing catch.  It was a fun and quick activity that is also easy to put together in minutes.

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Water play + Bubbles!

My daughter loves bath time because it usually involves lots of play time and splashing around.  Since she has extremely dry skin and it's January, we have been keeping bath time short these days.   So when Bean (her nickname) decided she would open the bottom drawer in the kitchen where the straws are located, I decided it would be part of a fun and quick little activity that would allow her to play with water without having to take a skin drying bath!

Since we were already in the kitchen I got a pot and added a tiny amount of dish soap and filled up the pot about half way with water.  I then laid down a towel and started blowing bubbles in it.  She was delighted by the bubbles and proceeded to take my straw from my mouth and put it in the water along with the straw I had given her.
She was able to see cause and effect by bubbles being formed when I blew through the straw.  Later we added food colouring to add a different element to the same activity.  She twirled the straws in the water and eventually started getting her pants wet, so we ended the activity.  (Perhaps sooner that she would have liked) ;)

In any case it's a simple and fun sensory activity that you can do in your kitchen.  Next time I may add a scent (lavender or vanilla) to add yet another sensory element.

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