Water Play

Since this week’s theme is the ocean, we did some sensory play with the babies. We were supposed to let them play in the mud today, but we decided just to start off with sand. It was in a low sensory table, but the babies were having trouble standing, holding on and trying to play with the sand. So we decided to take the tub out of the table and put it on the ground. This way they could sit in it. While most of the babies were napping this morning, Baby L and Baby K were the first ones to try it. Baby K freaked out and didn’t want anything to do with the sand so we put her in the swing. She loves the outside swing. Baby L loves the sand and he kept putting it into his mouth. He kept playing with a shovel and a turtle scoop. Eventually, we had to take him out because he was eating way too much sand. The sand turned out a little like mud since the tub was still wet from the water that was in it yesterday.

Then this afternoon, the classroom supervisor brought in some seaweed. Since seaweed dries out quickly, we added water to the tub, but we dumped the sand back into the sand box. This was also nap time for most of the babies. Babies J, K and L were awake. Baby K freaked out even worse this time so she went back into the swing. Baby L loved the water. He kept splashing and splashing. The water would get all over him and the ground which made him laugh. He tasted the seaweed and I wondered what he thought of it. It couldn’t have been that good. Baby J also tasted the seaweed, but he wasn’t as excited about the water. He splashed around a little bit though. I was disappointed that Baby C and Crawling Baby didn’t get to play with the water and seaweed. I would’ve liked to have seen their reactions.

Then when I was about to leave, they were setting up a painting project and tomorrow, they will get to color and play with the mud. The babies are having a busy week.

Pond Sensory Tub

Here’s a simple pond sensory tub.



What’s in it?

Water,
Stones of different shapes and sizes,
Rubber duckies,
A frog,
A turtle,
Plastic aquarium plants,
Different sized cups for pouring
And pieces of foil supposed to be Lilly pads.




I tried to make Lilly pads from foil or at least something shaped kind of round or oval, but it wasn’t working. I couldn’t get anything close to a circle, oval and certainly not anything shaped like a Lilly pad. Plus I was rushing to get the tub done and didn’t want to keep messing with foil. I kept the pieces in there anyway because it was something that floats. The kids can pretend they are whatever they want them to be. I like the stones though and the duckies are fun too! If you squeeze the ducks, water comes out of the mouth. I’m sure water would be all over the place when the kids discover that.






For next time, I’d include more plants, more plastic frogs and turtles and maybe I could find some fish that look more like fresh water fish. The plastic fish I have are all sharks, seals etc. I need to take another trip to the dollar store soon. You could also include larger stones or pieces of wood and if you are really adventurous, put a little dirt on the bottom.

Bunny Care Sensory Tub

Here’s a bunny sensory tub I put together a while ago. There are a lot of textures and objects for kids to explore. Most of these objects, you can use to care for a real bunny. They can learn to feed and care for these plush bunnies.



What’s in the tub?
Three bunnies,
Bunny food,
Hand full of hay,
Bowl,
Measuring cup,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Yogurt treats,
Chewable ice cream cone,
Plush carrot,
Shavings,
And a paper bag.



Since some children will get a real bunny this Easter, Click here for a rabbit care guide.
Kids Bunny Fun

Guinea Pig Care Sensory Tub

Here’s the next tub in my critter care series.

What’s in the tub:
Two plush guinea pigs,
Guinea pig food,
Bowl,
Measuring cup,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Yogurt treats,
Chewable ice cream cone,
Plush carrot,
Shavings,
Paper bag,
Eye droppers,
Plastic syringe with no needle of course,
Empty medicine bottles,
Nail file,
Cotton pads.




Keep in mind that this would be best for preschoolers and kids that you’d trust not to put these things in their mouths.
I’ve included almost everything you’d need to care for a guinea pig, but for this tub, I added some stuff that could be used for dramatic play as well. They can use only the things in the sensory tub or pretend they are vets and care for the guinea pigs. Since we have one guinea pig that always goes to the vet, I thought it was a good idea. Some people don’t know that you should take your guinea pig for a checkup once per year. Some people think of critters as disposable animals and don’t take them to the vet even when they get sick. I think the best way to fix that is by educating our kids about the importance of living things even if they are small and don’t live as long as other types of pets.

The two plush guinea pigs are custom made by Morumoto. She makes custom plush guinea pigs and other critters and does a great job! I sent her pictures of our pet guinea pigs and she made exact replicas of them. I also included the little plush carrot she made for us as an extra.

All the other supplies are actual pet supplies. The ice cream cone was an extra one that we had. When we gave it to the pigs, they didn’t want to eat it so I didn’t have a use for the extra until I made this tub. On the other hand, they love the strawberry yogurt treats. I included these in the tub because they smell so good. The measuring cup is for scooping and pouring the food, shavings or treats. There are some little wooden chew treats as well as blocks. There are a lot of textures in this tub. They can burry things in the shavings as well. The tub is an actual guinea pig carrier.






The syringe as I said above has no needle with it. Syringes are used a lot with critters to give them their medicine. We use a nail file a lot on our guinea pigs because they don’t like their nails cut and filing them down is much easier. I mostly included it for the texture and having another object to explore. A lot of the children that I’ve known have had guinea pigs as pets and I know a lot of centers keep them too. This idea might be fun for centers who have guinea pigs since they can’t always be handled by so many children. This way children can experiment without harming or scaring the guinea pig.



We can teach children about guinea pig care, but ultimately, it’s the adult’s responsibility. Children should be supervised at all times while handling a guinea pig.


Guinea Pig board book
What Bounces? Guinea Pig Board Books
Guinea pig coloring page
Guinea pig facts
Kids and Guinea Pigs
Information for parents about guinea pig care and possible rules for children to follow while interacting with guinea pigs.

Valentines Sensory Tub

Here is a Valentines sensory tub for February. I put a bunch of random things in there. Most were heart shaped, but others were flowers, pink or loosely related to Valentines Day.
There are little jewelry boxes, a cute little bag, pipe cleaner hearts, jewels, flower candles, rubber duckies with hearts on them, a flower bouncy ball, a red glass heart, a cookie cutter heart, heart shaped key chains, flower key chains and a pink cupcake. I also included some envelopes and pencils. Inside the envelopes are heart and rose stickers, small pieces of blank paper and some sticky address labels. They can pretend to write letters trace some of the hearts and flowers or just make cards with the paper and stickers. I used shiny stones as the base, but didn’t have enough of them. I figure there’s quite a bit for them to explore. They can put some of the jewels and stones in the bag or boxes, squeeze the duckies, pretend to send mail, squeeze the stress cupcake, compare and sort the different flowers, compare the textures and sizes of the objects, pretend to give Valentines etc.



I only have one picture of this tub. I was in the middle of taking pictures and carelessly and stupidly dropped the camera on my kitchen floor. Now, the lens is frozen outside of the camera and the button that you press to take the photo won’t do anything. I feel really horrible about it since it was also my boyfriend’s camera and it was the one that we found that was the easiest to use. There won’t be many pictures on the blog for a while until I can buy a new one. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the sensory tub idea. I know Valentines Day has passed, but it's still February.

Gerbil Sensory Tub

What’s in the tub:

Hamster/gerbil food,
Bowl,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Chew sticks,
Cardboard tube,
1 gerbil,
Exercise wheel,
Measuring cup,
and aspen shavings as the base.



This sensory tub is very similar to the hamster one. The only differences are the gerbil and the cardboard tube. Our gerbils love cardboard tubes so I thought I’d include one. Other things you can include are small paper bags, pieces of cardboard, tissue boxes, pieces of paper, wooden houses, scoops, extra bowls etc. It all depends on the size of your tub and how many kids are there. Since the gerbil was so big, I decided to have the wheel next to the tub.



Since plush gerbils are hard to find, some substitutes are mice, rats or of course, hamsters. I know TY makes them as beanie babies and Aurora makes rodents as well. You can usually find some good bargains for small stuffed animals on Ebay. I have never seen a plastic critter or rodent set, but if you could find something like that, it’d work even better. This particular gerbil is handmade and was customized from a picture of our first gerbil named, Fudge. I wish I still had the link to the person who made him, but I can’t remember her name. She specialized in making plush cartoon type rodents. To make it more realistic, you can include a pair of gerbils since gerbils should almost always live in pairs.


Some other base ideas include shredded paper or sunflower seeds. Gerbils love to chew on and nest in shredded paper and ours love eating sunflower seeds. Cheap sunflower seeds can be found at feed stores. I think a 5 lb bag costs $3.00 at our local feed store. They also have cheap bird seed, hamster food, guinea pig food or other types of seeds if you wanted to use any of those as a base. I hope these ideas have been helpful.
Here are photos of our gerbils that we’ve had over the past five years.
Mozart, Sophie and the brothers, both called Fudge have all passed away. Our current gerbils are brothers called, the Brownies.











Guide to Gerbils as Pets
Gerbil Coloring Pages

hamster Care Sensory Tub

For the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting the critter care sensory tubs that I made. Keep in mind that these are for preschool age children or older. I think younger kids would put this stuff in their mouth and even though the stuff is fresh out of the packages, I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving some of these materials to them.
I’ll start off with a hamster care tub.

What’s in the tub:


Aspen shavings as the base,
Hamster food,
Bowl,
Water bottle,
ABC blocks,
Chew sticks,
TV,
Strawberry,
Two hamsters,
Exercise wheel,
And a measuring cup for scooping and pouring.

The tub is actually a critter pet carrier. The shavings are aspen with no other kinds of wood mixed in as I mentioned above. We use these for all our critters here at home. We don’t have hamsters at the moment, but we have in the passed and these shavings worked well for them. The shavings are mostly soft wood but you’ll occasionally find some harder wood chips. It’s a little dusty though, but it’s a material that you can scoop, pour and burry things in.



The biggest thing in the tub is the exercise wheel. It’s in the tub for the first picture for demonstration, but I took it out for the rest of the pictures. If I were putting this in a larger sensory table, I’d add my extra wheel which is the same size.


The bowl is actually for a hamster and the food is hamster or gerbil food. We have two gerbils so this is the kind of food I used. The bottle is the perfect size for hamsters or gerbils as well. I didn’t fill it because wet shavings can make a huge mess, but it has a little plastic fish inside which would normally tell you how much water you have left in the bottle.



The TV and strawberry are of course for hamsters to sleep. Since hamsters spend three fourths of the day sleeping, they need hideouts. I thought the TV and strawberry were cute. Unfortunately, these hamsters were too big, but I wanted to show normal sized sleeping quarters for hamsters. Other ideas for hideouts are the bottom part of a milk gallon container with a door cut out of it, tissue boxes or paper bags.





I included a bunch of ABC blocks because hamsters need plenty of wood to chew on. Since their teeth keep growing, chewing on the wood helps file their teeth down. I also included some chew sticks to show what hamster treats look like. Hamsters can be given some fresh fruits and veggies. We used to give ours a grape or piece of carrot for a treat. They also sell a variety of treats for hamsters at the pet stores.



The two plush hamsters are made by Aurora. I’d prefer plastic animals that way the shavings don’t get stuck to them, but you can just pick the shavings off the fur. Also, I wanted to note that in real life, there should never be more than one hamster to a cage unless they are dwarf hamsters. For our playing purposes, we can have as many hamsters as we’d like. Hamsters make better pets for older children, but some of you have children of different ages in your family. This is a way for little ones to experience hamsters without the worries of dropping the hamster, getting bit or overfeeding it.



We were going to do something similar to this at the preschool last summer, but like a lot of plans there, they get scrapped. However, I thought it was still worth including on the blog because kids love pets and I thought it would be useful for them to get introduced to the materials necessary to care for them. It’s important to teach children about responsible pet ownership.

ASPCA Hamster Care
Hamster Coloring Pages

Exploring Ice Sensory Tub

First, I filled the ice cube tray with water and put in random small objects so they would freeze in the ice cubes. I used a piece of a straw, round bead, sparkly heart, a penny, dice, round stones, a button, a shiny star, a pompom and two marshmallows. The marshmallows didn’t freeze, but the pompom was frozen even in the middle because it absorbed the water. For the four empty spaces in the tray, I added drops of food coloring. I overfilled some of the spaces and the colors started to spill over into the other spaces and mix before the cubes froze.
I took two silicone cupcake holders and made cupcake shaped ice cubes. It was one of my favorite parts of the tub and now I’m looking for other things around the house that would be neat to put water in and freeze. I also included ice cubes shaped liked hearts.






After everything was frozen, I put all the ice cubes into the tub with some sponges, cups, funnels, a spatula with points, straws, eye droppers, a turkey baster, a shovel, a paint brush and q-tips to explore the ice with. They can find treasures within the ice cubes, look at mixing colors, experience the ice melting and play with the water.

No Mess Messy Play

No Mess Messy Play

Materials:
Red, yellow and blue finger paint or colored hair gel.
Ziplock bags.
Optional duct tape

Preparation:
Put one blob each of red and yellow paint into one bag and zip it up.
To prevent leaking, insert the bag, seam down into a second bag or seal the seam
with duct tape.
Prepare another bag with yellow and blue
Prepare a third bag with blue and red.

Ideas:
Squish the blobs together to see that red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green and blue and red make purple
Practice writing letters, numbers and shapes through the plastic.
Put three or four colors together in one bag and learn about brown.
Experiment with different materials, such as hair gel, cornstarch in water, flour and water, catsup, pudding or jelly.
Puncture a small hole in the bottom of the plastic bag and squeeze it like a pastry
bag to write and draw on paper or a tray.

Good For:
Fine Motor Skills
Writing

This activity was found from the Play-Activities.com E-mail newsletter

Making Snowmen Sensory Tub

Making Snowmen Sensory Tub

You could use this tub for just exploration and playing or for an art project.
What’s in it:
Cotton balls,
Pompoms,
Colored stones,
Plastic mittens, boots, scarf and hats,
Shiny stars,
Shiny circles,
Buttons,
Bells,
Christmas lights,
Ribbon,
Garland,
Shiny pipe cleaners,
Googley eyes,
Plush snowman
And snowman candle.



These are all things you could use to make a snowman. You can include paper, scissors and glue so that they can glue the snowmen to the flat surface. Cotton balls could be the main body. Stones could be the main body as well if you draw circles first on white paper and then fill them in with clear stones. It would make a frosted look. I included boots, mittens, hat and scarf as models or for tracing. They were decorations taken from my birthday cake this year. The second hat came from an old Bath and Body Works Bottle. I thought the colored stones, buttons, bells, lights, stars and shiny circles and tiny pompoms could be used as accessories. The lights are extra little bulbs that weren’t attached to a strand, some of the stars are foam stickers and the bells were from old cat collars. For the picture, the tiny bells, buttons and lights are sitting in a sea shell so they wouldn’t role around and get lost. The ribbon, garland or pipe cleaners can be used as the scarf. The pipe cleaners can be twisted to form a hat too. It’s obvious what the googley eyes are for although you can use any of the other circles for that. The plush snowman is there as a model snowman and the candle is there to make the tub smell good. You can add a little shovel or scoop with some cups too, but I forgot to put them in before I took the picture.












Some other ideas for things to add are felt, snowflakes, yarn, different colors and textures of ribbon, fake snow, white garland, large pompoms, coffee filters, cupcake liners, fabric etc.
I hope you enjoy this idea.

Sweet Treats Sensory Tub

This sensory tub is full of sweet treats.

What’s in it:
Candy corn,
Marshmallows,
Peppermints,
Scented cotton balls,
Measuring cups,
A lemon drop tin,
An M&M tin,
Mini spoon,
Wooden tongs,
Cupcake wrappers,
Blueberry cake candle,
And cupcake cups with little feet.

I first sprayed the cotton balls with different scents. Most of them were body mists that I have, but spices and using some actual foods might work better. I used apple, strawberry, vanilla, sugar cookie and cranberry. I left them in the bucket by themselves for a while to dry.


Then I put the rest of the stuff in.


The M&M tin was something I found at Christmas time a few years ago. It’s actually shaped like one. The cupcake cups with feet were a gift. I think they were found at Bed Bath and beyond. The blueberry cake candle was found on Ebay and it smells really good. The measuring cups and spoons are for scooping and pouring. The tongs are for transferring to the cupcake pan shown in the last picture. Including the cupcake pan is good for sorting or pretending to make sweet treats.





For other scents, you can use chocolate, cinnamon, lemon, orange, bubblegum, watermelon, etc. Basically any scent you can find in a spice or a spray. For other candy ideas, you can use small chocolates, skittles, M&M’s, gumdrops, jelly beans, mini candy canes, etc. I hope you enjoy this idea.