Winter Project: Sensory Partay!

The weather here has been a yo yo lately.  One day it is hot, the next day freezing, followed by another hot day.  And while the weather may be a bit unpredictable, it is a reminder that winter is coming.  And as much as I don't want to admit it, that means that we will be inside a lot more.  It is not practical to think that a 3 year old and 2 year old want to be outside in freezing weather.  I also realized that I had not had a party for the boys in awhile, so I put together an old fashioned sensory party.  The "stations" I created will also be perfect for those long winter days when presented individually as well.

Music

I created a music station by providing rice, beans, jingle bells, pom poms, and plastic eggs.  My goal was to have the kiddos compare and contrast the different sounds made when the various objects are put in the eggs.  However, the practical side of me also knew they would be scooping, digging, and playing in the rice and beans.  I made two different types of rice.  One bucket smelled like oranges, and the other bucket smelled like lavender.  The beans were by themselves, and I did provide scoopers as well.  Yes, it made a rather HUGE mess, but it was totally worth it.  And with 12 2-5 year olds playing in it, it was bound to be messy anyways.

Gross Motor

What better for some gross motor skills than to jump, run, and roll around?  Our little plastic pool has taken on many purposes as of late.  It was a corn pit, a bird seed sand box, and for this day a ball pit. I had picked up a bag of plastic balls years ago for dirt cheap.  And in the past I have filled the pool with the balls and let the boys have fun.  At this party, Pierce and his friends made a game out of jumping from the couch into the balls, throwing the balls, and just having a good old, let the energy loose, time.  Everyone loved it, and of course the boys are already asking when we are doing it again.  :)

Fine Motor

If I am setting stuff up for gross motor, then I need to set stuff up for fine motor too.  There are a ton of recipes online to make your own play doh, and I have tried a bunch.  For this play date, I just used flour, salt, and boiling water to make our dough.  I have also discovered that the Duncan Hines Frosting Creations are fantastic for play dough. They add color and fun scents to our dough, and we also glad glitter to give it that final pizazz.  I set out some play dough cookie cutters that I had, but don't forget that regular cookie cutters are awesome too!  The best part was that the kiddos were able to create their own thing, which released a lot of creativity into the room.  :)

Dry vs Wet

I didn't intend on having this station, but it worked out that way so I went with it.  I had done the Ivory soap experiment where you put it in the microwave for a minute, and it expands into this amazing puffy mass.  The reason being is that Ivory soap is mostly air, which when heated, cause the air molecules to expand.  Or something like that.  :)  After the puffy mass cools down, it is fun to cut apart, tear apart, and just sprinkle like snow.  On a side note, Pierce and I re-constituted this with water a few days later, and it made an almost shaving cream texture that was fun to write and play in.  

Across the table, I had set up a shaving cream and glitter station.  Shaving cream is an awesome sensory material.  It can be used to trace in, play, be creative, and it is cheap.  A lot of people use food color in their shaving cream to change the colors, but I prefer glitter.  It does not stain the hands or clothes, and it sparkles.  :)  This was also set up for free play, but you can easily had laminated sight words, letters, numbers, shapes, etc.  

Scoop and Pour

Being that we do a lot of Montessori activities in our home, scooping and pouring is very important in our house.  Whether we are scooping and pouring flour, water, corn meal, rice, or beans, it seems that every day we are doing it.  I wanted to do something a little different this time, so I brought in the sand table and FILLED it with water beads.  Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the table, since there was never a time where it was JUST the fab 4 using it.  I also do not want to post pictures of other kids without their parent's permission.  There were water beads everywhere, but the kids LOVED it.  

In the end, two hours was plenty of time, and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun.  I am still thankful to all of the parents that helped clean up, and as one mom put it, she is glad the mess was not at her house.  My frame of mind will always be this; messes will not last forever.  They clean up with some elbow grease and a little bit of time, and will not always be there.  Memories, experiences, and life lessons will always be there.  Scooping and pouring, touching and feeling, making music, and just PLAYING are so important to making a child into a productive and responsible adult.  I still have some of the materials out for the boys, and they still love all of it.  Hope some of these ideas help you survive the winter coming up ahead, or even the next rainy day.  What are some of your favorite activities?

******All photography featured in this blog entry was done by Shirin Pagels**********