Rice Bin - Scooping and Pouring Station | Sensory Play Ideas

If you are new to sensory play and need some tips on how to set up a simple sensory bin and the basic items you would need for it, go over and read my post on Sensory Play Setup and Play Ideas. You will get a good idea and tips on getting started and I hope it will in fact encourage you to get started with sensory play, if you are weary like I was before I gave it a go!

In this post here, I am going to show you how I set up our rice bin scooping station. This is a very basic setup which actually needs no real setup bu some very simple tools that can keep a toddler busy for hours! Well, mine is a huge fan and is happy to play with this set up any day!

We add the following to our rice bin to make it a scooping station:

• Mini beach set - shovel, form and strainer.
• A few different sized spoons.
• Ice cube tray.
• Funnel
• Empty containers.

Sensory Play Setup and Ideas

After a couple of weeks of researching on sensory play and reading about its benefits and gathering some simple items from around the house, I have finally put together a dedicated sensory bin for the Mini. I have been weary of sensory bins as I was afraid of the mess! But then, after reading on how good it is for little ones and understanding how to teach them to contain the mess, I decided to give it a try. It's been a few weeks now and am so very glad I decided to go for it.

I am no expert in this, but after I put in so much effort into planning this, I really wanted to document some simple pointers that works well for us when we do sensory activities or play with our sensory bins. It's definitely worth the effort!

• Dedicated Storage: A big transparent shallow box is great for play and for storing all the little sensory play items. I store the different play items in individual ziploc bags. I store this box away, out of sight under the bed when not in play.
• Rice: I bought a few kilos of the least expensive rice I could find and have kept it only for sensory play. If stored well (in ziploc bag), I understand it can last for years!
• Play Setup: I always setup our sensory bins in our balcony, as there is a lot of open space. And I layout a plastic sheet below the bin to allow for easy cleanup and to allow him a boundary beyond which he shouldn't spill.
• Set Basic Ground Rules: Just before we begin play, I always remind him of few rules around sensory play. Like, to be careful and to not spill. To play only with the items I have set up and not include more toys in the bin. I play with him to demonstrate and repeat and remind him of the rules as we play.
• Limit Play Time: I set up the sensory bin/setup for him once in a few days and invite him to play for a limited time. 45-60 mins has been our time so far, after which I tell him it's time to put it away and bring to his notice another toy/activity that he's very fond of.
• Simple Variations: We try and do a variety of simple sensory play activities with slight variations. Initially I plan to set up the bins/activities for him in rotation and eventually, will let him choose what he wants to do.

It delights me to see him happily explore and play while also follow instructions. The textures, the movement, the feel of the various elements, he explores them all and enjoys the whole experience. It is a joy to watch his little self at play!

The more sensory play we do, he is learning to get more careful and conscious of not making a mess. He was with both bins for a good one hour after which I put them away. I can now leave him unattended for a few minutes while he's at play, and get some work done!

He looks forward to sensory play lately and its heartwarming to see him run towards our dining room window after he comes home from school, and peep into the balcony to see what 'sesory been' I have set up for him! The effort involved is worth it all.

Name Hunt and Clip | Name Recognition Game

For the last couple of months, my little boy has been showing a lot of interest in spelling his name. He has a cushion cover that I had sewn for him with his name appliqued onto it. That was where I first noticed his interest in reading the letters of his name when he kept pointing and calling out each of the letters of his name. 

So, I wanted to set up an activity that involved his love to spell out his name and his fondness for cloth clips! This game was set up when the little fellow was napping one day. It took me all of 15 minutes or so to prep it up. Just some cloth line clips, paper and pen is all that you need for this game. 

I tried it with multiple names/simple words in different colours and the entire list in just one colour to see if it makes any difference. It didn't seem to. I plan to try this in lower case and a mix of cases next time. He found the wooden clips too hard, so we switched to plastic ones 

After doing it a couple of times over, he wanted to find my name... So he went ahead and pinned clips against my name on the other side of the paper strip! 

If you have a little one who loves reading out his/her name or is just about beginning reading, this game is for you! Try it out :)

Colour Matching Dry Transfer Activity

When the Mini was as little as 15 months old, I had made this Chunky Puzzle for him out of cardboard. This was his first ever puzzle and I was super impressed with the way he nailed it in just the first attempt! Little did I know back then that it was just the start to his love affair with puzzles! :)

So a year later, when the little guy was around 27 months old, I set up this activity for him, which uses only the base of the chunky puzzle and a few lentils and beads. The objective of the activity was colour matching. Transferring of items is an activity toddlers love! So I mixed up colour matching with transferring and made it a dry transfer colour match activity.

The chunky puzzle board had 4 colours on its base - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. So to match those colours, I used three different coloured lentils and blue beads. 

I placed the 3 kinds of lentils and blue beads in 4 separate bowls. Kept a tray under the puzzle board to catch any stray items that may fall off during the transfer activity. I then presented the activity to the little guy, handed him a spoon and asked him to just go ahead and match the colours.

Boy, did he love it. 

I was pretty impressed with how neat he was and conscious of not wanting to create any mess by either mixing the differently coloured lentils and beads or dropping them on the floor. It takes a tiny bit of effort to transfer back the lentils/beads back into their cups, but for the fun and learning happening here, I think it is worth it :)

Number Hunt and Erase

This was an impromptu activity that I set up for the Mini one day when he had a holiday from school. Our favourite white board and wooden numbers come together in this one. And to add in some sensory fun, a tub of toor dal/lentil was included. I knew the little guy would love this one... and he sure did!

We had earlier done a Number Hunt and Match sensory bin activity similar to this. It was loved by the little fellow that I wanted to do it again, but gave it a little twist this time. This fun little activity mainly revolves around number recognition and number matching. The objective of the game was to hunt for the hidden wooden numbers from the tub of lentils, find the same number written on the white board and erase them with the white board eraser! The sensory tub and the white board eraser add on to the fun element in this activity, making it a learn while you play activity!

Maze Walk Animal and Animal Pattern Match

We love maze games, we have done a few in the past like this one and I have noticed mazes always delight my little boy. Simple maze games are a great way to encourage toddlers to follow instructions, a procedure, improve their body balance and most importantly... they are a lot of fun!!

So in this maze game, we used a few cards from our Animal and Animal Patterns matching card game. We used just the animal patterns cards from the game and instead of the corresponding cards with the animals, we used our little toy animals to make it more fun!

I just made a little maze using our foam ABC blocks, kept all the pattern cards at one end of the maze and the toy animals at the other end of the maze. I asked my little guy to pick one animal at a time from the start of the maze, walk on the foam block maze to reach the other end and place the animal on its corresponding animal pattern card. 

He had to then go back to the start, pick another animal and down the maze again to match it... he did this till he matched all the animals and animal patterns!

White Board Shape Matching Activity

This one is one of those no-brainer, impromptu, zero-effort kind of an activity that I set up for the little guy late one evening. We were just done scribbling and drawing on our white board and were wondering what to do next when my eyes fell upon the shape sorting toy that was sitting in the toy shelf. 

Randomly drew four of each shape - circle, square, rectangle and triangle - on the white board. Then, I just asked the little man to pick the shape blocks from the sorting toy, one by one, and place the m on the whit board, on their matching shapes that I drew. 

That was that and he was one happy little monkey, as he did this fun easy matching activity! :)

DIY Sound Cylinders

Here is a simple sound matching activity that I set up for the Mini a few months back. These little boxes are actually building blocks encasing different types of lentils within! The objective of this activity is to find one red and one blue cylinder that make the same sound and pair them together. 

This is like a simple DIY version of the Montessori Sound Boxes. I am no expert in Montessori teaching and so have no idea on how such activities are explained or presented to the child. 

I just laid the boxes together on a little wooden tray and explained to him how to match the cylinders based on sound. He seemed to have understood the concept and I was pleasantly surprised to see him match the similar sounding boxes at first go! :) It is a lovely little game to sharpen the memory and also to work on the auditory senses of little ones.

Shape Sorting Fishing Game| Toddler Games

When the Mini was littler, I had bought this set of lacing buttons and rope toy for him. He showed absolutely no interest and so they just sat at the back of his toy shelf for a long long time. Recently, an idea struck me and I decided to re-purpose the shape discs from the lacing set for a fun little game that I was sure will be a hit with him.... and it was!! :)

He loves his shapes and colours and a complete water baby who loves water play! So putting these together, I set up this Shape Sorting Fishing game for him. All I used for this game, was a big plastic container filled with water, the coloured shape discs from the lacing set and a strainer from his beach set! It took me all of 2 minutes to set this up and kept him busy for a long time, as he wanted to do it over and over again! And I was just happy that I could re-purpose an ignored old toy!! :)

Ice Painting | Toddler Art | Mess-free Toddler Art

What a simple. fun, refreshing and mess-free play this is!! 

If you don't count the actual freezing part, this activity can be set up in 2 mins! Well, since it is ice cubes we are talking about here, including the freezing time, you can actually have this ready for play in about 2 hours. I had kept the colored ice cubes to set in the freezer when he just went for his nap and it was ll ready when he was done and ready to play in the evening! 

I had as much fun putting it together and playing with him, as did he. Oh the joy coloured ice cubes can bring is absolutely priceless! :) And the fact that these are mess-free is just prefect. Just make sure to lay out a plastic sheet below the play area before you get started!

I tucked in wooden sticks in a few cubes while I left a few without sticks just to prompt him to actually take the cubes in his hands and feel the chill. He absolutely loved both versions :)

So, along with the abundance of fun of just getting to play with coloured ice cubes, the little ones get to learn a few things too through this art activity. My boy was amused and wondered how cold the ice cubes felt in chubby hands, how they all melted into a puddle of water after a few minutes of play, how the colours on the ice cubes transferred onto the paper, and how the colours mixed with each other to give out new colours!

These beauties are such a visual treat and incredibly inviting that your little one will love you for making this for them! Go ahead and freeze some pretty ice cubes and let those little artists have fun! :

Building Blocks - Upper and Lower Case Letters Match

This particular game is dear to me as it was through this super simple and fun game that my little boy got a hold of lower cases letters. While setting this up for him, I had not expected him to pick up the concept of upper and lower cases really, I knew he will like it as he was and still is super fond of blocks and this case matching game is all about playing with building blocks! :)

My little fellow's obsession for the English alphabet began at 25 months and since then we have played quite a few fun games around identifying the letters. So in about two months, he was able to identify all the letters, in upper case... because that's the only form I had introduced to him so far. I was never looking to train him in knowing the letters by a certain age, I was only keen on feeding his curiosity around letters and helped him identify them as and when he pointed and asked what each letter was. Around 27 months, I began basing our fun games around lower cases to help him understand the different letter cases.

So, I really didn't go by any rule of introducing letter sounds first, and if letters, then only lower case letters. I did have an apprehension if it will cause a problem for him later on once he joins school where they focus on letter sounds and not letter identification. But I really went by what I felt was best for him and what I felt interested him. I am really glad I did that because, today at 3 years, he is doing just fine with letter sounds and the fact that he knows to identify letters in both cases does not hamper his phonics learning journey at all.

So, getting back to this little game. All that we used here are a few building blocks and a marker. I am always looking for new ways to repurpose his existing toys, so used some old building blocks for this little matching activity. The Mini loved it, like I knew he would but he surprised me by matching the upper and lower case letters in just one go! :)