Sensory activities are not only entertaining for the little ones but they are a great way to develop fine and motor skills, explore using the 5 senses and learn about different textures. Sensory play is how children start understanding the world they live in.
To learn more about the benefits of sensory play, click here.
What we love about sensory play activities is that they are very hands-on and entertaining. My kids will spend hours playing with the same sensory play activity. The best part is that they’re simple to set up (kids can help), and they’re great for children all ages.
I must admit, when we do sensory play activities (especially when we make slime) I end up playing with my girls too because it’s so much fun and the textures feel so good!
You can customize any sensory play activity to your child’s interests or incorporate them to a whatever the kids are learning in school. We love to create sensory play activities that tie in the holidays, like Halloween!
Halloween is one of our favorite holidays for sensory play because we get to use lots of bugs and creepy creatures – which make the activities even more entertaining.
Check out this TV segment on Good Morning Washington where I show you how simple it is to make Halloween sensory play activities for little kids:
4 Halloween Sensory Play Activities
Sensory Bag with Googly Eye Balls
This is a very simple activity to set up and one that toddlers love!
All you need is:
- Large ziploc bag
- Hand soap or shaving gel
- Googly eyes
- Food coloring (optional)
Directions:
Fill the ziploc bag halfway with hand soap or shaving gel. Add food coloring (if you’re using any) and the googly eyes. Make sure you take out any excess air in the bag and close it. I recommend you tape the closure so your kids don’t open the bag.
Tape the ziplock bag to a table and tell your kid to find the googly eyes inside the sensory bag. We use different sizes of googly eyes and my 3 year old loves to try and squish the tiny eyes. Since the gel and foam are so slippery it’s actually a little difficult to press down on the eyes, which is great since kids really need to concentrate for this activity.
If you don’t have googly eyes, you can do this with any other small halloween toy your child likes.
Witches’ Brew Science Experiment
This activity is SO much fun! Kids add a bit of water to the mixture and it fixes and creates bubbles!
We love making these in little tiny witches’ cauldrons! You can add glitter or googly eyes to the cauldrons so the kids can spot them when the mixture starts fizzing.
All you need for this activity is:
- Baking soda
- Citric Acid
- Water
- Mini cauldrons
- Food coloring (optional)
- Glitter (optional)
- Googly or edible eyes (optional)
For instructions on how to make this activity, click here.
Sensory Rice with Creepy Crawlers
Sensory rice activities are really fun and one of the easiest ones to set up!
All you need is:
- 3 cups of rice
- 3 teaspoons of vinegar
- Food coloring (optional)
- 2-4 drops of essential oils to mask vinegar scent (we like Vanilla and Lavender)
- Creepy crawlers or other Halloween themed creatures
- Scoopers, spoons, kid tweezers, measuring cups, etc.
Directions:
If you’re dying the rice, all you have to do is mix the raw rice with the color of your choice. Then, add the vinegar. The vinegar will prevent the food dye from transferring to your childs’ hands. Once it’s all mixed well, add the essential oils if you’re using any.
Mix the rice and the essential oils throughly and then wait for it to dry – it should take less than an hour. You can speed up the process by placing it near a hot oven or under sunlight.
Once the rice is dry, transfer it to a bowl or a bin. Add the creepy creatures and tools to scoop these out, like spoon, scoopers, tweezers, measuring cups, ice cub tray, etc. Let the kids hide and discover all the creepy creatures using the different tools!
I like making this activity in a plastic bin like this one because once the kids are done playing I can close the lid and save it for later.
Pumpkin slime with creepy crawlers
Slime is so much fun! We make slime on a weekly basis so we’re always finding new ways to make it even more fun and seasonal.
For Halloween, we love making slime inside a pumpkin! The kids find it very entertaining to play with the slime inside the pumpkin and they love to feel the extra gooeyness from the pumpkin.
All you need is:
- Pumpkin
- 1 clear glue (5 oz)
- 5 oz water
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon contact lens solution
- Pumpkin seeds
- Creepy crawler toys
- Food coloring (optional)
- Glitter (optional)
Directions:
Cut the pumpkin at the top and scoop out all the insides. Keep the seeds to add them to the slime later.
If this is your first time making slime, I suggest you make it in a separate bowl, but if you’re a slime expert you can make it inside the pumpkin. The pumpkin tends to be watery so you might have to troubleshoot the slime, which is why I don’t recommend making it inside the pumpkin if this is your first time.
In a bowl, dump the glue. Then fill up the glue bottle with warm water and dump it in the blow. Mix the water and glue for a few seconds. Add glitter and food coloring if you’re using any. Then mix in the baking soda, followed by the contact lens solution.
The contact lens solution is what will turn the mixture into slime. When you’re mixing the ingredients with the spoon, you should see the mixture thickening after you add the contact lens solution. If you’re doing this inside the pumpkin and it is not thickening you need to add more contact lens solution. Keep adding more until the mixture starts becoming thicker.
Then, knead the mixture to finish creating the slime – it’s best if an adult does this part. You just have to massage, squish and stretch the slime until it doesn’t stick to your hands anymore.
Once it’s not sticking to your skin, you can give it to your child and add the pumpkin seeds and any other creepy crawlers you want to your slime.
Store this slime in the fridge since it contains fresh produce and reuse on another day.
These activities take only a few minutes to prepare and usually keep kids entertained for long periods of time. You can also reuse these activities several times and change them up with different themes or Holidays.
Happy Halloween!
Leave a Reply