DIY Mardi Gras Sensory Activities!

Counters are a great way to encourage toddlers and preschoolers to develop their sorting skills. In this blog we are sharing four quick and easy ways to set up sorting activities with just a few basic materials.

• Set of counters (we used our favorite Learning Resources All About Me Family Counters)
• A4 white paper or card
• Markers (black, red, blue, yellow, green, purple and orange)
• Dot markers (red, blue, yellow, green, purple and orange)
• Ruler

Why is Sorting Important?

Before we get into the details about the activities, it’s important to point out that sorting activities offer a huge host of learning opportunities for toddlers and preschoolers. They may seem simple, but your little one is developing a range of skills when working with counters. For example, their little hands are constantly moving which is helping their fine motor skills to develop (these skills are key for writing as they get older). They will also have the opportunity to explore counting and use number vocabulary, as well as color recognition and vocabulary development. For my 3 year old, sorting activities often also lead to imaginative play, especially when she uses her family counters. 

How to Set Up the Activities

The great thing about making DIY sorting activities is that they take a matter of minutes to set up. Be sure to prep the sorting sheets before inviting your child to take part or else you risk them losing interest waiting for the activity to be ready. Simply use markers to draw out sorting sheets like the ones in the photo. Carefully consider your child’s passions and try to incorporate them into your sorting sheets. My toddler loves putting the family counters into homes, hence I made the houses sheet. She also really enjoys sorting by color and lining up her toys.  

Activity 1: Walk the Line to Meet a Friend

Whenever my little one plays with these counters she always likes to make them be friends. I drew some dotted lines in black marker and put the same kind of counter at each end of the line. I invited her to walk one of the counters along the line to meet their friend. This was great for her fine motor skills as she had to manipulate the counters around the different shapes of the lines. She also demonstrated color vocabulary, chatting away about how the red cat was walking along to meet the yellow cat. There was lots of imagination creating little personalities for the characters in her play too. 

Activity 2: Family Homes

For this one, I drew six different colored houses and then gave each house a number. My daughter enjoyed sorting the correct number of family counters into the correct colored home. There was an element of problem-solving for this one too because the houses were not big enough to fit too many large counters in. She carefully had to figure out the best combination of counters to fit in the house. I was sure to encourage as much talking as she did to support her vocabulary development. Once she had finished sorting, she then wanted to enjoy sending some of the counters to different houses for playdates. 

Activity 3: Colorful Stepping Stones

Dot markers are a great way to quickly add colorful sorting marks to a piece of paper. Here I added different colored dots to the page and told my toddler that they were colorful stepping stones. She added the correct counters onto the stepping stones (she would make them jump on, with ‘boing’ sound effects of course). I intentionally also worked in some numeracy by adding 1-6 dots instead of all the same number of dots for each color. That way my daughter could count as she placed the family counters on the dots and each time she was reaching a different number.  

Activity 4: Color Lines

This one is super simple but is always enjoyed. Just draw outlines in the different colored markers and invite your little one to line up the counters on the correct color of the line. I didn’t give my daughter specific instructions as I wanted her to have some choice. I thought she would try and line them up standing along the line, but she chose to make them lie down. This was another great way to work on her fine motor skills, as well as getting her to think about the size. She realized that the ‘Mummy and Daddy’ counters were much bigger than the ‘baby’ counters. She started to plan which order she would add them in and enjoyed trying to get them perfectly lined up. 

A Few Tips

I always find that my toddler responds better to activities like these when she has some choice. I presented her with the four sorting sheets and let her choose which order to do them in. I also provided her with all of the counters so that she had the freedom to choose which counters to use. If you are doing these with a younger child try to just focus on one simple aspect when sorting, for example color or size. If working with an older child you can make the activity more challenging by combining several aspects of sorting, for example, color and number, or size and color.My final tip is to encourage your child to also enjoy making their own sorting sheets. I always leave out the art supplies to allow my daughter the opportunity to make her own sorting sheet. This encourages engagement, and also introduces more creativity and fine motor skill work as well. Do you have a favorite way to sort counters? We’d love to hear all about it in the comments! Explore other Learning Resources counting toys and counting ideas as well.

Fall is here! Which means I get to put together one of my most favorite sensory bins of the year.  Who can resist the smell of apple cinnamon and pine cones mixed with the texture of corn kernels, right!?

Every year I try to add in components that align with the developmental stage my daughter is in.  Being almost 3, she is refining her fine and visual motor skills every day, so we added in lots of fine motor challenges and visual perceptual options this year. Toddlers also seek independence in everything they do, so sensory bins are always a great task to get them involved when putting it together.

Sensory Bin Materials

First, we gathered all of our goodies.  For this bin, we are using corn kernels, play apples, pine cones, flat marbles, and play leaves as our main “ingredients”.  You can control the amount of scent you include in your bin by sprinkling apple pie spice, or adding cinnamon sticks.  My daughter does not have any aversions to scent, so we went with pre-scented apples and pine cones (you can often find these in the fall section of your local craft store!).

Next, I had her scoop and pour the corn kernels into her bin, and add in all of the goodies.  I let her play for a while and explore the different scents and textures.  She loves to explore using kitchen utensils (spoons, bowls, funnels, cups, etc) – she made our whole family some apple soup with a side of leaves and pine cones for dinner!  All of this is working on their imagination skills which is fantastic for this age.

Then, the fun begins for me! Here are some fun challenges I incorporated into our purposeful play!

Fine Motor

Corn kernels are awesome because when a toddler plays with it, they are naturally practicing their pincer skills just picking them up and moving them around!  I also love to incorporate various tongs, tweezers, and clothespins for her to use while she picks up apples or “catches” leaves.

Visual Motor

Sorting tasks are always a big hit.  I had her sort out red apples, green apples, yellow leaves, and green leaves.  You can also work on patterning or visual model copying.  For my daughter, I lined up a couple objects (red apple, green leaf, pine cone) and had her find the matching objects in the bin and line them up in the same order.

Stereognosis

This is a high-level perceptual skill that I love to throw in when planning activities.  Stereognosis is the ability to perceive an object from touch – sensory bins are perfect for this because you can hide a pine cone underneath the corn kernels, have them dig in, and see if they can find the pine cone only by touch. I can’t tell you how intrinsically motivating and fun this is for them, all while working on some amazing developmental skills.

The thing I really love about sensory bins is that they are easily adaptable to any age group.  If your little one is younger, try adding the corn kernels to a clear bottle with some leaves and pom poms and have them roll it all around.  Watch them in awe as they see the goodies move all around inside the bottle and hear the sounds of the kernels as they slide!

Save it for later!

Happy Earth Day! A wonderful way to celebrate our one-of-a-kind planet, this Earth Day art project is alive with color. Engaging the senses of even your littlest conservationist, recreate this masterpiece with a just few items you probably already have at home. 

You will need:

• A baking sheet with sides
• Shaving cream
• Food coloring or watercolor paints
• Chopsticks or craft sticks for swirling
• White cardstock
• An old gift card or credit card for scraping

On the cardstock, trace circles about 8-9” in circumference using a bowl or plate. Cut out and set aside.

Spray the shaving cream directly into the baking sheet. Now spread the shaving cream evenly in the pan. It almost feels like frosting a sheet cake.

Using a generous hand, drop your food coloring or paint all over the shaving cream in the pan. Then, with the craft stick, swirl the pain around. Be careful to swirl, not mix. This step is rich in sensory for the children – the smell of the shaving cream, the drag of the foam, the mixing of the color. Fantastic!

Grab one of the circles. Gently lay your soon-to-be-Earth on top of the shaving cream, pressing down gently. You want to make sure all the Earth’s surface is touching the paint/shaving foam mixture.

Grab a little section and gently peel up your circle off of the foam. Find a spot to lay it flat.

Next, using the former gift or credit card, begin on one end and scrape the paint off, getting very close to the surface of the card stock. Revealed under all that shaving cream is a beautiful, marbled, Earth-from-outer-space look!

Add some additional paint or food coloring to your mix if you feel like either color is coming through strong enough. It seems like it’s almost impossible to add too much color.

Enjoy this sensory-rich activity with all ages of kids.

Happy Earth Day!