US US US We use cookies on this website to improve your shopping experience. We use cookies to remember log-in details and provide secure log-in, collect statistics to optimize site functionality, and deliver content tailored to your interests. Click accept to give your consent to accept cookies.
St. Patrick’s Day is a great excuse to get your Easter grass out early and create an engaging sensory bin for your child. This setup only requires a few affordable materials, all of which can be reused for other play-based learning activities. The nature of this bin also makes it easily adaptable to encourage both open-ended sensory play and some more structured numeracy learning.
Simply put the Easter grass into the bin and spread the gold coins out. Add in a few of the mini cauldrons as well as the fine motor tools. You can decide whether you want to include the dice or not; sometimes, it is best to hold off and save that element of the activity for the second round of play at a later date, depending on your child's age.
Let’s Explore
As with any sensory bin activity, I always like to allow plenty of time for my preschooler to explore the setup open-endedly. I intentionally avoid giving instructions and instead simply let my daughter lead the play and engage with her own play adventure.
With this setup, she initially chose to make ‘green soup’ in the mini cauldrons. She gathered pieces of the grass and stuffed them inside the cauldrons. Her little hands were working hard, and she was chatting about her yummy creation the whole time. She then added some gold coins and stated that I needed some of the coins to pay for my soup. I always love the creativity and conversation that flows with sensory play.
Let’s Count
As she finished up making her soup, I introduced a Dice Popper! Hoping that it would lead to some counting work. I asked her to pop the dice and recognize the number before counting that many coins into the cauldron. I also added the challenge of using one of the fine motor tools to transfer the coins with. This was great for her early numeracy skills, as well as developing those all-important fine motor skills.
A tip when using fine motor tools with children is to always provide a choice of tool type. Different children find different tools easy and hard to use, and the last thing I would want is to frustrate my child by asking them to use a tool that they find too tricky. My daughter gave both tools a good try but found the Handy Scoopers much easier for this particular activity and enjoyed using those most of the time. Having the Jumbo Tweezers on the mat encouraged her to try them, and with time she will get more confident.
We will keep this sensory bin set up in our toy room for the rest of the week to allow for further play and learning. I always enjoy watching what other materials my little one chooses to bring into the play.
St. Patrick’s Day is a great excuse to get your Easter grass out early and create an engaging sensory bin for your child. This setup only requires a few affordable materials, all of which can be reused for other play-based learning activities. The nature of this bin also makes it easily adaptable to encourage both open-ended sensory play and some more structured numeracy learning.
Simply put the Easter grass into the bin and spread the gold coins out. Add in a few of the mini cauldrons as well as the fine motor tools. You can decide whether you want to include the dice or not; sometimes, it is best to hold off and save that element of the activity for the second round of play at a later date, depending on your child's age.
Let’s Explore
As with any sensory bin activity, I always like to allow plenty of time for my preschooler to explore the setup open-endedly. I intentionally avoid giving instructions and instead simply let my daughter lead the play and engage with her own play adventure.
With this setup, she initially chose to make ‘green soup’ in the mini cauldrons. She gathered pieces of the grass and stuffed them inside the cauldrons. Her little hands were working hard, and she was chatting about her yummy creation the whole time. She then added some gold coins and stated that I needed some of the coins to pay for my soup. I always love the creativity and conversation that flows with sensory play.
Let’s Count
As she finished up making her soup, I introduced a Dice Popper! Hoping that it would lead to some counting work. I asked her to pop the dice and recognize the number before counting that many coins into the cauldron. I also added the challenge of using one of the fine motor tools to transfer the coins with. This was great for her early numeracy skills, as well as developing those all-important fine motor skills.
A tip when using fine motor tools with children is to always provide a choice of tool type. Different children find different tools easy and hard to use, and the last thing I would want is to frustrate my child by asking them to use a tool that they find too tricky. My daughter gave both tools a good try but found the Handy Scoopers much easier for this particular activity and enjoyed using those most of the time. Having the Jumbo Tweezers on the mat encouraged her to try them, and with time she will get more confident.
We will keep this sensory bin set up in our toy room for the rest of the week to allow for further play and learning. I always enjoy watching what other materials my little one chooses to bring into the play.
Sensory seeking toys are such a winner with kids but don’t forget that they will also love making the sensory material. This ooey-gooey activity was double the fun because we made the muddy oobleck together first and then enjoyed playing stuck in the mud with fine motor tools and our Family Counters.
Muddy Oobleck (to make mix ½ cup cocoa powder with 1 ½ cups cornstarch, then add approx. 1 cup water, mix until the consistency is right)
Measuring cups
Spoons
Bowls
Chips and dip tray
Making the Muddy Oobleck
If you’ve never made or played with oobleck before, you sure are in for a treat. It is such a weird and mesmerizing sensory base to explore with kids. To make the muddy oobleck mix ½ cup cocoa powder with 1 ½ cups cornstarch. This is a great opportunity to get your little one working on some measuring and numeracy, as well as their fine motor skills.
Once the dry ingredients are mixed together, gradually add 1 cup of water. The consistency should change, and the end oobleck you are looking for will be brown in color, with it holding its shape when you squish it together but then returns to a liquid-like state when it is released. It is so mesmerizing to watch! My little one spent ages lifting a scoop in the air and watching it slowly flow back down into the bowl.
Prep the Tray
We used a chip and dip tray as our play space, and it worked perfectly. The Family Counters went in the middle compartment. The fine motor tools were in two other slots, and then my little one filled the other four compartments with the muddy oobleck. We were all set for our muddy play session.
Stuck in the Mud
My little one could not wait to get her hands on the contents of the tray. She was so excited to play with the oobleck that she had helped to make. At first, she wanted to experiment with sticking the Family Counters in the mud. She was fascinated as she watched them slowly sink into the mud.
When she would pull the people and animals out of the muddy oobleck, the mud would stick to their feet and slowly gloop back down onto the tray. She loved trying to completely bury the counters under the mud and then rescue them.
It was great to provide so many different fine motor tools because this encouraged so much time spent on fine motor skills development. Each tool required slightly different hand movements and encouraged problem-solving to figure out how to best use them with the strange oobleck consistency.
My little one really enjoyed using the Squeezy Tweezers and Handy Scoopers for transferring the oobleck and making it into shapes. She even decided to give some of the Family Counters mud baths.
The Final Rescue Mission
After lots of play, hiding the Family Counters in the mud and experimenting with using the fine motor tools, it was time for one final rescue mission. Together we used our hands and the tools to pull all of the remaining counters from the mud. Some of them were stuck in there pretty good!
This was such a fun and engaging activity because the play and learning were so hands-on. It can be tempting to not let your little one be part of the sensory base making, but it really adds so much to the activity. Providing a range of tools is also another little trick for helping to peak interest in the activity. The choice is a great way to help children feel they have more control and power over their play. We hope you give this one a try; you can use monster trucks, insects, or farm animals too!
Sensory seeking toys are such a winner with kids but don’t forget that they will also love making the sensory material. This ooey-gooey activity was double the fun because we made the muddy oobleck together first and then enjoyed playing stuck in the mud with fine motor tools and our Family Counters.
Muddy Oobleck (to make mix ½ cup cocoa powder with 1 ½ cups cornstarch, then add approx. 1 cup water, mix until the consistency is right)
Measuring cups
Spoons
Bowls
Chips and dip tray
Making the Muddy Oobleck
If you’ve never made or played with oobleck before, you sure are in for a treat. It is such a weird and mesmerizing sensory base to explore with kids. To make the muddy oobleck mix ½ cup cocoa powder with 1 ½ cups cornstarch. This is a great opportunity to get your little one working on some measuring and numeracy, as well as their fine motor skills.
Once the dry ingredients are mixed together, gradually add 1 cup of water. The consistency should change, and the end oobleck you are looking for will be brown in color, with it holding its shape when you squish it together but then returns to a liquid-like state when it is released. It is so mesmerizing to watch! My little one spent ages lifting a scoop in the air and watching it slowly flow back down into the bowl.
Prep the Tray
We used a chip and dip tray as our play space, and it worked perfectly. The Family Counters went in the middle compartment. The fine motor tools were in two other slots, and then my little one filled the other four compartments with the muddy oobleck. We were all set for our muddy play session.
Stuck in the Mud
My little one could not wait to get her hands on the contents of the tray. She was so excited to play with the oobleck that she had helped to make. At first, she wanted to experiment with sticking the Family Counters in the mud. She was fascinated as she watched them slowly sink into the mud.
When she would pull the people and animals out of the muddy oobleck, the mud would stick to their feet and slowly gloop back down onto the tray. She loved trying to completely bury the counters under the mud and then rescue them.
It was great to provide so many different fine motor tools because this encouraged so much time spent on fine motor skills development. Each tool required slightly different hand movements and encouraged problem-solving to figure out how to best use them with the strange oobleck consistency.
My little one really enjoyed using the Squeezy Tweezers and Handy Scoopers for transferring the oobleck and making it into shapes. She even decided to give some of the Family Counters mud baths.
The Final Rescue Mission
After lots of play, hiding the Family Counters in the mud and experimenting with using the fine motor tools, it was time for one final rescue mission. Together we used our hands and the tools to pull all of the remaining counters from the mud. Some of them were stuck in there pretty good!
This was such a fun and engaging activity because the play and learning were so hands-on. It can be tempting to not let your little one be part of the sensory base making, but it really adds so much to the activity. Providing a range of tools is also another little trick for helping to peak interest in the activity. The choice is a great way to help children feel they have more control and power over their play. We hope you give this one a try; you can use monster trucks, insects, or farm animals too!
Shop UK Site 
