Motor Skills

Water is one of the greatest sensory bases of all time, primarily because it never fails to entertain my children! It’s also readily available and not too much hassle to clean up (which is a big bonus). We recently enjoyed experimenting with some of Learning Resources’ fun water tools in a simple rose petal bin activity.

Setting up the activity

This was a late afternoon activity which meant we were just after something simple, hands-on, and engaging. I had some beautiful roses which were on their way out. Instead of just getting rid of them, I set them out alongside a bin of water and our Learning Resources Sand and Water Fine Motor Tool Set.

Time to explore

With a setup like this, I always let my preschooler have plenty of time to explore the materials freely. I don’t try to dictate what she does and when, but instead, I simply share in her delight as she tests out all of the different tools and components of the activity.

Her first port of call was to try each of the water tools one by one. She loved the Squeezy Bottle! She went straight for it and proceeded to spend a considerable amount of time just filling it up with water and squirting it straight back out into the bin. She was also intrigued by the Spinner. This tool is designed more for sand, but it was still fun for her to use in the water. It got her gross and fine motor skills working hard!

Adding in the rose petals

After each tool had been carefully tested out, my preschooler went rose petal crazy! She thought it was fascinating that each rose had so many petals tightly layered inside it. She carefully peeled each petal off and dropped it into the water. As she did this, we chatted about the petals and linked them to her senses- what could she see, smell and feel? This is always a fun, hands-on way to develop vocabulary and encourage a sense of inquisitive thinking.

Once rose petals were floating in the water, the Scooper tool came into its own. My preschooler had a blast fishing for rose petals in the water. She would see how many she could catch in one scoop. I gave her a few small bowls to sort the petals into as she liked to keep the striped ones in their special place.

Let’s make perfume

The final stage of this setup was the highlight for my little one. She decided after smelling the lovely rose petals that they were perfect for making perfume with. She lovingly watered the flowers to make them ‘as smelly as possible’ before stirring and squeezing them. She made several batches in the small pots, asking me to test each one and decide if it was smelly enough. We were able to add in some essential numeracy work by talking about the number of squirts of water, how many rose petals to use, and vocabulary linked to volume. So much sensory fun and a healthy dose of fine motor work too!

Easter eggs come in so many different fun, and egg-citing (see what I did there) shapes these days. I picked up these cute little chick eggs last year, and we have used them in so many different ways. In this blog, I wanted to share with you a simple water-based sensory play activity that never fails to entertain preschool-aged children…especially when they get to make their bubbles and add Bath Crackle!

What you need:

• Learning Resources® Handy Scoopers™ and Primary Science® Jumbo Eyedropper™
• Water in a medium-sized bin
• Plastic chick or bunny eggs (we got ours from Michael’s, Dollar Tree also sells them)
• Dish soap
• Fork and spoon
• Orange drink powder (Kool-Aid works excellent), or orange food coloring
• Toothbrush, scrubber, or sponge
• Mr. Bubble’s Magic Bath Crackles (I get ours from Walmart by the kids’ bubble bath section)
• Tray or container to help contain the mess
• Have a towel on hand just in case

Let’s Get Set Up

Simply half fill your container with water (it helps make it not too cold to prolong the play), and add the chick eggs to the water. With an activity like this, half the fun is the child getting to add all of the ingredients to the water, so I tend to leave them on the side instead of already in the water.

What’s First?

My four-year-old was besotted with the little chicks in the water as soon as she sat down. I asked her if she would like to give them a super fun bubble bath, and of course, she was all in. The first ingredient we added was the orange drink powder. I asked her how many scoops she wanted to add, and she said three. Anytime you can give the child some sense of choice or ownership over the activity, it helps engagement levels. She counted out her three scoops of orange powder and added them to the water. She then gave it all a really good stir.

Bubbles Galore!

I love letting my daughter make her bubbles when it comes to sensory play. Sure, you can use an electric mixer to whip up super silky smooth bubbles… but seeing her face as she whisks away with the fork makes this method way more meaningful. Ask your child to add a squirt of dish soap and then let them use the fork to whisk the water and create bubbles. My daughter is obsessed with this process, so again, I let her choose several squirts to add to the water (within reason).

Scrub Scrub Scrub

Now that there are bubbles, your child can enjoy using the toothbrush to clean those little chickies. This is great for sensory exploration and fine motor skill development. My preschooler also enjoyed using the Jumbo Eyedropper as a shower for the chicks. The Handy Scoopers were fun for grabbing the chick eggs and dipping them in and out of the water. It was like they were bobbing ducks at one point!

What’s That Noise?

Those squeaky clean chickies have enjoyed their bubble bath, but why not add another sensory material to the mix just for fun?! Magic Bath Crackles are one of my favorite sensory additions to water play. Simply pour some in the water and wait for the neat crackling sound to begin. They also have a smell and add a slight blue tint to the water. All of these changes are great for prompting discussions about our senses and developing key scientific skills such as observing, discussing, and predicting.

This type of sensory play is simple but always a winner with my preschooler. She likes being able to add the ingredients independently (a great reason to use drink powder such as Kool-Aid over food coloring), and water in general just seems to evoke so much hands-on play and learning. We hope you give this one a try too!

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.

What you need:

• Learning Resources® Primary Science® Jumbo Tweezers™ and Handy Scoopers™
• Easter grass (fake grass found in stores such as Walmart, Michael’s, and Dollar Tree)
• Mini cauldrons (Party City)
• Pretend gold coins (Dollar Tree)
• Learning Resources Dice Poppers
• Bin or container

Let’s Get Set Up

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.