Gel Sensory Bags

I know I said in my last post that we love messy play BUT sometimes, just sometimes, it is nice to get all the fun of messy play, without the mess!

Impossible?

Nothing is ever impossible ;-)

Sensory bags are the answer!

Shaving foam sensory play

We love messy play! And for a new sensory experience today we tried using shaving foam.

I kind of wanted to make this 'more exciting' than just shaving foam in a tray. It just didn't sound too interesting and I even tweeted for ideas to include.

But what do I know? I'm not a 1 year old who has never touched this weird fluffy white stuff before... Then it IS exciting!

I'm so glad I did just go with the basics for this activity. I did it with an 11 month old, 15 month old and 2.5 year old and they all absolutely loved it.

The younger two were just simply amazed at it's feel between there fingers and giggled every time the squidged it in their fists.

Poking it, Patting it, Smearing it, squelching it. All doing an amazing job on developing fine motor skills!

The 2 year old loved being a 'big girl' and being able to squirt her own shaving foam out as she wanted.

I also gave her some pots and cups to incorporate her love of role play into this activity. It quickly became a cafe set up and she was asking for sprinkles to go on her hot chocolate with whipped cream.

I gave her cocoa powder and she was in her element making all sorts of concoctions, mixing away like a busy little bee.

Autumn is nigh....

I love autumn. It is my favourite season of all.

Just as well it's not Summer, as that never happened did it!

So, our theme at Little Chicks is just that - Autumn. Official start date 21st September and the signs are already beginning to show. The frosty mornings, the golden colours and the seasonal vegetables.

I have lots planned for this theme, some we've already done like tissue paper tree's and scratch card leaves but our favourite so far has been our trip to the PYO farm yesterday.

We went to learn about autumn fruit and vegetables, seeing ones that have just started to grow like the pumpkins ready for October, fruits that are just dying off that are from the summer season like strawberries and ones that are just ripe now, ready for picking.

Home made sensory play dough - Scents and Textures.

Using our simple home made recipe, make your plain play dough as normal - HERE

We experimented with scent and texture to make a real sensory play activity of them.They smelt almost good enough to eat, so do be careful as some as mine wanted to eat the chocolate in particular and although they won't do any harm being homemade and non-toxic they are a bit salty! Here is what we made: