Sensory Activity

These pictures don't have anything to do with the Sensory Activity but they were cute. Anna was painting a sculpture she made at Keiki Steps and felt she needed some color on her face.

The other day, through Keiki Steps, we had a woman come in and show us how to make various sensory activities for our keikis. She showed us some things she likes to get from a website called Steve Spangler. One is called insta-snow. It's a powder that you add water to and it fluffs up and feels a lot like powdery snow. She actually made it in my hands and it felt so strange when it fluffed up. The other thing she had is called jelly marbles. They are small little clear balls that you add to water and they plump up to the size of a large marble. They feel really cool and are very fun to play with. You can add color to the water and they look great as the base of a flower arrangement.

We also talked about things we can make like play dough and flubber (recipes at the end). Some good tips they had for the play dough is you can add smells like spices or extracts to add a new dimension. Through the year at Keiki Steps we have had lemon play dough, pumpkin pie and chocolate. The flubber has been one of Anna's favorite things this year. It's kind of like a more firm slime. We were able to take some home but it's a bit hard to get out of things like carpets and clothes so I haven't been brave enough to play with it much.

She had some fun ideas for bubbles. She had a recipe for making your own at home but I didn't get it. One idea she had was to take a string, pass it through two straws and tie them together so they make a loop. Then you can put it in a big thing of bubbles and make really big bubbles.

Lastly, we made home made sugar shrub. It reminded me of the stuff that my sister, Kristen, likes to get from Bath and Body Works. We got a bowl and mixed in white sugar, raw sugar, grape seed oil and honey (nothing was measured, we just went until it seemed right - it took a decent amount of the oil and honey). To make it smell nice, we added some body wash which also added moisture and helped it be more like the scrub I've used before. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but it should be good.

It was a really fun activity that gave us a lot of new ideas for things to do at home. Then we ended it with a yummy cream cheese dessert. The recipe will be on my food blog.

Playdoh

2 cups water

1/2 cup salt

2 Tablespoons oil

2 Tablespoons cream of tartar

3 cups flour

Bring water and salt to a boil. Stir in remaining ingredients. Allow to cool slightly. Knead until smooth.

Variations:

Chocolate - mix in 1/3 cup cocoa with the flour

Lemon - mix lemon juice with the water, use yellow food coloring to correspond with the lemon smell

Pumpkin Pie - mix in pumpkin pie spice when kneading it smooth, color it orange to go with the pumpkin pie motif

You can use just about any smell, color it to match.

Flubber

In one bowl mix together 1 cup Elmer's glue (about two bottles), 3/4 cup warm water and food coloring. In a second bowl, mix together 3/4 teaspoon Borax and 3/4 cup warm water.

Slowly pour the Borax and water into the bowl with the glue and water, stirring constantly until all liquid is dissolved. Knead and store in a covered container. If it seems too runny, it will harden a little bit as it cools.