BATHTUB PAINT
Ingredients:
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1 Cup of Dish Soap
1/2 Cup of Cornstarch
1/2 Cup of Water
Dye – we used food coloring​
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​ * About the Soap - I used the antibacterial scented hand soap, but whatever you use, know your kids will coat themselves with it, so be sure to pick something you know they don’t have a reaction to.*
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Directions:​
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1. In a saucepan, mix the cornstarch into the cold water until it is dissolved—it should still be a bit pasty, but not clumpy.
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2. Then turn up the heat and bring the cornstarch water to a boil – stir constantly to make sure there are no chunks.
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3. Add the soap and mix, heating on medium temperature until just boiling. The soap should have a gel-like consistency as it cools.
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4. Add food coloring.
We have found that food coloring has the best results, but have also used tempera paint, really anything water-based should work fine to color the cornstarch/soap base. -
4. Store your paint in an airtight container. The paint will separate slightly when stored; stir well before use. 5. Test the paint on a patch of your tub to ensure that your food coloring does not stain, and have fun!
MAGIC SIDEWALK SQUIRT PAINT
Ingredients:
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Corn starch
Food coloring
Water
Squirt bottles
Baking soda
Vinegar
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Directions:
1. Begin by filling each squirt bottle roughly 2/3 of the way with corn starch & baking soda mixture. Exact measurements aren't necessary; I used roughly the same amount of both ingredients.
2. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bottle, using one bottle for each color of squirty chalk that you wish to make.
3. Fill the bottles the rest of the way with water. Then, use a knife or similar to stir the ingredients. The mixture is VERY thick at first, but after a bit of mixing, the ingredients will combine to make the most amazing, magic paint.
4. After you have mixed the mixture a bit, place the caps on the squirt bottles and shake them well.
5. Lastly, you will want to fill a couple of squirt bottles with vinegar.
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Then, it is time to head outside to PLAY!
Homemade Moon Sand
Ingredients:
4 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of baby oil.
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Directions:
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Mix it up really good with your hands and your alset!
Bubble Wrap Roller Painting
Materials:
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Bubble Wrap
Poster Paint in a variety of colors
Long roll of butchers' paper
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What to do:
1. Wrap the bubble wrap around the rolling pin
2. Secure in place with sticky tape
3. Squirt paint over the butcher's paper
4. Let your toddler roll the roller and have lots of fun!
MARBLE RACE TRACK
Materials:
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1 pool noodle
1 shoebox
1 x A4 piece of white card stock
Black marker pen
Masking Tape
Scissors
Marbles
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Directions:​
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1. Cut the pool noodle in half lengthways. There should be a semi-circular channel running down the length of each half.
That is your marble run.
2. Cut a rectangular shape out of the side of the shoebox, it should be wide enough to rest the two marble runs side by side.
3. Now make your finish line. Use your black marker pen to write, 'Finish!' on a piece of card stock. Rig it up as a finish line between two bamboo skewers and place it over the entrance to the shoe box.
4. If you have stairs, rest your marble runs along the stairs, with the shoebox at the bottom to catch the marbles.
If you don't have stairs, rest one end of the marble run on a table and the other on the shoebox. You will need a few chairs along the way to keep the noodles propped straight. You may need to experiment a bit with heights to get it right. This is a good problem-solving activity for older children.
5. Once your marble run is ready, drop your marbles down the run and see who wins!
RAINBOW BUTTON SENSORY BOTTLE
Materials:
Buttons: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple
Empty water bottle: Voss Artesian Still Water 4x500 ml Plastic Bottles
Clear hair gel
Glitter: similar to Martha Stewart Crafts Iridescent Glitter, 12-Pack
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Directions:​
1. Take the empty water bottle and let the kids fill it up with rainbow-colored buttons.
2. Add Clear Hair Gel
3. Add Glitter
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This simple activity is great for fine motor skills in young kids.
You can also go over the colors of the buttons while they drop them in or count them if you want.
Even though the buttons came back out before we had our finished sensory bottle, this was a great way to let them play.
Kool-Aid Playdough
Ingredients:
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1 cup FLOUR
1/4 cup SALT
1 packet KOOL-AID
2/3 cup BOILING WATER
1 Tablespoon OIL
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Directions:
1. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together flour, salt, and Kool-Aid powder.
2. In a measuring cup, measure 2/3 cup of water and oil.
3. Pour about 1/2 cup of the water/oil mixture into the flour mixture.
4. Stir together with a spoon or rubber spatula. Add more water if needed until it is the consistency of Play-Doh.
5. After letting it cool a bit, knead it together a few times.
6. When it’s completely cool, store in an airtight container or zip lock baggie.
Recipe Source: The 36th Avenue
Soda Bottle Painting
If you look at the bottom of your soda bottles you can see the different designs. They make great prints, so go through your recycling and see what you can find!
Clean Mud
Ingredients:
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Toilet Paper
Soap Flakes
2 Cups of Warm Water
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Directions:
1. Tear up a basketball-size amount of toilet paper, which helps to make that squishy texture. If the toilet paper isn’t torn up small enough, then you will find that it won’t squish through your fingers as well. ​
2. Once you’ve done that, add 1 cup of soap flakes. You can purchase some from the laundry aisle in the supermarket, otherwise, you can grate your own bar of soap.
3. Then you will need to add 2 cups of warm water, which will become absorbed by the toilet paper shreds and soften the soap flakes. ​
4. Once you have added all that, then you need to get your hands into the mixture and knead it and mix it all together until it’s very well combined.
This is wonderful for building the muscles of the hand and sensory exploration. Of course, soaps and toilet paper can vary between countries, so you might need to ‘tweak’ this. If the mixture is way too dry, then add a little more warm water; if it’s a sloppy mess, then add more shreds of toilet paper. Easy! Make the mixture that appeals to you and your child.
Ingredients:
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I lb Baking soda
Shaving cream (unscented and organic if possible)
2 drops of Lavender essential oil (you can buy them at wholesale prices)​
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Directions:​
1. Pour 1lb of baking soda.
2. Spray shaving cream. We used a good handful of it. But you should experiment with it by spraying some and then adding as needed.
3. ‘Knead the snow’. ‘The snow will start forming almost immediately
Magnetic Slime
Materials:
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1 bottle of school glue
3 tbsp of magnetic powder
Up to 4 oz of liquid starch
Neodymium magnets
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Directions:
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1. Combine the glue and the magnetic powder in a bowl, and stir until well mixed.​
2. Use a stirrer to mix the powder into the glue. We used a craft stick.
3. ​Once combined slowly add small amounts of liquid starch to the bowl and mix well. Continue to slowly add the starch & mix until the desired consistency is reached.