3 Fall Seasonal Sensory Play Ideas
Sensory Bottle, Sensory Bin, and Halloween Themed Play Dough
Time to update the sensory station with some new Fall themed hands on fun! Fall is one of my favorite times of year and I tend to go a little crazy with things Fall themed. I love the colors, smells… well, except Pumpkin, not a pumpkin fan although I often joke of the existence of every product in some form of pumpkin. It’s true, I have seen whole end caps dedicated to the different products you can get in pumpkin flavor, smell, or color. I really can’t say anything though because come the first of November this house becomes cinnamon central till the end of the year.
Sensory Bottle
Our first new addition is this fun Fall themed sensory bottle. You could use items you find outside such as acorns and leaves or you can find these cloth leaves at most dollar stores. The good thing about the leaves is that they float but a different levels in the water because of the different materials they are made of. I did add some smaller acorns to this after we took photos. These glass bottles were purchased from Amazon (not a referral link just a link to the search to see what I’m talking about :)) but you can re use water bottles to create sensory bottles as well.
These leaves came from the Dollar Tree in a pack of 50. We have used them for several projects already. They come in several different colors and fabrics in the pack. Lou’s favorite was the shiny golden ones. 🙂 They are great for sensory projects, collages, and decorating candle holders which are a few projects we have used them for. I may have to share the candle holders because they turned out adorably. I might be a little biased about that but that is what moms do.
Sensory Bin
I also created a sensory bin for Lou with a few items I grabbed at the Dollar Store. Most of these items came from the Dollar Tree but you could do this with items you find outside as well. Kids love nature and a natural sensory bin is great fun. I have since taking this pictures added acorns. My parents have this wonderful yard that is full of pine cones, acorns, pecans, and different leaves. I didn’t get to get over to their house till after I took these pictures. The color lids are from mason jars and there to sort the leaves into by color or to use as a scarecrows head.
The good thing about sensory bins is that they are open ended. I give her the materials and she chooses how to use them. In this case she made a scarecrow. She got a few clothes out of her Barbie box and used them to make a makeshift scarecrow and the mason jars being the heads.
The little pumpkins also came from the Dollar Tree but I seen some nice ones available at Walmart as well. The straw was from the Dollar Tree and I found it in the floral department. I also found some plastic acorns if you don’t have access to a tree to pick them.
Halloween Themed Play Dough – Witch Dough
It seems like forever since I have made homemade play dough but it was less than a month ago. She just hasn’t been asking for it like she used to when we were making it nearly nightly. I also found a container that keeps it fresh longer so that may play a small part in it. We have also been working our way through a large stash of the store bought Play-doh which she finds more convenient that homemade. Although, themed play dough is something we still enjoy. This is our Halloween themed play dough using the regular play dough recipe with an addition of black McCormick food coloring and purple glitter. I call it Witch Dough because it reminds me of a witch hat for some reason, I think it’s the purple sparkles.
I think in an effort to make sure it came out black I did use too much food coloring. You probably only need a couple of drops. I also added a ton of glitter. I was wanting SPARKLE, which it has.
That is our sensory station at the moment but we are updating it all the time. I hope to share with you more easy ideas soon so come back often!
