Sensory Play: the Ultimate Guide for Toddlers

Sensory play has quickly become not only my favorite time of the day but my toddlers as well. If you haven’t already read my first sensory article for babies and young toddlers check that out here.

Today I’m going to go through some of our most used and most loved sensory play ideas that are not only fun and educational but cost effective.

The best cost effective tip I can give, buy sensory items that are useable through multiple activities. As you will see below I have the items you will need in a list with each activity, lots are used two or even three times.

Let’s start out with some simple ones, a few forms of indoor water play.

Sensory Play with Water:

No matter how over the top of an activity you make, most of the time toddlers will be just as happy with water play. Not only is water play the most fun for them, its most cost effective for mama, win win. Heres a few ways we use water in sensory play.

Water Pouring:

For this Activity I fill one bin in our Ikea Sensory Table with plain water, the other bin I fill with cups and scoops to aid in pouring and transferring water. This is great motor skill practice while having the sensory experience of the water.

Needed Items:

• Cups of multiple sizes
• Bin of water
• Scoops and/or spoons

Play Sink:

you can find working play sinks from Target, Amazon or in your Lovevery play kit, we purchased ours off Amazon linked below. Play sinks provide a variety of life skills while exploring senses with the water.

Warm and Cold:

Warm and cold water is a great way to explore the sense of temperature. For this activity fill one bin with warm water and add some red food coloring, for the other bin add cold water, ice and blue food coloring. Kids can transfer the ice from the cold side to the warm and watch it melt or add some arctic animals to the cold side and some cinnamon sticks and red pom poms to the other side to learn the difference between warm and cold.

Needed Items:

• 2 Bins
• Arctic Animals
• Water
• Food Coloring
• Ice
• Cinnamon Sticks
• Pom Poms

Messy Sensory Play:

Oobleck Mud: A classic and well loved sensory activity. I remember doing this all the time as a child after learning about it in science class. Simply mix cornstarch and water to make a gooey mudding texture. Add cocoa powder to make it really look like mud. The measurements will really depend on how messy you want it to be or what the texture preference is for your child. You can then use trucks, animals, or just squeezing it in hands for the sensory experience of the texture. For an added step you can get a bin of fresh water to wash whatever toys you include in the bin.

Needed Items:

• 1 or 2 Bins
• Cornstarch
• Water
• Cocoa Powder
• Trucks, Animals, or any added toys

Moon Sand:

It’s pretty much a taste safe, and wallet safe version of Kenetic Sand. Add around 8 cups of flour to a baking sheet, cook on 350 for 5 minutes to eliminate the bacteria found in uncooked flour, then take some cooking oil, (whatever you have at home will work) and mix around a cup into the flour. You can then add cocoa powder if you want to make it look like dirt and use it in a truck bin, thats normally my sons preference. You will have dirt texture that can be packable and buildable which will be great for motor skills and texture exploration.

Needed Items:

• Flour
• Oil
• Cocoa Powder
• Trucks

Color Fizz:

Toddler science, how fun! Grab a muffin tin and add some baking soda to the bottom, add a layer of food coloring then top with more baking soda so they can guess the color. Take a dropper and a cup of vinegar, spray the baking soda with vinegar and watch the magic happen. Your kids with love this one and if you do it in a sensory bin you already have it will contain the mess.

Needed Items:

• Muffin tin
• Baking Soda
• food coloring
• vinegar
• dropper
• cup
• 1 Bin

Bonus Ideas:

Add these ideas into your sensory rotation or used for your art and/or learning activities of the day.

Pom Pom Sorting:

Get a large bag of pom poms and dump them into a bin, in another bin place either sheets of paper or colored cups to use for color identification. You can then add tools like tweezers or scoops for fine motor development. Your toddler can then separate the pom poms by color or explore the textures of the pom poms from squeezing them or stacking them together.

Needed items:

• Large bag of pom poms
• 2 Bins
• Tweezers, scoop, etc.
• Colored cups or sheets of paper.

Play doh:

Play Doh is SUCH an incredible tool for toddlers, use this as a sensory exploration, an education tool or imaginative play. The Play Doh brand makes tons of incredible and affordable play options that are toxin free, I will link some of my favorites below or you can make it from home for an even cleaner option.

Animal Track Painting:

Grab your toddlers favorite animal figurines and some washable paint, have them dip the animals feet into the paint and make animal tracks on a sheet of paper. This is a unique art project that can then be turned into a water sensory activity when then scrub the animals clean with a dish brush and some water.

Needed Items:

• Animal figurines
• Paint
• Paper
• 1 Bin
• Water
• Scrubbing Brush

Pipe Cleaner Pull:

Simple and great fine motor development activity. Get any strainer you have at home and some pipe cleaners, string them through the pipe cleaner and have your child pull them out, for older toddlers you can call out a color and have them give you that one.

Needed Items:

• Strainer
• Pipe Cleaners

Thats it for today beauties!

I felt so much passion in write this one for you guys and I truly hope you enjoyed, if you try any of these out please tag @gabbykoren on Instagram or TikTok and Repin this to save for later. I appreciate every reader, every minute you spend on my blog helps me reach for my dream.

XOXO

Gabbykoren