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Outdoor Dried Rice Play

We have had sand out for the last few days and I wanted to offer a slightly different play invitation for Little N today as she has really been enjoying exploring and creating with sand.

It was a lovely warm sunny day so we took our sensory play outdoors today.

You will need:

- Bags of rice

- Food colouring

- A range of kitchen utensils

- Storage container

Our Experience:

Using the rice that we had from our spring sensory box in the under bed storage box I brought it outdoors. Inside I put a silver culinder, wooden spoons, wooden salad tossers, plastic ice cream scoop, silver tea bag strainer and a silver ice cream scoop.

Here was the invitation to play and it wasn't long before Little N dived in....

She began by swishing around the rice with the metal ice cream scoop "mix an mix and mix" she said.

She then began to scoop the rice up and pour it into the culinder.

The rice pinged off the sides of the bowl.

She was contented doing this for a some time.

She then turned around and saw the black tray on the table so she started to transfer some of the materials she had. Once she was all set up she started sharing her intentions.....

"Mommy mommy, cake"

"A cake?" I questioned

"Yes cake" she replied

"Cake it's Nanny's" she added

"A cake for Nanny?" I said.
"Yes" she replied smiling

Little N got very excited and went on to mix the rice in the bowl.

As she was mixing some of the rice began to fall out from the holes.

She could hear the rice falling so moved to check out what was happening.

"Oh no" she said "it dropped".

After a few minutes playing here she began to return everything back to the box.

She called me to help mix so I went to join her. We mixed it all together and filled the culinder to the top.

Little N then began to push the utensils into the rice.

A very simple, easy and quick activity to set up today.

Resources are low cost, it is easy and quick to clean up and it provides a great opportunity to explore different textures.

Little N has really enjoyed it!

Learning:

- Filling and emptying containers

- Practised fine motor control

- Introduced basic meaning to her play

- Imaginative play

- Experimented

- Cause and effect

- Explored texture

Extension:

As Little N has enjoyed this I plan in the future to provide more interesting sensory textures for her to explore with her hands and also using a variety of bowls and utensils.

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Christmas Sensory Bin Sensory box texture

Christmas Sensory Play

I am Tess, an Ofsted Registered Outstanding Child minder based in the heart of Cornwall, UK.

I have been child minding from my small semi detached house for a little over 25 years.

I have always believed in child led activities and the freedom of children to think for themselves and not be told how to play.

I do plan open ended activities to stretch the children a little and help them learn new skills, but it is up to them whether they play with the activity or something else. I observe their play and may then introduce some conversation and mathematical language as I play alongside them, making sure not to interrupt their train of thought or imagination. If a group are playing together well I may just stand back and watch.

I have introduced sensory boxes into my setting to spark imagination and fascination, to encourage the children to use their senses, and to develop language around this, and want to share one with you.

My sensory box is based around Christmas.

Colour theme is red and green, and it covers sight, sound touch and smell.

It has pompoms, pine cones, really large sequin snowflakes, sparkly pine cleaners, very large buttons,a home made gingerbread man, soft santa figures, Christmas baubles, jingle bells - tied together for sound and a small bag of cloves (muslin sealed) for smell.

The children used the box in many ways, there was lots of turn taking, conversation, maths and using their senses to explore, as well as a lot of imagination.

So why not have a go, and if your setting is like mine based in your house go for things that are easy to clear up at the end of the day, and enjoy the experience.

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Christmas Sensory box Sensory Play texture

Christmas Sensory Box

Sensory Play is my favourite play, especially providing it for children of the early years. I love sensory boxes as it captures an array of sensory items and you can link it to themes and interests as a way to encourage curiosity and teach children more about the chosen topic.

We have been loving out Christmas Sensory Box! Its given Little N a perfect opportunity to explore the different things she can see around our home, up close and personal.

You will need:
Large under bed storage container
A filler - I used rice but if you want more ideas click here
Coloured dye (if you want to colour your filler)
Candy Canes
Baubles
Beads
Wrapping Bows
Small Christmas Tree
Snowflakes
Tinsel

Tinsel provides an interesting tickling, fluffy texture that glistens as the lights catch it, and the smell is always a reminder of Christmas!

Interestingly the bright, shiny red Christmas tree has been used as a container to fill up with rice and to pour it all back out again!

The rice which I had coloured green made a delightful pinging noise as it was sprinkled onto the Christmas baubles.

The white, glittered snowflakes were used to scoop up the rice.

I even got stuck in and enjoyed the sensation of scooping up the cool rice in my hands. Little N's cousin was round to play and collected the rice out of my hands and sprinkled it back into the Christmas Sensory Box.

Outdoor Ice Play

Outdoor Ice Exploration

Well Little N had Little A round for a play date today.

I wanted to give the two of them the opportunity to explore new things today.

Here was one of the play invitations I set up.

WARNING -

Before you read on please please please read this carefully!

Before giving ANY ice to your children to play with make sure that you swill the ice blocks or cubes under the tap. This begins the melting process which will avoid the ice sticking to their skin!

This is so so important!!

You will need:

- A variety of containers

- Items to freeze

- Tray

- & of course a freezer

I gathered a variety of small containers together all different shapes and sizes.

I have plenty of these as I made all my own weaning meals for Little N when she was younger and used these for storage.

You can get them very cheaply from pound stores and super markets if you don't have many though.

Time to get creative and start thinking of items to hide in the ice......

I selected green cut up straws, brown twigs, colourful and shiny sequins, shiny pink sweet wrappers, orange pom poms, blue, yellow and red water beads and pipe cleaners.
The list really is endless for this though.
Next time I want to include some sea shells, flowers, pine cones and leaves.

Of course it came to no suprize that Little A and Little N made a B line for this tray.

It was something new and different.

They both explored to begin with with just their fingers tips and looked over for some encouragement.

It was then I stepped in to show them what it was and I briefly told them about what we could see and encouraged them to feel the different textures.

As this was a new experience for both of them and you could see they were a little hesitant.

They both began to utter the word "ice" well.

Together we all had a look at what we could see and we demonstrated how to take the ice blocks out of their containers, explore the melting blocks with our hands and how to put them back into the containers.

Once they had their introduction to this sensory experience, again I took a step back allowing them to lead their play themselves.

Little N decided to get up and went to walk off but stood still and watched as Little A remained crouched down and began to tip the ice blocks out onto the tray and put them back again. She did this for a few minutes before leaving and becoming distracted with something else.

Little N returned and crouched down.

She felt the ice with her hands and repeated to herself "ice it cold".

Little N did a great job at tipping the ice out of the containers.

She looked down at the tray in amazement as she heard the ice blocks crash down into each other.

She then selected the melting ice block filled with fluffy orange pom poms.

She stood up with it feeling it with her hands. She walked over to me and handed me the ice block. "It cold" she warned me. Little N then went to look at the sensory bottles so I returned the ice block she gave me back to the tray. Little A dashed over taking an interest in what I was doing.

The ice was melting well by this point and some of the objects that had been frozen in the ice had now started protruding.

This added to the sensory exploration as the blocks were not only cold they were now rough, smooth, crunchy, furry and prickly.

What a fantastic activity for children of all ages!
The learning opportunities here have so many possibilities.

Little A carried on tipping the ice out. I began to stack up the containers.
After playing alongside Little A's lead I once again took a step back.

I watched on as Little A began to un-stack the containers placing them in the puddles on the tray.

She began to place some of the ice back into the containers, tipping them upside down to make them crash back down onto the tray again.

Learning:

- Cause and Effect

- Exploring using senses

- Confident to show they want help and support where needed

- Keen to take part in new experiences

- Puzzles

- Sharing

- Taking turns

- Playing alongside each other

Extention:

I plan to repeat this activity again using some of the same objects but also adding different ones too.

Addition -

What Can I Freeze?

(Pretty much about anything but here is a list of some more ideas)

- twigs - leaves - conkers - pine cones - shells - pom poms - pasta - rice - water beads

- action figures - small toys - pebbles - lego - octoons - flowers - straw - fruit slices

- feathers - pipe cleaners - sweet wrappers - ribbons

Learning Through Play

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