Cupcake play dough counting and number recognition

Play dough is one of our favorite things to do and the kids have been asking to play with it for the last couple of day so we took it out. I added a little fun twist to it for some learning time.

Jake and Cate love to pretend play like they are cooking, so I took out the cupcake liners and cupcake pans they made pretend cupcakes.

 We added candles to the cupcakes to sing Happy Birthday. After they put the candles in their cupcakes I had them count them and match the correct number to the candles.

Since Jake knows his numbers I did a little math with him.

After we did number recognition and some simple math, the kids wanted me to light the candles to sing and they blew them out.

Was too cute!!

Playing and counting fun

This was a fun and simple way to bring learning to play. The kids loved this.

Below are some of our favorite learning games with numbers.

Apple Tree number learning

Rainbow colors and number leanring

Jelly Bean counting and color learning 

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Ocean and lighthouse sensory play

The kids love imaginary play. We have had some hot days and are so ready for the beach. So I set up a fun sensory bin for them. They had a blast playing with it.

I used sand and jello for the ocean water. I love how real the water looks and Jake loved the feel of it.

To put this together was very simple. All you need is some ocean creatures, sand, and jello. I made the jello the night before and had Jake help and then it was ready the next day for them to play with.

This sensory play is great for the imagination, learning about different sea animals, and great hands on play as well.

Jake even dug in the sand and made little sand castles. After he was done playing we talked about the different animals that lived in the ocean.

Below are some other fun sensory bins we have done.

Farm sensory play

Insect dig

Dinosaur excavation

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Down on the Farm sensory play

Sensory bins are a great way for kids to explore and for use their imagination during play. The kids got

They've been having a blast playing with them so I decide to put together a farm sensory bin. I am not sure who had more fun mom putting it together or the kids playing with it.

I used hay, jello, cut up bushes from the yard and mud. Jake and Cate loved the mud play with the pigs and it's a fun science twist to add.

The pond for the ducks is made from jello, then just added some small rocks around it.

 

Below are some other sensory bins we have set up that you may like.

 

Make your own snow

 

 

Make your own glow sand

 

 

Dinosaur ice 

 

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Pirates and beach sensory play

We are so ready for the warm weather and be able to play at the beach I set up a beach sensory play for the kids today using our Homemade moon sand and then added some blue jello for the water.

This sensory tub was easy to set up and very inexpensive. Along with the fun play, it is great for their imagination.

I gathered our ocean play toys, shells and some pirate play stuff. The kids played for at least a hour and then came back to it several times through out the day.

I even got some of our pirate treasure and hid them in the moon sand for them to find when they were digging. They loved it.

After they played a while I added some other toys to twist it up a little.

Jake was excited to find the treasure.

We love playing with different sensory bins, be sure to check out some of the others one we have done below.

 

Glowing dino dig sensory bin

 

Insect sensory bin

 

Dinosaur volcano science bin
 

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Erupting moon sand volcano sensory play

We used our homemade moon sand to make a super fun erupting volcano. Then Jake and Cate played with the dinosaur sensory play after.

There is so many fun things you can do with the moon sand. Also, it is super easy to make and inexpensive.

To make it click the link above. Then to do the volcano we used kool-aid packet mixed with baking soda. Then vinegar to make it erupt.

 

To make the volcano we used a plastic tube and built the sand around it to make the volcano. Then just added fun dinosaur toys and played. I also added some of our homemade mud play

Dont forget to check out how to make Erupting Dinosaur Eggs

 

 

or the fun Glowing dino dig

 

 

 one of our favorites was the Dinosaur excavation

 

 

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Make your own mud pie science not using mud

If you have been following along you know we have been having a blast doing fun bubbling and fizzing science play. "J" was asking to play with the mud again from our dinosaur erupting sensory play, so I took out our stuff to make fun mud pies.

This is a very easy to set up science play and you can get everything you need at the Dollar Tree making this very inexpensive.

Materials:
Baking soda($.50 for 12oz box at Dollar Tree)
Instant coffee($1.00 for 7oz bag at Dollar Tree)
Vinegar(we buy it by the gallon and it is $2.38 at Wal-Mart)
Squeeze bottle (We got our at Wal-Mart in the baking section 2 for $2.00)
Sprinkles($1.00 at Dollar Tree)

To make the powder base all you need to do is mix a box of baking soda(12oz) and instant coffee(3oz) together making sure it is all blended.

The kids had a blast and spent at least 45 minutes playing if not more. The great thing about this play is the main base is baking soda so it will keep bubbling when you squirt the vinegar on it. Just mix and doing it again.

This play is also a great fine motor skill for little ones squeezing the vinegar onto the Erupting mud. 

NOTE: When I put vinegar in the bottle I mix half vinegar and half water so you don't go through alot of vinegar.

Be sure to check out some of the other fun sensory plays we have done below.

Glowing sand

Homemade moon sand

Kool-Aid ice cream dough







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Make your own "Moon sand" sensory play

Kids love to make sand castles and build in the sand, so what better way to do this then in your own home. Using 3 simple ingredients and costing next to nothing you can make it yourself.

Materials:

10lb bag of sand from Home Depot ($5.00)

1 box of corn starch

Water

Tempera paint (if you want it colored)

Large container(We got ours from Home Depot for $5.00 cement bin)

How to make:

Mix the dry ingredients together first then add the water. 

When we made it we only did a little at a time so I mixed about 10 cups of sand to 5 cups of corn starch and  and 1 cup of water. You don't want to use too much water. You just want it to have a damp feel, so you are able to mold it.

The kids will play for hours with this stuff. Once you are done playing with it place in a sealed container and will be ready for the next play time.

Below are some of the fun sensory play bins we have done. Post will be coming soon as to what we used for each one.

We have had a blast playing with this Moon Sand

You can even use cookie cutters to make different shapes.

Here are some other homemade recipes we have done if you like to make things yourself.

Play dough

Kool-aid

Homemade snow play

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Kool-Aid Ice cream dough new sensory play

When I was experimenting with our fake snow play, I made this fun and yummy smelling ice cream dough by adding kool-aid to the mixture. Our favorite was the watermelon, it made the room smell so YUMMY!!

I was so excited to come up with a new sensory play for the kids. It looks and smells just like real ice cream, plus it was cool to the touch.

The kids love to do imaginary play, over the summer we did an ice cream shop play with salt and water and added some kool-aid as well.

Materials:

Baking soda

Hair conditioner

Kool-Aid

Storage containers

(You can get all of these ingredients from Dollar Tree)

The mixture I used to make our dough was 3 cups of baking soda, 3 teaspoons of hair conditioner(you don't need much) and kool-aid packet. Place all together and mix.

We used silicone ice cream cones we bought at Marshall's but you can get them on amazon as well. We paid only $5.99 for ours. You can also use real ice cream cones from the Dollar Store.

This sensory dough holds up great and stores well. We made ours over a month ago and we still take it out to play with it. When done playing store in a sealed container or ziplock baggie. 

If it doesn't feel like it is molding well for play just add a little hair conditioner and you are good to go.

Be sure to check out the other fun things you can do with sensory play and kool-aid as well.

Kool-Aid

Fake snow play

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