Shavuot Sensory Play Seven Ways

Shavuot is just around the corner and we're playing all about it here! Sweet dairy products and beautiful flowers are two underlying themes that come to the forefront of this beautiful holiday on which we commemorate the Jewish people receiving the Torah at Har Sinai. Crafts, cooking, stories and songs help us prepare for the festive occasion. But what about sensory play? Today's post will get you thinking Outside the Box [Sensory] Bin with fun for all ages! Here are Seven Sweet Ideas for Shavuot Themed Sensory Play:


1. Ice Cream Shoppe Sensory Bin: A  rainbow of pom poms, ice cream scoops, toilet paper tube ice cream cones, spoons and dishes make up this whimsical ice cream shoppe sensory bin that will have your little ones giggling and playing for hours! S has loved this activity over the last couple of years and this year, Y will get to join in the fun! Low on the messiness factor and reusable, this sensory bin has a lot of great qualities going for it--it's also super low in calories (unless it leaves you heading to the freezer for real ice cream)!

2. Dirt Dough Garden Bin: Water and baking soda combine to create a fabulously textured, crumbly dough. Food coloring or paint can add a soil colored hue (ours came out a bit green in this photo from a couple of years ago). Add in some fishing bate worms or rocks, some plastic toy bugs or some flowers--maybe just a shovel and a few gardening tools or even just a set of eager hands. This is a great way to get your hands dirty and digging indoors or outside as you plan your Shavuot flower arrangements and celebrate the Spring season.

3. From Seed to Flower Sensory Bin (or Bottle): Dried beans make up the base of this sensory experience that celebrates every step and part of a flower. For the very little ones, a sensory bottle is a lovely way to contain the components safely and--as an added bonus, it makes a lovely sound when shaken. Older infants, toddlers and beyond will love the sensory bin set-up that will have them digging, planting and arranging flowers in pots. Toss in some play or actual gardening tools, gloves and a variety of colorful silk flowers.

4. Invitation to Build a Playdough Har Sinai: Har Sinai was a notoriously humble little mountain with a special role in Matan Torah. As a reward for being so humble (a parable to the Jewish people), G-d made Har Sinai very beautiful when the Aseret Hadibrot (Ten Commandments) were delivered to the Jewish people via Moshe Rabbeinu. Playdough is a humble little dough with big potential, especially when combined with beautiful silk flowers, glass gems and any lovely loose parts little hands can manipulate. You can use homemade dough or store bought.

Look how little S was!!!

5. Kinetic Sand Har Sinai & Mattan Torah Small World Bin: We used kinetic sand as a base, a selection of glass mosaic shapes and stones, silk flowers and some painted wooden peg dolls. I hand painted a set of luchos using paint pen on a couple mosaic rectangles and S has loved this bin over the past few days. The kinetic sand is so soft and malleable! The addition of peg dolls allows him to incorporate dramatic play into his sensory play and act out the beautiful story of Matan Torah.

6.Flower Arranging: Flowers, flowers everywhere! Sounds a lot like Shavuos, right? You can use playdough as a base to arrange silk flowers, a reusable centerpiece option in lieu of or in addition to fresh cut flowers and vases of water. You can also substitute in floral foam or even clay (both of which we have done before) for an alternative sensory experience. You can use this set up to explore the parts of a flower (pictured to the right) or to arrange whole flowers (pictured below). It is sure to be a lot of fun and definitely an activity you will revisit on other occasions as well!

 7. Petal Play: Flower power! Real flowers are a great sensory material for little hands. Whether they are picked wildflowers, recycled cut flowers or fallen petals from the garden, real flowers are fascinating to budding gardeners. Use them in your water table, offer up some scissors and magnifying glasses or use them with paint for some beautiful prints:

Bonus--Ice Cream Puffy Paint: Did you really think I'd stop at 7?! For a bonus sensory and process art activity, whip up a batch of homemade puffy paint using shaving cream and school glue (mix roughly equal parts until you get your desired thickness, but you really can't go wrong). Add in your favorite ice cream colored hue, offer up a construction paper cone and maybe even a shaker of rainbow sprinkles. Ice Cream Puffy Paint dries to a puffy, hardened and well preserved work of art that will make a lovely decoration for your home this Shavuot...

Want to do more? Here are some other great learning and play activities for Shavuot!

Happy Playing!

Days of Creation Play Stations: Day 5 Fish & Birds

We're up to Day 5 in our Days of Creation Play Stations! I have really loved the opportunity to focus an afternoon here and there on sensory play, process art and play activities related to each of the days of Creation with both boys. Although we are well past the reading of Parshas Bereishis in the Torah, it has been a great opportunity to slow down and really focus on each of the days individually. Speaking of slowing down and focusing, did anyone else notice I never posted about what we did for Day 3?! So before we get to the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea....

Here's a peek at what we did for the third day, when Hashem created the earth and grass, flowers and trees:

 We added a third sensory bottle with dried black beans and artificial flowers and leaves. We also incorporated the current season of Autumn into this theme and did what makes the most sense when playing about things that grow outdoors...

...we took a trip to the park! In fact, I posted about that trip and a story stretcher I brought along in this post. As we read, walked, collected, played and made leaf bracelets and leaf rubbings, we also talked about the parts of Creation that took place on Day 3. The next day, we used a collection of pine cones and Fall leaves and acorns along with some marigolds from our garden and some leftover flowers from the previous Shabbos to make "nature paint brushes." S (and Y with some help) got to try their hands at these unique brushes for painting on the third page of our Bereishis Process Art Book.

 That was about the extent of our Day 3 activities since at the same time all four of us shared a cold and three of us shared a case of bacterial conjunctivitis. There were enough green noses and pink eyes here to decorate a Lilly Pulitzer dress and that may or may not be why I totally forgot to post on it!


The great thing about taking the Days of Creation literally one day at a time is that you can take all the breaks you need for recovering from illness, getting busy with other activities and events and still come back to it again. S is always excited when I tell him we will have an afternoon devoted to Days of Creation Play Stations and surely both boys will enjoy what I've got in store for today...

Y has been eating up a storm! Faster than I can keep up, but thank goodness for those handy little jars of baby food for when I don't have the time to make my own purees. And, if you know me, you totally know I had my eye on those little jars for another reason as well--sensory bottles! As with anything made from glass,  adult supervision is certainly a requirement. Baby food jars are a thicker glass and the perfect size for small hands to grasp. Our Day 5 sensory bottles worked best in 2 parts...this "I Spy a Birdie" sensory jar with birdseed and bird buttons...

...and this "Swim With the Fishies" sensory jar with water dyed blue, baby oil, blue glitter and fish buttons! Both jars are hot glued and duct taped shut to ensure that what's in the jar stays in the jar even if shaken vigorously! 

Our DIY Fish Squish Bag is made from a 2.5 gallon ziplock bag filled about 1/4 of the way with water that I added blue food coloring to. I also added in some goldfish cut from craft foam with eyes and smiles drawn on in permanent marker. Additionally, I added a handful of glass craft stones. Before zipping the bag, I let out as much air as possible so that when it is laid on a flat surface it can be squished and manipulated by little hands without a risk of popping. I duct taped the zipper end for extra protection and it's ready to go! Y will love using this on his tummy and it is a great way to encourage tummy time. Y will probably also really enjoy it. I also searched the internet for some photos of common fish and birds in our state to print and laminate for the boys to look at. 

Our small world bird sensory bin is also ready to go, with shredded craft paper, wood circles, pine cones, sticks, bark and acorns collected from previous park trips and some resident birds as well. We used a similar set up before last Tu B'Shevat and S really liked feeding the birds birdseed, so I also included a small dish of birdseed with a tiny spoon.

S really loves using the sensory table in our kitchen and will surely enjoy seeing this colorful poster of regional birds nearby. Perhaps it will also inspire him to peer out the window and see which ones he can find in our backyard!

I found this birdhouse at the beginning of last summer and today is the perfect day for S to decorate it! It will make a great play accessory to add to our small world bird sensory bin when he is done, although I have a feeling he will want to hang it up outside for the real birds, in which case I had a jar of Mod Podge on the ready!

Our Day 5 page is ready for some process art. I created "ocean bubble brushes" with bubble wrap and "bird feather brushes" with craft feathers, both clipped to clothespins. If your little artists like to get their hands painty, feel free to just set out bubble wrap and feathers. I like the clothespins for children who prefer not to get their hands painty or in general for easier grasp of the materials while painting. 

S loves making bird treats for the hungry birdies in our neighborhood. I have a tray all set up to bring outside today (we're having some great weather this afternoon) with our favorite bird treat making ingredients: pine cones, toilet paper tubes, yarn for hanging, peanut butter, a plastic knife for spreading and birdseed! Bon appetit, tweet tweet, enjoy the treat birdies!

Our Fly in the Sky and Swim in the Sea sorting game is a fun way to encourage sorting skills and inspire dramatic play. We have an oddly large collection of plush birds and fish. I also added in some printed and laminated photos of the sky and the ocean as well as some sentence strips to add some print and early literacy to our environment. 

It's Throwback Thursday to when S and I last bought fish for our tank. We're, um, down to one left and S loves to help take care of it and feed it. We will have to take another pet store field trip soon to bring home a couple of friends for our remaining tenant. S and Y both love going to to the pet store and looking at all the fish and birds!

Both boys are still napping, and many days that is truly a blessing! Today, I really can't wait to play, so I think I'm off to go wake up S--and surely Y will follow...

Happy Playing!

Days of Creation Stations: Day 4 Moon, Stars & Sun

We're back! And it seems we brought along the northern weather with us. It's cold and rainy here and with the recent time change, it's dark in the afternoons, too! Perfect time to play indoors and to get back to our Days of Creation Play Stations, which brings us to Day 4, the Creation of the moon, stars and sun! Indeed, there are so many great play activities you can do with a space theme. With a little preparation and imagination, you can spend an afternoon in play that will take you out of this world! In the interest of being a bit more present in their play and also a bit more protective of their privacy, I'm including fewer photos of my boys' adorable little faces (biased opinion, I know) and more photos of the activities themselves. Here's a peek at our day of space themed adventure through process art and sensory play:

I always introduce our afternoon Days of Creation Play Stations by going through the 7 days in song along with some of our related play materials and previous art projects S has made. I love including his artwork in this and he feels proud to see it on display.

S made this one last year with our Bereishit unit using washable black marker, a spray bottle of water, stickers, pre-cut paper shapes of the sun and moon and glue.

S's preschool class made this great hanging book of the Days of Creation this year. We use it daily to show what day of the week it is and it is also a great material to add to our play stations.

In advance of our Day 4 Play Stations, I prepared this galaxy sensory bottle. I confess that I have no idea what baby oil is for. I'm on my second baby and to date I have only ever used baby oil for removing stubborn sticky spots left on the skin from bandages and for sensory bottles. That is combined with water, red and blue food coloring to your desired shade of purple and silver glitter to create a sparkly night sky in a bottle. I was, um, quite generous with the silver glitter! I just love watching it adhere to the tiny oil bubbles and the boys both get a kick out of observing it as it is shaken (usually by S) and as it swirls and settles. I added some star stickers to the outside of the bottle and some duct tape to secure the lid, because I love glitter, but not all over my living room rug!

Our newly revamped art center has also been a great venue for inspiring artwork in the theme of the moon, stars, and sun. Y had some fun exploring fingerpaints and color mixing with this mess-free paint-in-a-bag activity. It's a great activity for tummy time. It can also be used sitting either hung from a vertical surface for use with hands or set on the floor to explore with hands and feet! Slip a piece of white paper or cardstock inside a ziplock bag and add a squirt of your desired colors of paint (we used blue and yellow). Seal tightly and if you wish, add a layer of tape to secure. Please supervise your little ones with plastic bags.

After Y was done playing and exploring, I took out the paper from inside the bag and it was quite thickly covered in paint--perfect for making prints! I made a couple of prints on large white paper and left both paintings to dry. His "original" was added to our wall (or door) of fame! And the remaining sheet of prints was upcycled into a "moon" and "sun" for S to glue on to the next page of our Days of Creation Process Art Book:

Our Day 4 page is ready for the next artist in line. Y helped with the "moon" and "sun," and S will get to glue them on along with adding some star stickers and foam shapes.

S was so drawn in to our current art center options. He especially loved "carefully carrying" this frame with a copy of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" to his little table to use as inspiration alongside chalk pastels and a sheet of white paper. He tested out the chalk pastels on their side to create wide smudges and upright for darker lines. He used his fingers to blend colors and got to experience hands-on color mixing right before his eyes! Chalk pastels are a great art material for early budding artists. They produce a result without having to press very hard and are easy to manipulate for small hands. We found ours quite inexpensively at our local Five and Below. 




To include an element of pre-writing, I set up this constellation picture with star stickers and white chalk and crayons for both boys, featuring the first letter of their names. Y needed my help to connect the stars, but will enjoy (with my help and supervision) using chalk on the black paper. S with some modeling and support will be able to connect his own stars and explore the chalk and crayon on black paper.

Lastly, I got out our bag of kinetic play sand and some moon and star cookie cutters and plastic wands--the perfect setup for a "moon sand" sensory bin that S will surely enjoy digging into while I tend to dinner preparations later on. We will be back with more soon and until then...

Happy Playing!

Days of Creation Play Stations: Day 2 The Shamayim

On the Second Day, Hashem created the Shamayim (translated as the Heavens/sky). We happened to reach our afternoon of Day 2 Creation Play Stations right before last Shabbos, when we read Parshas Noach (the story of Noah and the Ark). S is learning more in depth about this parsha in preschool and we did a lot more at home with it last year, which you can read about here. I did not want to entirely skip over it at home, so I rotated in a toy boat, a Fisher Price "Noach" and some plastic animals to our bathtub playtime. To incorporate the idea of the rainbow both to learning about the creation of the Shamayim and to Parshas Noach ,I also prepped some colorful Shabbos treats...

Rainbow salad...

Rainbow fruit salad...

...and a chocolate cake with rainbow icing...definitely not the healthiest of the three options, but certainly the most beloved!

I covered our dining room table in white craft paper so S could decorate our Shabbos table with our favorite rainbow themed art materials and stickers...

Both boys have been enjoying our play stations. I've been preparing sensory bottles for each of the days (mainly with Y in mind, but S still enjoys these as well).

Day 1: water (dyed black with a bit of paint) and vegetable oil for Dark & Light
Day 2: blue dyed dry rice and cotton ball clouds

I especially love the small sized Gatorade bottles for sensory bottles. They are the perfect size for little hands! So when my husband came home with a pack before Yom Kippur, he saw an easier fast and I saw a future play at home project! I always hot glue and/or duct tape the caps to securely seal them. Numeral stickers help identify the day of Creation on each cap.

 On the topic of colorful rainbows and clouds, we've all been a bit under the weather here since the end of the High Holidays. It started with four green noses and progressed to five pink eyes. (Don't even ask... My preschooler is bringing germs home like a first year teacher!) We've kept many of our afternoon play sessions very low key, and that has been quite lovely nonetheless. For Day 2, we did some cloud themed sensory play using shaving cream and blue & green paint inside our water table. There's a great science experiment and story stretcher you could add in if you wish that I posted here.







I had no audible voice for reading a story that day, but S loved using a plastic fork to marble the paint inside the shaving cream and afterward got his hands into it as well! I like to make the most of my activities, so before he really had at it, I took a piece of white cardstock and made a print over top of the shaving cream. I used a squeegee to scrape off the excess back into the sensory table and allowed the beautiful marble-painted paper to dry. It would be perfect for use in our process art Days of Creation Counting Book.

 We've been creating a page with each of the days, along with a title page and this introductory page along to the song below, one of our favorite Bereishit themed songs:

(t.t.t.o. "This Old Man")

Hashem created a world so fine, 
He did it all in six days' time
How did He do it? What did He do?
Each day He made something new...

On Yom Rishon, there was dark and light
Hashem made the day and Hashem made the night,
On Yom Sheini, up very, very high, 
Hashem created the big, blue sky!

On Yom Shlishi, the rivers and the seas,
And from the earth grew flowers and trees,
On Yom R'vee'ee, the sun so bright
The moon and stars just for the night.

On Yom Chamishi, the fish in the sea
And way up high the birds in the breeze
On Yom Shishi, big animals and small,
Adam and Chava, most important of all!

On Yom Shabbat, Hashem worked no more
So we should know what this day is for,
A day of rest is the rule,
We learn Torah and go to shul!

Here's a peek back at our Day 1 page, white (light) chalk and crayons drawn onto black (dark) paper...

For Day 2, I set out "cloud paint brushes" in white paint. Simply pinch a cotton ball between a clothespin for these super simple paint dabbers! They are always a big hit and great fine motor practice for little hands. (Even Y was able to use it with some extra help from me.)

We are gearing up for another day of play here and will surely be back to post about it. In between our organized play sessions, S has really enjoyed this makeshift DIY Days of Creation garland. I printed out the beautiful clipart for free from this website and laminated/cut out the circles for each day. I hung some yarn across our deep freezer with magnets (we use every inch of available space here!) and wrote numerals 1-7 on clothes pins. An envelope placed below is great for holding on to the pieces between play. Both fine motor and math/sequencing skills are called into play with this activity, but your little one will likely be having too much fun playing to even notice he is learning, too!






Happy Playing!