Dinosaurs and play dough. The perfect combination for a whole lot of play! Sometimes getting the play dough out with your normal tools is enough to keep your children occupied… and sometimes it’s not! Children without a doubt require some sort of sensory play on a week to week basis. It allows them to switch off from the world around them and concentrate on what is right in front of them. How things feel, look and smell. By adding a few simple items from your house and nature, you can easily make a themed sensory activity that will keep them occupied and fill that ‘need’ for the week.

This week is all about dinosaurs! So come and join us to create your own dinosaur inspired invitation to play. It centres around dinosaur toys and play dough, sprinkled with sensory items that can be collected from your kitchen, garden, woods or parks. If you want to inspire your children further, why not scatter a book about dinosaurs nearby or watch a dinosaur related film afterwards to keep the theme running through the day. Either way, I think it’s going to be a roarsome day of fun!

Creating your Dinosaur Themed Sensory Tray

What you will need:

• Small plastic toy dinosaurs
• Play dough – shop bought or homemade
• Shells
• Grass/weeds
• Sticks
• Soil/sand
• Twigs
• Mini Trees – toys or broccoli
• Sorting tray/normal tray/ baking tray/ different bowls

Instructions:

1. 1. First of all one must have decided what they will be putting all the items on/in. We used a sorting tray, with lots of different sections. It is however, not necessary to have one. Any normal tray or small bowls are perfectly fine. Your children won’t be looking at the tray when they see what is put in front of them!
   2. If you have decided to make some homemade play dough then do so now. You can find the ingredients and instructions below. If you are using shop bought ones then take it out of the pot, roll it into a ball and place it centrally on your tray.
   3. Place your toy dinosaurs in a huddle or a bowl.
   4. Now you will need to decide what other items you are going to put with your themed play. This part is entirely up to you. Ideally you should gather together items that all feel different to touch. For example, something that can slip through their fingers. You could use rice, sand, soil or grains for this. Next something coarse and rough, we used shells. You could use something like rough rocks or instead glass pebbles for something smooth. Items from nature and the garden are fantastic editions, such as grass and twigs. Lastly we added toy trees. Why not add some fresh broccoli for little trees?

1. Once you have placed all these items in either their own piles or in separate bowls it is ready to be played with.
2. When you show your children the tray, don’t give them any rules. If you are worried about mess, do it outside, in the kitchen or with a large tablecloth on the floor. The fussing about mess will interrupt their play and could very likely shorten the time they want to play with it.
3. When they have been playing with it for a while, why not consider adding normal play dough tools? This will extend the play longer as something new has been added and new options of play have opened.

What You Will Need To Make Your Own Play Dough

Note: This makes two batches enough for two children. If you want to make a smaller batch, half all the ingredients.

• 2 cup plain flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 Tbsp Cream of Tartar
• Half a teaspoon gel food colouring (any you fancy, we used green)

Instructions for play dough:

1. In a big bowl pour your flour, salt and cream of tartar and combine.
2. Dissolve your food colouring into your cup of warm water. This is important if you want to get an evenly spread and smooth colour throughout your play dough.
3. Slowly pour your coloured warm water into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix slowly. It should come together quite quickly.
4. Once it has all stuck to itself and combined into one big ball, take it in your hands and knead it onto a surface until it is all combined. It should not be sticky. If it is, add a touch more flour to absorb the extra moistness.
5. It is now ready to be used!

Making your own play dough is entirely optional. We have found however that unlike shop bought stuff, we can make triple the amount of play dough with ingredients just from our kitchen cupboards. It is also more ply-able and you can choose whatever colour you want without having to go hunting for it!

For more fun dinosaur themed activities, watch Caitie’s Classroom episode all about dinosaurs! Happy learning and playing!

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Staying clean is made more fun with a DIY sensory bag to teach young learners about hand washing! If you’re searching for hand washing-related activities, look no further. This one is easy to make and fun to play with. Push the pom poms away with your fingers, a small nail brush, or a bar of soap! 

Engaging many senses all at once, sensory bags excite young learners with their awesome ability to stimulate and regulate. A hand washing version of the sensory bag, or squish bag, might motivate kids to banish the germs and wash their hands in real life, too! 

Let’s get started! 

Things you’ll need 

• Large zip lock bag
• Markers
• Glue stick
• Construction paper
• Nail polish remover
• Cotton ball
• Small pompoms
• Clear hair gel, bodywash, hand soap, or shampoo
• Transparent tape

Steps

A grownup can carefully remove the label from the zip lock bag with nail polish remover applied to a cotton ball. 

Trace one or two hands onto some construction paper and cut them out! 

Trim a second sheet of construction paper to the size of your zip lock bag. This will become the backdrop, so choose a color you love. We chose blue to resemble water. 

Use your glue stick to glue the hand, or hands, onto the trimmed background sheet of construction paper. You can draw some bubbles, hand jewellery, fingernails, and any other details you can think of using some markers. 

Next, layer the construction paper on top of the zip lock bag. Fold and tape the edges of the bag around the edges of the paper, leaving the bag zipped open.

Add small pom poms to the bag. Carefully squeeze enough gel product into the bag to cover the size of the paper backing. We used approximately half a cup.  

Seal the bag. Fold the sealed side over the edge of the paper and secure it with more tape. 

Now it’s time to play! Push all of those pom poms away, and practice washing your hands at the sink before and after you play with the sensory bag. Great job! 

TIP: If sharp fingernails are playing with this sensory bag, cover it with some clear packing tape for extra durability. 👍

Play the song First We Wash Our Hands in the background as you play with this fun DIY activity. Scrub a dub dub dub! Find more Super Simple songs, videos, and activities about staying clean here.

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Try these ideas in the classroom or at home!

• This is a great song to get up and moving! You can have everyone stand in a line and take turns being the leader, or have everyone walk around in a circle.
• If you have your students move around the room in a line, let your students take turns being the leader and coming up with new ways to move. You can even include other movements, like tiptoe or hop – whatever they can think of!
• If you have a very large group, have your students make a circle, and do the actions on the spot, but have them take the three steps forward into the circle, and the three steps back out to where they started.
• Place pictures of different forest animals around the room, partially hidden, and walk as a group around the room chanting or singing, walking in the forest, walking in the forest, walking in the forest, walking in the forest. Then say stop! What’s that? And point to one of the animal cards. Name the animal together as a group. If the animal makes a sound, try making the sound together as a group, too.
• Walking in the Forest is a great song to introduce the words forwards and back, and to practice moving in different directions, too. Before you sing the song, practice taking three steps forward and three steps back together. You can also pair this with the Super Simple Song Seven Steps for more forward and back movement.
• This is a great song for an outdoor theme. Encourage your students to look and listen when they go for a walk outside to see what they can see and hear. If you have a spot to go for a walk together, you can go as a group and see what you can find!
• This is also a great song for reviewing different senses. In this song we focus on looking with our eyes, listening with our ears, and smelling with our nose. Talk about these senses and others with your students. Another great song about the five senses is With My Heart.

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• This is a great song to introduce and explore the five senses with little ones. After singing the song, bring out some sensory props for your students to interact with, things that make a noise, that feel interesting, that have a certain smell, and a few things they can taste so they can actively explore the five senses. Talk about the different senses they are experiencing as they interact with the items!
• This is also a wonderful song to celebrate love and the bond between parent and child. The music is soothing, so it’s a great song to sing before bed or for some quiet time.
• This is also a great song to sing as a celebration for parents or a school concert performance.
• This song is a nice way to introduce or review the body part vocabulary of ears, eyes, mouth, nose, hands and heart. Encourage students to follow along with the gestures and point to each body part as they sing.
• Once your students are familiar with the song, try speaking the words without the music and pause before the end of each line to let your students complete the sentence. This is great practice to test their understanding of the vocabulary. I can hear with my… ears! If they are having trouble, try doing the gesture and pointing as you speak.
• For older students who are writing, give each student a piece of paper and have them draw a body, being sure to include the ears, eyes, mouth, nose, hands and heart. Have them label each body part from the song. With younger students, you can draw a big body or face on the board and label the body parts as a group. Then play the song and point to the drawing as you sing.

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