Sensory bags are a great way for little ones to explore. They can be made with anything inside, and are a great way to encourage tactile exploration. Work on developing hand and finger strength, finger isolation, eye-hand coordination, and bi-manual coordination. In addition, it offers a great therapeutic/calming effect for some children and can be a sensory activity just for the sake of sensory.
Today we decided to make Molly some Halloween themed Sensory bags. I had seen the beaut Claire Russel from Play Hooray on Instagram do one of her live videos, and it was on quick and easy sensory bags! Molly had so much fun playing with these and we loved that there was no mess to clean up after and super easy to make!
You will need:
- A4 laminate Pouches ( you could use A3 if you really wanted )
- Hair straightner
- Food colouring/paint to colour the water
- Glitter, sequins and other things to put in the bags
The first thing you want to do, is use the hair straightners to seal every side of the laminate pouch, remember to leave yourself a opening in the top so you can add your water and fun items!
You then want to fill your little bag with water, the amount is all preference. I like to fill it just above half way.
Add your colouring, glitter and fun items! In one bag I added green food colouring and squishy ghosts. In another I added yellow food colouring, glitter and sequins as well as some small plastic spiders! The last one I added some orange paint and a little bit of everything else!
Once everything is put into the bag, carefully seal the pouch a little more, leaving the smallest hole in the corner. You then want to squeeze the air out the bag and seal.
Bish bash bosh. You are done! You can secure to your child’s highchair if you like, but there’s no need. These survived being thrown onto the floor multiple times. Molly really enjoyed poking the bits inside around. I think her favorite was the one with the spiders in. Purly because they were hard so she pushed them from one side of the bag to the other, as well as picking it up, shaking it and watch all the glitter swirl around.
There are a million different variations of things that you can put into sensory bags. You can use hair gel, shaving foam, bead, googly eyes, small toys, you name it! You can’t go wrong with these bags, you crazy and be creative!
