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Aprons, Blog, Messy Play & Sensory Play
7 Indoor Sensory Play Activities for Toddlers
Jul
Indoor sensory play activities for toddlers can be messy, or not. While the thought of messy play indoors gets some parents worried, others hardly blink an eye. Even though you can use protective craft aprons and fitted tablecloths to keep things clean, the thought of extra mess to clean up can be daunting. So, we’ve put together a list of seven fabulous messy and clean indoor sensory play activities for toddlers!
Keeping Busy with Indoor Sensory Play Activities for Toddlers
Sensory activities challenge our toddlers. They provide them with experiences which are outside of their normal daily activities. They’re also more likely to contain ‘ ingredients’ which our kids don’t get to use very often. By providing sensory play experiences, you can help develop your child’s understanding of the senses of touch, taste, smell and sound.
Seven great clean and messy sensory play activities to try are:
- Slimy Spaghetti – cook and then cool a batch of spaghetti. Divide it into two bowls and using food colouring, dye each one a different colour. Combine and let your toddler’s fingers get exploring! We’ve got a great recipe for Rainbow Spaghetti you can check out too.
- Frozen Objects – fill an empty ice cream container with water and place a plastic toy or toys inside. Put in the freezer until frozen and then pop it into the sink or a big bucket. Find all their plastic tools and let them begin excavating their frozen treasure!
- Instant Pudding – if you have a toddler who eats everything, swap shaving foam for instant pudding on a baking tray or in a container. They can explore the peaks and patterns they can make with their fingers and if they eat a bit, it’s ok.
- Edible Mud – here’s a great one for a rainy day. It’s easy to make and perfect for toddlers!
- Rainbow Rice – for each colour place 2 cups of rice into a zip lock bag. Add 5 pumps of hand sanitiser and 2-3 drops of food coloring. Zip the bag shut and shake the bag to coat the rice. Spread the rice out on newspaper to dry (approximately 25 minutes). Put the rice into separate containers or mix together in one big container and let your toddler explore!
- Water Balloon Play – grab a small container and fill with balloons filled with small amounts of water. It’s best to use regular balloons as water balloons will pop easily. This activity is a great way to encourage your toddlers to squeeze their hands and pick up wobbly objects. Perfect for developing their gross motor skills!
- Sensory Soup – take a trip out to the garden and collect some treasures including flowers, pebbles, grass and leaves. Fill the sink up with water, add the treasures and enjoy stirring, scooping and pouring the soup into different containers.
What are your favourite indoor sensory play activities for toddlers? Let us know below so we can all get some extra inspiration!
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Great resource Alana! I think I’ll try the slimy spaghetti tomorrow
Fantastic idea…with all the tv and computer stuff kids do these days it’s great to see “back to basics” activities for toddlers!! 🙂
such brilliant ideas! definitely going to prepare a few of these for after daycare today <3
Thanks Kate. Let us know how you get on. Enjoy!
I love all these ideas – particularly the edible ones!
Thanks Andrea. Yep, the instant pudding was a hit with my 2!