Despite the 90 degree weather hanging around, we are ready for fall at my house! So to get in the spirit of our favorite season, we invited some friends over and had a fall themed sensory morning.
Sensory bins are always a hit at my house, (probably because I don’t do them very often!) and because I shy away from messes and activities that take a ton of prep work.
I’ve found a few options that are quick to put together and what I THOUGHT would be mess-free. (More on that later)
So let’s get to it!
Our first activity was excavating an ice block that had fall colored items stuck inside.
This sensory activity required a tad bit of thinking ahead, as I froze a large container of water with trinkets to extract. Then we plopped it out on the patio and let the kids unearth the treasures with shovels, and hammers.
Leaf rubbings were next up during our sensory morning. Remember that ice block they excavated? We dried off those faux leaves that were frozen in there and used them for leaf rubbings. (Recycling at it’s finest)
We also took a nature walk around the neighborhood earlier that day to collect different types of leaves to use for this activity. Bonus! It’s a good way to use up those random crayons that are missing wrappers.
**MESS ALERT!!**
This cinnamon scented moon sand was of course the kid’s favorite sensory experience of the day, probably because it was the messiest!
Making the moon sand is easy, the clean up requires vacuuming unless you have very neat and tidy children. The kids loved using their kid-sized kitchenware to make pies, cakes and whatever else their little imaginations came up with.
Mix 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil, then sprinkle cinnamon for scent and color. It will have the consistency of loose play doh.
Remember that nature walk where we collected leaves? We originally went to pick up acorns to fill a sensory bin, thinking we could use trucks and scoops as we chatted about the size, shape, and different parts of the acorn. STEM, right? Well, it turns out collecting acorns is not only time consuming and dirty, but it’s awkward to stand in your neighbor’s yard collecting these during daylight hours.
So we filled the small part of our repurposed water table with acorns and the larger side with beans, until a very ornery three year old decided to mix the acorns with the beans. Whatever, dude.
Our final sensory activity of the day was making pumpkin play doh…which turned out more like pumpkin slime. (Might need to tweak the recipe?)
It’s super simple to make! Take one 15 oz can of pumpkin, and mix it with two cups of corn starch. We added pumpkin spice seasoning to the dough to make it smell yummy. (And yummy it apparently was, as our dogs were very interested and took a bite when we weren’t looking. OOPS! At least it’s all natural??)
The kids loved squishing it, smelling it and shaping it into all sorts of creations. It was a total hit.
Does your family have any fall sensory activities they love? Leave them in the comments below!
