6 No-Mess (Really!) Sensory Activities for Little Kids

If you’re well-versed in the benefits of sensory play for kids, you’ve likely got a mental picture in your head of what it looks like: sticky hands, muddy feet, stained fingers. After all – isn’t sensory play just educational shorthand for making a massive mess?

Not at all.

Despite what your Insta feeds show, sensory play needn’t include the usual culprits like paint, mud, glue, or clay. You don’t even need a water table! Take it from Winnie Dunn, PhD and fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association: “Sensory experiences are [already] imbedded within daily life routines… the focus remains on the children’s life activities, and the sensory processing knowledge is a tool for constructing effective strategies within those life routines.”

Not only is sensory play already happening within your daily routine, but it goes far beyond our limited definition of textures and touch. Think: dance parties in the kitchen, watching the snow fall outside your window, hearing a babbling brook on a forest hike. It’s an all-engaging, multi-faceted type of play that’s both outcome-free and in-the-moment irresistible.

Ready for a few mess-free ideas to spark sensory play in your own home? We’ve rounded up 6 fan-favorites (with book recommendations for each!) — no sensory bin necessary.

 

1. Build an igloo.

Give your child a baking sheet and a bowl of ice. Using tongs (or gloved hands!), encourage him/her to build a tower or structure with the cubes before they melt!

Perfect for: Logic, STEAM Skills, Spatial Reasoning, Discovery, Problem-Solving, Sensory Awareness

Ice is a perfect sensory material to strengthen motor skills in an open-ended manner. Because of the ice’s changing nature, your child will receive both observation and experimentation – a winning STEAM formula for fun!

Challenge: What might make the ice cubes stick together better to create taller structures? (Hint: Experiment with salt!)

Did You Know? The 10-minute classic short film “How to Build an Igloo” from 1949 shows how to make an igloo with only snow and a knife! Watch with your child here.

Related Read-Aloud: Ice Boy, by David Ezra Stein

 

2. Fly a Kite

Introduce the simple pleasure of kite-flying to your child by taking the family kite out to an open field or nearby park. Or, add a creativity lesson and let your child make his/her own here!

Perfect for: Relationships, Nature, Family Connection, Open-Ended Play

All bonding and laughter aside, kite-flying has been proven to stimulate areas of the brain involved in memory, learning, and emotion. While incorporating sunshine, fresh air, and the sensory experience of a cloudless afternoon outdoors, your child will gain pride, joy, and independence as he/she harnesses the wind – a beautiful memory they’ll keep forever.

Challenge: Can your child describe what makes a kite fly? Together, discuss a few key concepts like wind pressure, force, gravity, tension, and angles.

 

3. Make nature bracelets.

Before your next hike or nature-rich outing with your child, secure a strip of masking tape around his/her wrist, sticky-side out. As you walk, encourage him/her to gather fallen nature from the ground – leaves, flower petals, etc. – and stick them to his/her “bracelet” for later studying and treasuring!

Perfect for: Outdoors, Exploration, Nature, Sensory Awareness

Research shows that children who experience nature firsthand take greater responsibility over the caring of our environment. By allowing your child to “wear” our world’s splendor, you’re giving him/her an interactive leap toward sustainability in his/her future years. Bonus? For kids who can’t help but love collecting loads of nature treasures, the “bracelet” provides a simple, creative boundary to ensure a child takes only his/her share!

Challenge: Introduce your child to tarsal segments – the part of an insect’s leg that contains special adhesive pads, similar to masking tape! These sticky pads (known as arolia or pulvilli) have hairs that secrete an oily substance and cause the tips of each hair to adhere to any surface. This is how flies can “climb” glass windows, or bees can “walk” up a slippery green leaf!

 

4. Make a foil sculpture.

Offer your child a square of aluminum foil for sculpting. Resist the temptation to create an “end goal” for your child‘s sculpture. Whether he/she shapes a lion, a tin man hat, a knight’s sword, or simply crumples his/her foil into a ball, offer him/her the gift of open-ended play without expectation.

Once finished, talk with your child about the many uses of aluminum: staples, pots, even mailboxes! What else?

Perfect for: Creativity, Discovery, Motor Skills, Sensory Awareness

Foil is one of the most multi-sensory materials we have in our homes. By encouraging your child to explore a property of high malleability, he/she is engaging every part of the early learning experience: auditory, kinesthetic, spatial, and sensory!

Challenge: Show your child how sculptor Kiwami Japan makes a kitchen knife out of aluminum foil right here. Talk about why Kiwami chose the processes he did to create the knife (including heat, force, and LOTS of patience!). How or why did this process work? What else could be invented with aluminum? A tin man, perhaps? Record your child‘s insightful answers in your Notebook.

 

5. Make chalk sticks.

Gather small, medium, and large sticks from the yard or nearby woods. Show your child how to “color” the sticks using dry sidewalk chalk. Then, after a few minutes, give him/her a small bowl of water to dip the chalk in so he/she can “color” the sticks using wet sidewalk chalk. When finished, display your creations loud and proud!

Perfect for: Outdoors, Creativity, Sensory Awareness, Motor Skills, Arts

By offering your child an experience that utilizes different mediums (wet vs. dry) on a sensory-enhanced texture (sticks), he/she is gaining a multidisciplinary understanding of compare/contrast. Furthermore, by bringing the outdoors in with a nature-inspired art project, your child can greater strengthen his/her connection to and care for our beautiful planet.

Challenge: Instill a love for gift-giving by encouraging your child to think of someone he/she can make a chalk stick for, using colors that special person might love best.

 

6. Take a 5-sense stroll.

Through your neighborhood, country road, or city sidewalk, take a short stroll with your child. As you go, prompt him/her to consider his/her five senses by directing his/her attention to sights, sounds, etc. Encourage your child to make a mental list of his/her favorite discoveries to share over dinner, e.g., What’s something he/she touched that felt good? Smelled that was pleasing? Heard that was beautiful? Saw that was lovely?

Perfect for: Rhythms, Transitions, Rest, Sensory Awareness

Walking outdoors is one of the few activities for your child that engages many of his/her senses all at once! By exposing him/her to five-sense strolls early and often, he/she is learning that our body’s awareness is integral in how we relate to the world around us. Our senses teach us what to enjoy, what to pay attention to, and even what to avoid! By drawing attention to this built-in “alarm” system, you’re helping him/her learn to trust his/her self in many surroundings – wherever he/she goes.

Challenge: After your child shares his/her sensory findings at the dinner table, share yours, too! Studies show that the more often we talk about the small, lovely things throughout our day, the more practiced we become at noticing and experiencing gratitude our whole life long.

 

 

p.s. Ready for 5 more sensory-forward ideas? Enjoy this month’s ALL-NEW bonus pack with 5 simple (and powerful!) lessons to fuel observation, discovery, and experimentation – a winning STEAM formula for fun!