Simple Winter Sensory Play Ideas For Toddlers

Keeping our children engaged indoors during the cold winter months can be quite tricky. This simple winter sensory play idea would be a perfect idea for your little ones to enjoy!

Start with a set of base materials to use such as spoons, cookie cutters, jars, popsicle sticks, and winter-themed loose parts like gems, snowflake ornaments, pinecones, and pipe cleaners. Then add a sensory material to play with like our 2 favourites which we will feature below: coloured rice and homemade playdough.

What are Loose Parts?

“Loose parts mean alluring, beautiful found objects and materials that children can move, manipulate, control, and change while they play. Children can carry, combine, redesign, line up, take apart, and put loose parts back together in almost endless ways.” (Daly and Beloglovsky, 2015)

I love loose parts because they are captivating, open-ended, and mobile (Daly and Beloglovsky, 2015). There are infinite play possibilities. Children are naturally inclined to play with novel objects in nature and at home like pinecones, sticks, and stones. They can be easily moved around when children play. Loose parts promote values, active learning, critical thinking and creative thinking, and support cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development. (Daly and Beloglovsky, 2015)

These are some examples of what we gathered:

With these simple materials, we can pretty much mix and match any type of sensory play.

How to Make Coloured Rice

Supplies:

• 4 cups of white rice
• 4 tbsps. of vinegar
• a few drops of food colouring
• a Ziploc bag
• parchment paper
• a baking tray

Steps:

1. Pour rice into the Ziploc bag along with the vinegar.
2. Add a few drops of food colouring and mix.
3. Place the wet rice on a lined baking tray to dry.
4. Best to let it dry outdoors since the vinegar smell can be quite strong.

Set up:

Pour the rice in a bin or tray. Arrange it as you please. You can make a pattern, blocks of colours, swirls, or you can simply mix all of them. For this example, I arranged it to form the first letter of my children’s names, “S” and “N” to make it more fun and personal. Also, it helps with sharing 🙂

How to Make Homemade Playdough

Supplies:

• 2 cups of plain flour
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 2 tbsps. cream of tartar
• 2 tbsps. oil
• 1-1.5 cup hot boiling water
• a few drops of food colouring (optional)
• essential oils (optional)

Steps:

1. Mix all ingredients except the water.
2. Add the water in gradually until a moldable dough forms.
3. Add a few drops of food colouring and knead the dough to desired consistency and colour. Remember to use gloves when kneading!
4. Add a 1-2 drops of your favourite essential oil (we used peppermint) to add another dimension to the sensory experience.

Set up:

Place your playdough along with the loose parts on a table. Make an inviting scene for your children to play with instead of just simply plopping everything on the surface. It doesn’t have to be fancy and complicated. A quick and simple set up will do. Have fun with it!

Other sensory base ideas that are simple and and easy to get:

• Water
• Ice Cubes
• Sand
• Snow!
• Dried beans
• Pom pom balls
• Shredded paper
• Fabric scraps
• Pebbles

HAPPY PLAYING! 🙂

Reference:

Daly, L., & Belogvsky, M. (2015). Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children (First ed.). Redleaf Press.

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