Try this fun finger gym idea using unit blocks and marbles to help your children develop their fine motor skills.
Try this fun finger gym idea using unit blocks and marbles to help your children develop their fine motor skills.
Create a fun construction site invitation to play for preschoolers, kindergarteners and even bigger kids. Adding construction site vehicles to oobleck makes an amazing sensory and pretend play activity for any truck fan.
Add creativity and literacy to your construction corner with these printable building challenge cards. Perfect building prompts for play dough, blocks, clay and loose parts.
How to make a paper lantern, using a simple willow frame.
Sandcastle messy play with a homemade cloud dough recipe is perfect for summer days when you can’t get to the real beach – or when you want a relaxing sensory playtime in the shade of your own home.
Here’s the recipe:
Click to play on the video above to see our sensory tub masterclass. You’ll learn how to make a sensory tub for your children using simple materials, the benefits of sensory tubs for children, and how to use a sensory tub to teach children about math, literacy, science and fine motor skills.
You’ll also see lots of ideas for sensory tub fillings plus find out how to get great printables to add to your tubs. Subscribe to NurtureStore’s YouTube channel to get more sensory play videos!
Cloud dough is one of the recipes in my e-book The Homemade Play Dough Recipe Book.
It’s very easy to make and a totally different sensory experience to traditional play dough.
To make it, you will need:
4 cups of flour
1 cup of oil (we most often use baby oil, to get a lovely fragrance)
glitter is optional, but we like some extra sparkle!
All you need to do is combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix…
until it combines and gives you a texture that looks like you’re about to make pastry.
But… give the cloud dough a squish with your hand and you’ll see how it comes together and holds its shape! So cool!
My girls find it irresistible. It’s such a touchy-feely material to play with.
Be aware that this is messy play (that’s half the fun , isn’t it) – although I find the clean up afterwards is quick and easy.
I wouldn’t try it in a room with a carpet, but it sweeps up fine from my kitchen floor.
The squishing is so much fun and as the dough holds its shape it’s perfect for making sandcastles.
I set out some scoops and bowls in different sizes and we had our own homemade mini beach!
The girls made some flags for their sandcastles {from toothpicks and tissue paper} to go on top. You can add little people and a little square of fabric and set up a picnic day out on the beach.
This easy kids fort for the backyard is a super space for kids to play in. It’s really easy and inexpensive to make, and is such a fun base for playing, relaxing and reading. Here’s how to make it, along with some extra ideas to fill it full of play and learning.