Summer Sensory Play

Summers offer lots of opportunities for sensory activities and fun!

Less structure, more daylight, more outside time, more freedom!

Sensory parents know that kids need regular sensory activities and input to help their brains and bodies regulate.

But sometimes it can be hard to keep things fun and exciting!

 

That’s where a Messy Play Kits comes in…Thank you Messy Play Kits for sponsoring this post and giving us sensory parents lots of options for summer time fun!

 

Messy Play Kits come with everything you need for hours of sensory fun and learning! You can purchase kits individually or save money and hassle by opting for the subscription. Then you’ll never be without a great sensory activity!

The first kit we got was the “Under the Sea” Messy Play Kit. One small box, packed with FOUR awesome activities!

Ocean Bath

This activity was one of the coolest sensory bins we’ve ever done! It combined ribbons of “seaweed” with water beads, water, and little sea creature figurines.

It was visually beautiful and a tactile sensory delight!

There’s all sorts of learning going on including scientific awareness of density, color mixing and material properties. Dramatic play is essential “work” for kids to do as well!

Watercolor Corals

This was a fun mix of art and science! The boys used the pipettes full of colored liquid and made designs on the paper (which was high quality and included in the kit.)

Look at that fine motor control and teamwork! Lots of fun color mixing too!

After that, I invited the boys to sprinkle salt on their masterpiece.

There were large chunks and fine grains. After it dried, we marveled at the designs left behind!

Each of my boys had a different technique, so we had a good discussion afterwards about the effects and properties of salt and water.

Moonsand Beach

Live far away from the beach? This is a great way to bring the fun home!

Moonsand is moldable sand that lasts a LONG time! With the included ingredients, moonsand is a snap to make!

Messy Play Kits also includes some seashells for scooping, fine motor skills, and creativity.

The sensory mama in me loves all the extra texture sensations the kids get while running their hands through the moonsand.

Density Experiment

If your kids love science and exploring the world around them, they’re going to love this cool experiment!

Using the provided materials, kids will freeze a bag of water, while leaving the other one a liquid. They’re invited to make a hypothesis about which one will float in a large tub of water.

Water is rather unique in the fact that it is actually less dense as a solid, hence it floats! (Did you know lakes would freeze solid and life as we know it would end if it weren’t for this design??!!)

We also admired and delighted in the tactile experience of the ice when we removed it from the bag.

These Messy Play Kits are perfect for long summer days when you need a sensory solution, but don’t want to run to the store, or get in over your head with some complicated project! Everything you need is included in the kits with easy to follow instructions and color-coded labels.

So even if you’re battling mom brain (tell me I’m not alone), these activities will go off without a hitch!

Simple well labeled instructions.

Well marked bags. (Forgot to get the images BEFORE the activities! Oops!)

 

Another thing I love about Messy Play Kits is that many of the activities can be played with over and over, like the sensory bins!

Gardening Sensory Bin Kit

Messy Play also offers incredible sensory bin boxes like this garden one!

This kit comes with everything you need for a sensory bin, except the bin. There’s plenty of colored rice with all sorts of fun add-ins for a garden themed sensory bin.

There are little seed packets with colored garbanzo beans for planting. Artificial flowers and worms give kiddos plenty of things to do like practicing math skills (volume, counting, color and shape sorting), vocabulary advancement, scientific properties like gravity and plant growth and so much more!

Scooping and pouring are classic toddler activities and there’s plenty of opportunities for that! Fine motor skills are also put to the test. My son loved using the “pinchers” to grab the worms!

I loved that we could use this bin over and over. I was amazed at all the options for imaginative, dramatic play. Messy Play Sensory Bins do not disappoint!