Six Sensory Play Ideas with Halloween Spirit

Sensory play and experiences are extremely important to a young child’s ever-growing mind and body. The development of fine motor skills, coordination, and balance depends on interactions with the world on an intimate level, allowing children to use all of their senses to explore and understand the environment around them. These are six of our favorite sensory play activities that are full of Halloween spirit and will get your kids moving, touching, playing and learning this season:Paper Pumpkin Swirl- On a paper plate, pour a puddle of white glue and add 2 or 3 drops of red and yellow food coloring. Let your child swirl the colors into the white glue. Let them keep mixing and swirling until the glue and the plate is a nice orange color (you may have to keep adding small bits of either color.) After drying (1-2 days) have them decorate like a jack-o-lantern with markers or cut-outs for a paper pumpkin!Mini Pumpkin Patch- Make an area outside with a little dirt, hay and grass to set a scene full of varying textures that your kiddos can play around in. Add small pumpkin in different sizes and textures (ceramic, real, paper, etc.) and they will marvel at the differences in feel and consistency of the different elements.  Add tractors and farm animal figures for a full sensory farm!Sensory Squishy Bag- Put some clear hair gel into a clear plastic bag, then add green food coloring and lots of googley eyes. This will make a sensory bag that even babies can use and squeeze to practice their fine motor skills, while seeing and feeling the googley eyes through the squishy hair gel also. Another easy alternative is to put the guts of a carved pumpkin into the plastic bag and let kiddos check out the insides through squishing and manipulating the bag.Witches Brew- Let your children make witches brew by adding things of different textures or consistencies to the pot. Have them stir the brew with spoons and ladles. This can be turned into a cooking activity (if you restrict the ingredients to things that will be edible together) or can be a fun opportunity to mix a bunch of random things so that will look spooky, but is for eyes only!Eye-Spy Sensory Bottle – Perfect for play on the go. Take an empty plastic bottle with the cap off, and give it to your child along with some Halloween confetti pieces, googley eyes, creepy crawlies, glitter etc. Let them put all the little pieces they want into their bottle, which is great fine motor skills practice, and then help them to add water and orange or green food coloring. Add clear glue and corn syrup if you want the liquid to move a little more slowly and mysteriously. Hot glue the lid onto the full bottle before giving to the child to play with. They will carry it, shake it, play with it, and always find something new when looking inside it.The Spooky Search - Fill a sensory bin with water and food coloring, adding different objects to the bin that will sit on the bottom or float on the top for the kids to reach in and grab for. Next, add several glow sticks to the bin and turn the lights down low to let kids explore their sense of feel in a different, spooky way. Add pumpkin spice to the water to stimulate the smell senses as well.Stimulate your child’s senses every chance you get, and don’t be afraid to get a little messy with them as you do it! Every sensory experience counts.