What are some sensory experiences for toddlers based on spring?

Question

I can't tihnk of any sensory experiences, or any experiences at all for toddlers based on spring. I don't know what I could do/make.

Answer 1

fingerpainting outside (mix sand in the paint for an extra sensory experience)

listen to spring sounds

create a spring thunderstorm with musical instruments

dance/move to nature cds

walk barefoot in the mud or grass

blow bubbles/catch them

make windsocks and watch them blow

use scarves and take them outside, move around twirling, dancing, etc.

water play, sand play, rice play

Answer 2

Spring is the time of birth/re-birth.  Baby washing at a "water-play" table.  This is one of my favorite sensory activities.( use baby dolls)  I promise that even you will want to wash a baby!!!!  I use this for transition after nap "everyday!" You could also just have a water table with cups, bowls and things that float/sink.  I love water play!!!!

Answer 3

idk

Answer 4

SENSORY

Hearing

-Listen to bird/wildlife sound recordings durring nap time

-Go on a nature walk and listen to bird songs

-Sing songs about Springtime. (Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Bluebird Bluebird Through My Window, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mr. Sun, that silly song about popcorn ppopping on your apple tree, etc)

-Make rain sticks out of paper towel tubes and listen to the sound they make. Compare it to real rain.

Sight

-Color pictures of easer eggs, flowers, bunnies, birds, etc.

-Try the painting activity where you help the children paint half a butterfly on a piece of paper, then fold it in half while the paint is wet to make a whole butterfly.

-Read the book about the very hungry catterpillar.

-Color pictures of rainbows and maybe talk about mixing colors. You can demonstrate this with water and food coloring, or finger paints.

-Go on a scavenger hunt. Take the kids outside and have/help them search for one spring-related thing for each color of the rainbow. (Red bird, orange fruit, yellow sun, green leaves, blue water/sky, purple flowers, etc)

Touch

-Play in a water or sand table

-Dig holes in potting soil and plant a garden.

-stick felt cut-outs of flowers (you can use sand paper, glossy paper, or other fabrics as well) on colored paper to make your own paper garden.

-finger paint with spring colors.

-Play with shaving cream (not spring related, but a very popular toddler activity. Great way to get the tables clean after a messy activity)

-Touch and handle different kinds of spring related things...interesting feeling plants and flowers, birds feathers, etc.

-Blow out eggs (if the little ones can't blow hard enough for this, blow out a few yourself and bring them in) and have the kids stick squares of colored tissue paper on the egg shell. This makes a very pretty spring decoration, especially if the tissue overlaps, and it's a good messy time activity.

Taste

-Make a number of spring time snacks.

-Try baby veggies like baby carrots and chopped up celery sticks. Eat with peanut butter, cream cheese, or something else the kids will enjoy trying.

-Make Ants on a Log with cellary, peanut butter, and cream cheese.

-read Green Eggs and Ham and then let the children snack on scrambled green eggs (food coloring) and a little piece of ham.

-Talk or read about bees making honey, then try a little honey on crackers.

-make bunny faces out of various foods. be creative. All you need is a nose, eyes, a mouth, ears, and whiskers.

-Talk about worms and how they help flowers, then for a not-so-healthy activity, make dirt cups with a crushed cookie and a gummy worm or gummy bug for each child.

Smell

-Flowers is the obvious one. Go on a nature walk and (assuming you've made sure no one has alergies) smell different kinds of flowers.

-Get scratch and sniff books about spring.

-Bring in herbs (still growing in the pots) for the children to smell. They sell these in most grocery stores.

OTHER SPRING ACTIVITIES

-Color easter-egg/birds egg cut-outs with crayons.

-Make bunny ears by cutting a strip of paper long enough to fit around the top of a child's head and letting them glue cut-out ears onto it.

-Go on an egg hunt

-Weave baskets. Take a bunch of those little green baskets that strawberries come in and have the children weave strips of colored paper in and out of the holes. Decorate the insides with easter grass and send home with the above listed blown egg decoration inside for mom or dad.

-Make bottle bunnies. Take a soda bottle (any size, but smaller is better for little kids) and let the kids cover it with cotton balls (using glue). Then help them glue squiggly eyes and felt or paper bunny ears to the top.

-Make bird feeders out of pinecones. Tie a string to the top of a pine cone, cover it with peanut butter, then roll it in bird seed, nuts, or raisins. Hang from trees outside and let the kids watch from the window to see if birds come.

-Make paper butterflies by folding a piece of constructing paper in half and cutting out a letter B at the fold. Let the kids decorate the wings and then attach squiggly pipe cleaners for fealers.

-Go on a picnic, indoors or out.

-Get one of those kits for hatching baby chicks. You'll get the eggs and the incubator and some food, and the kids will get to experience the miracle of life.

-Do the above activity with tadpoles and an aquarium instead, or with a butterfly tent outside.

-Color easter eggs for real.

-Take the kids out on windy days to fly a kite

-Make wind socks by rolling a piece of poster board or construction paper into a thick tube (after the children decorate it) and attaching streamers or ribbons to the bottom. Hang in windows or send home with children.

-Do the popular preschool activity where you fill a babyfood jar with moise tissues and wedge a few beans between the tissue and the side of the jar. The beans will take in water and start to grow a little, and the kids can see how seeds start making roots.

-Show the kids what happens when you put a stalk of cellary in colored water.

There's a lot you can do. just be creative.

Answer 5

Mud--dirt and water

Smelling flowers

Listening to the wind blow

This is what I do every spring.  I get some plastic milk jugs(I cut them so that the handle is still there and it's kind of like a pouch)

I have the kids put dirt in the jugs,  then seeds and then cover the seeds with dirt and then water the seeds.

Answer 6

Water, dirt, grass, nature walk to listen to the signs of spring (birds) and smell the spring air. Mix dirt, water, string, twigs etc to make your own bird nest.

Answer 7

take the kids out for a spring walk show them the signs of spring such as birds grass flowers...teach  them about the rainbow wich is a sing of spring.

Answer 8

Well the sand in the sand box is a sensory experiece. So is grass, flowers, water, bugs, other plants, tree bark, leaves, etc.  All of things that are outside can be brought inside for the children to feel, smell, etc. Or you can bring the children outside to explore them and they would probably really like it.  You can pick flowers and let them paint with the flowers.  They can make leaf prints with paint.  You can add sand to paint or make a paste from it.  Bark is really cool, but you probably do not want to go ripping bark off a tree.  You could probably put some non-toxic paint on bark and make bark prints.  I have done lawn prints by putting paint on the grass and putting paper over it.  Good luck and have fun.

Answer 9

walking barefoot in grass.

Playing in easter grass.

digging in the dirt.

any water activity.

Playing in bird seed.

Chalk on the driveway.