The Five Senses- Touch Activity and Journal Activity

On Pinterest, I saw (possibly pinned?) filling balloons with play dough as an alternative (and less messy) sensory activity. They reminded me of those original stress balls that were filled with a similar type substance. I loved them when I was a kid! So, I thought it would be cool to try to make balloons filled with various substances to continue working on the sense of touch and discussion of texture.

I really should have taken pictures of me trying to fill these balloons because it didn't go so smoothly. I used a funnel, a turkey baster, and my brute strength to get the balloons filled. There are balloons filled with play dough, sand, candy hearts, air with a few pieces of rice, and water.

When I brought out the balloons, E was immediately intrigued. Balloons, I had prewritten the journal fill ins to guide our play and discussions. The sentences say, "The _____ balloon feels _____ like there might be _____ inside." We spent a lot of time (probably like 15 minutes) feeling the weight, texture, bounciness, and even smell of these! I did get E to give answers to fill in each blank.
We were then getting ready to go to bath time, so I thought it would be fun to add on another element by asking about what ones she thought would sink or float. We made predictions in the journal, as well. She loved playing with them in the bath as much or more as she loved playing with them on the table! So, I guess the struggles I had with filling the balloons was well worth the outcome of having fun and learning with this activity!

Fun with Colored Ice Cubes in the Bath!

Every child loves colors. I'm not really sure how E learned her colors, but it seemed like one day, she was just able to identify them. Now, I want her to understand how to manipulate colors, learn about primary colors and mixing those colors, and, of course, having fun with those colors.

We started this activity by putting water in clear cups, and adding the primary food colors to each cup. We then worked together to mix the primary colors to make the secondary colors. Our green color didn't turn out great, but E loved seeing the transformation of the two colors into something new.

We then put the colored water into ice cube trays to freeze for the next activity. I tried to use the words "liquid," "solid," and "freeze" in this step.

The next day, we pulled one of each color of ice cube out of the tray to put back into the clear cups. We then took them to the bathtub to let the real fun begin!

In the bathtub, we focused on the ideas of "melting" and "liquid" once again as E played with the ice cubes. She loved chasing them around the bath until they disappeared completely. She also loved the sensory aspect of putting the ice cubes on her toes and feeling the hot and cold simultaneously.

Those curious eyes say it all! What a fun exploration of color, matter transformation, and the senses! And, the best news is that we still have more cubes in the freezer for the next bath!