Sensory play is so important for kids. This type of play engages the senses and encourages kids to explore the objects and world around them. We've put together some of our most popular Sensory Play Recipes that are great for kids of all ages. You'll find sensory play ideas for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, but this type of play is beneficial for older kids, too.
By engaging in sensory play, kids learn about their five senses, begin forming their fine motor skills, learn how to solve problems, use their imaginations, learn through play, and so much more. In fact, you can read more about it in our post on the Importance of Sensory Play.
Ready to get started with a fun and engaging activity right now? Take a look at the ideas below; you're sure to find one your kids will love! You might also like to browse through our list of messy play ideas.
Sensory Play Recipes for All Ages
Cloud Dough
Our Cloud Dough recipe is a light, soft dough made with only two (2) everyday ingredients. Kids love playing with it! It smells great, is easy to shape, cut with cookie cutters, and add accessories to. It was especially fun with a cloud-shaped cookie cutter and lots of sparkly glitter. It'll keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight container.
You'll also love our Gingerbread Cloud Dough when Christmastime is here!
Moon Dough
Your future astronaut will love playing with this Moon Dough. It's great for toy astronauts, rockets, spaceships, and other space-related toys. You only need two simple ingredients to make this recipe, and you probably have them in your cupboard right now! That means the kids can be ready to play in mere minutes.
Rainbow Rice
Use our Rainbow Rice recipe to make some colored rice for the kids to play with. It's super easy to make, and the bright colors make the rice really inviting and engaging for sensory play. Add the rainbow rice to a sensory bin, a Rainbow Rice Sensory Writing Tray, or make art with it as we did here in our Coloured Rice Rangoli Patterns.
Rainbow Spaghetti
Learn how to dye spaghetti to make this amazingly fun Rainbow Spaghetti using food coloring and a zipper bag. Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers love playing with the stringy, squishy, colorful noodles, and since it's made with edible ingredients, you don't need to worry if they sneak a bite.
Rainbow Salt
Now it's time to make some Rainbow Salt! Have you caught on that we love rainbow-themed sensory play recipes yet? Teach your kids about the primary colors and then combine them to make secondary colors. Add it to a jar to make a beautiful display, use the colored salt in a writing tray or use it in your arts and crafts.
Dyed Pumpkin Seeds
When autumn comes around, you have to make our Dyed Pumpkin Seeds. They're so easy to make using food coloring, vinegar, and plastic baggies. Once your seeds are dry, use them for lots of fun activities like color sorting, counting, sensory bins, mosaics, practicing patterns, and more.
Soap Foam
How much fun will your kids have with a big bin of Soap Foam? Whip up a batch in no time using water and dish soap. Add food coloring to turn it any color you'd like. It's soft, squishy, light, fluffy, and so much fun to play with. Toddlers, preschoolers, and big kids will enjoy playing with the stuff, and you can set it up indoors or outside.
Sand Foam
Add our Sand Foam to a bin with construction toys, and your kids will play for hours! It's the perfect color and consistency to push around with toy bulldozers, dump trucks, excavators, and more. If you don't have sand locally, you can buy it online or in craft stores.
Oobleck Sensory Play
Use our super-simple recipe for Oobleck to set up a small world winter scene for the kids with toy penguins, polar bears, or any other toys you'd like to use. Since it's made with only cornstarch and water, you probably have everything you need for this activity right now.
Frozen Oobleck
Our simple Oobleck recipe is even more fun when you turn it into Frozen Oobleck. This allows older kids to study how it changes from solid to liquid as it heats up in their hands, but littles love playing with it, too. If you make your frozen Oobleck in different colors, you can also explore color mixing. While Oobleck is quite messy, kids need that sort of messy play to work on coordination, fine motor skills, problem-solving, and so much more.
Fake Snow
We have two different recipes for fake snow, and we recommend that you try them both to see which one your kids like best. Our first Easy Homemade Fake Snow Recipe is made with baking soda and water and looks more like real snow since it's really white. The texture is also a little easier to squeeze together to make snowballs and snowmen.
Our Homemade Snow Sensory Play Recipe is made with flour and oil. It's great for adding to sensory bins, but the texture is a little more soft and crumbly. It may not hold together as well as the baking soda fake snow, but it is more pourable and scoopable for kids who enjoy doing that.
Edible Paint
Babies can get in on the sensory fun, too. Our Edible Paint for Babies is totally safe. It's made with natural yogurt and food coloring, so they can use a paintbrush or just their fingers, and you'll be worry-free if they taste it.
Slime Recipes
Playing with slime is an excellent form of sensory play for kids. It's fun, tactile, helps kids calm down and focus, and promotes fine motor skills. Read more about the Benefits of Making Slime with Kids.
Of course, we have loads of fun slime recipes to enjoy throughout the year. Some are seasonal or holiday focused, while others are good for all year round!
Edible Marshmallow Slime - Perfect for toddlers who still put things in their mouths.
Rainbow Slime - Another fun rainbow-themed sensory play activity.
Edible Shark Slime - Great for Shark Week, and it's made with pudding mix! Can you believe it?
Colour Changing Slime - Head outdoors to watch this slime change from one color to another in the sunlight!
Sparkly Silver Slime - Terrific slime recipe for New Year's but can be used anytime during the year.
Valentine's Day Slime - A glitzy, sparkly slime filled with tiny red and pink hearts.
Shamrock Slime - Channel the luck of the Irish with sparkly shamrock-and-sequin-filled slime.
Mardi Gras Contact Solution Slime - Colourful, sparkly slime that's perfect for Mardi Gras but appropriate for all year long minus the baby. Wouldn't this also be fun at a baby shower?
Fall Slime Recipe - Stretchy slime scented with harvest spice fragrance oil and full of fall-colored rhinestones.
Pumpkin Slime with Contact Solution - Another great idea for using some of your dyed pumpkin seeds.
Vampire Blood Slime - Spooky and fun slime recipe for Halloween!
Pumpkin Glow-in-the-Dark Slime in a Jar - This would make a terrific Halloween party favor.
Candy Corn Slime - Orange, yellow, and white slime twisted together in a fun candy corn color combination.
Playdough Recipes
Of course, you can't have a list of sensory play recipes without some playdough! We have lots of amazing homemade playdough recipes to try. Check them out below! You can also find them and many others in our list of 27+ Homemade Playdough Recipes.
Edible Cake Mix Playdough - A fun recipe made using cake mix and other safe, edible ingredients. It looks like confetti cake!
Rainbow Playdough - Small batches of colored playdough rolled together to make a rainbow ball.
Kool-Aid Playdough - You won't believe the bright, vivid colors and the amazing smell of this playdough recipe.
Glow in the Dark Playdough - What's more fun than playdough? A recipe that glows in the dark! This recipe does not require a blacklight to work.
Apple Scented Playdough - A fun recipe any time of year, but especially in the fall when apples are in peak season and kids are going back to school.
Valentine Peeps Playdough - A clever way to use some of those Peeps you get through the winter and spring holidays.
Strawberry Scented Playdough - This pink, glittery playdough recipe is scented with strawberry flavoring and vanilla extract to make it smell super yummy as you squish, stretch, and play with it.
Chocolate Playdough Recipe - Kids can make their own pretend play box of chocolates using this recipe and various types of sprinkles and candies to embellish the pieces with.
No-Cook Autumn Playdough - It's soft, easy to shape, and scented with nutmeg to smell like fall.
Black Playdough Recipe - Great recipe for making black bats, cats, and other spooky things for Halloween.
Edible Christmas Playdough - Another wonderful Peeps-based playdough recipe to make the holidays a little more festive.
Christmas Grinch Playdough Recipe - A soft, green playdough recipe that's perfect for making Grinch-like faces.
Gingerbread Playdough - Feel like you're home for the holidays with this soft playdough that smells incredible thanks to the ground ginger and cinnamon.
There you have some of our favorite sensory play recipes that we've shared on the blog over the years. Which one is your favorite?
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