• Home
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Meet Sarah
  • Playful Days
  • Shop Resources
  • Search

How Wee Learn

Out of the box learning ideas, playful art, exploring nature, and simple living - that is How We Learn!

  • Quiet Time
  • Letters and Numbers
  • Art
  • Science
  • Get Outside
  • Shop

Sensory Activities for Toddlers

February 8, 2020 by Adelaide Ventura 1 Comment

Little ones learn with their whole bodies. Sensory activities for toddlers (such as these ones focusing on the sense of touch) are a very important part of that whole-body learning.

Sensory play exposes children to many new experiences, textures, and materials. It is calming for many children and also presents children with new language that they might not otherwise experience: rough, smooth, clumpy, brittle…

Sensory play strengthens little hands and builds fine motor skills too—so let’s get playing!!sensational-sensory-activities-for-toddlers

Just before we dive into these sensory activities, I wanted to share with you my Playful Days Toddler Program. I just know you will love it – because it includes Sensory Activities! With one beautiful activity or craft for your toddler every single day, you can stop searching for toddler activities. Perhaps it is just right for you? Find out here: Playful Days

Playful Days: The Five Senses Theme Photo of Materials

I hope you love it!

Just before we dive into these toddler sensory activities, be sure to grab my Free Rainbow Puzzles and Activity Pack to enjoy with your toddler:

 

Sensory Activities for Toddlers

Exploring the 5 Senses

Exploring the 5 Senses While Playing Outside – A little while ago I decided to explore the 5 senses with my toddlers while playing outside. It was such a fun experience! We explored our senses of touch, sight, hearing, smelling, and even tasting. Your toddlers will love this fun way to explore their five senses. 

Easy Sensory Bin Ideas

Woolly Sheep Sensory Play for Toddler – Cotton balls are a perfect, soft, fluffy, and versatile choice for sensory play.  Little ones will love to squish, pull, and squeeze them then see how they interact with sticky contact paper. After all that sensory play, you might even get a woolly sheep craft to show off!

Sensory Activity for Toddlers - place colourful water beads in a sensory bag with water

Water Bead Sensory Bag by Sugar Aunts – Water beads are an amazing sensory experience for kids as they delight in squishing, sliding, pressing, and moving the beads. Turn them into a sensory bag for those younger children who may still put things in their mouths.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - create a bubble wrap road for cars and trucks to add a sensory experience to imaginative play

Bubble Wrap Road by Sunny Day Family – Add sensory play to the favorite activity of driving toy cars around the house.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Fill a bottle with water, glitter and food coloring to make a calming sensory activity

Rainbow Glitter Jars by Fun-A-Day – These colorful glitter jars will capture your kids’ attention! Use plastic jars or bottles, glue the tops down, and then let the children shake and observe.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Promote simple learning with a sensory table or bin filled with water and papers of various textures.

Easy Paper Sensory Activity by TinkerLab – All you need to create this sensory activity for toddlers is paper and water! Kids will see and feel the paper change as they dunk it in water and explore the concepts of thick/thin, hard/soft, dry/soggy.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Circles of many sizes and textures are placed in a box to promote learning and exploration

Circle Themed Toddler Sensory Play by Lemon Lime Adventures – Make a sensory bin all about shapes—in this case, all about circles. Let the children explore circles and spheres of various textures and sizes.

Messy Activities for Sensory Play

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Use chocolate pudding for mud and get your farm animals messy before washing them in a tub of soapy water for some delicious sensory play

Wash the Muddy Farm Animals by The Imagination Tree – Children can get the farm animals all dirty (with taste-safe “mud”), and then they can go back and wash the animals clean in some bubbly, soapy water.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Learn about warm and cold with colored ice cubes that slip and slide and melt away, using many senses for this activity

Colored Ice Sensory Play by Learn Play Imagine – This colored ice can be put in a pool outside during hot weather, but it would do just as well in a sink, sensory bin, or sensory table inside. Explore the concept of “cold,” melting, and color mixing using this sensory play activity for toddlers.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Sticky contact paper, or shelf liner, is a great for hands-on sensory play. Toss in buttons, paper, beads, pom-poms and materials of many textures to create sensory art on the sticky paper.

Sticky Sensory Art Project by Hands On As We Grow – Kids can create their own sensory art with various materials such as gems, pompoms, tissue paper, beads, sequins, pipe cleaners, buttons—you name it! Even the sticky paper by itself provides a touch and sound sensory activity for toddlers!

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Adding neon food-coloring to yogurt creates edible paint for squishy and creative sensory play

Neon Taste Safe Finger Paints by I Heart Arts ‘N Crafts – Painting with their hands is a great sensory activity for toddlers and older kids, too! Who doesn’t love watching colors mix as you squish, spread, and smear slippery “paint?” These taste-safe paints are perfect for those little ones who still put things in their mouths.

Activities Perfect for a Sensory Table

A gorgeous sensory bin idea for preschoolers! Such beautiful wooden toys for kids with pretend snow too!

Gorgeous Sensory Bins for Preschoolers – I love this wooden sensory box with its tiny details! It’s perfect for nurturing creativity, imagination, and outside-the-box thinking.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - a sensory box great for tactile play using colorful rainbow pasta and soap foam for clouds

Rainbow Pasta Sensory Play by Still Playing School – Invite your toddlers to explore a tactile rainbow bin! They can touch, squish, and manipulate to their hearts’ content.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - create a duck habitat sensory table with wood chips, pebbles and plants for great sensory play

Duck Pond Sensory Play by Fantastic Fun and Learning – Who doesn’t love rubber ducks? Add them to a sensory water table full of pebbles, gems, driftwood, and aquarium plants to make a wonderful sensory activity for toddlers. 

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - make some two ingredient edible sand and toss it in a sensory box with rocks, seashells and scoops for wonderful tactile play

Toddler-Safe Play Sand by Fun-A-Day – Whip up a batch of this “sand” any time of the year for some fabulous hands-on play. Add toddler-safe sand toys to the mix for sensory exploration.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Kids make a herb soup engaging their sense of sight, smell, taste and touch.

Exploring Herbs Outside by Happy Hooligans – Grab some water and some herbs for the kids. They can explore their senses of sight, touch, and smell inside or outside with this activity.

DIY Sensorial Activities for Toddlers

The easiest and BEST DIY Light table tutorial - 10 minutes to make and so inexpensive!

DIY Light Table – Toddlers will discover how objects of different textures and materials can look different when placed in front of a light. This fabulous sensory bin for toddlers is SO easy to make and you might already have everything you need at home!

The easiest way to make Vibrant rainbow rice!

Two-Step Vibrant Rainbow Rice – One of the most common sensory bin fillers is rice. It provides a soothing tactile experience for little fingers as is. Engage your child’s sense of sight by making your rice colourful with this simple, two-step method.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Use texture items from around the house to make a sensory board for baby and toddler

DIY Sensory Boards for Babies and Toddlers by Fun at Home with Kids – Put together sensory boards to engage your toddlers’ interests in exploring their senses.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Use plastic lids from diaper wipes to reveal every day items or many textures for baby and toddler to explore

Peek-A-Boo Sensory Board by Motherhood and Other Adventures – What a fun way to explore textures, especially since young children love to open and close things!

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Make DIY sensory blocks for baby and toddler perfect for tossing into a sensory bag on-the-go

Sensory Blocks by Red Ted Art – Add new textures to the kids’ block building with these sensory blocks. You can use items that you already have on hand to make them, too.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - poke Christmas Lights into a box and engage your child's wonder and sense of sight

Star Box by Where Imagination Grows – Babies and toddlers (and older kids, too!) will have a blast using their sense of sight with this star box. Cover or hide some lights with different materials so little ones can explore light further. Love that it just uses two materials, too!

Sensory Play that Two-Year-Olds Need to Experience

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - there are many ways to play and learn with colorful beads, buttons, pipecleaners and plastic eggs

Rainbow Fine Motor Sensory Bin – A beautiful, colorful, quiet time box that is a feast for the senses with lots of different shapes and sizes to explore! Playing with all these beads, buttons, plastic eggs, and pipe cleaners is a sure way to really work those fine motor skills, too.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - taking items from nature with various textures creates a quick and simple sensory box

A Simple Nature Sensory Bin – You know me, the more immersion into nature, the better! My hope for this bin was that it would be soothing and relaxing with lovely things to smell, see, touch, and hear. It’s also a perfect for a sensory bag that you can take on the go!

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - make a rainstick for sensory play with sticks, a container and rice

DIY Rainstick Musical Sensory Bottle by Rhythms of Play – Toddlers can help put this musical sensory bottle together with rice and sticks. Once it’s assembled, they can explore their sense of hearing by shaking or tilting the bottle quickly or slowly.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - place food coloring, rice, glitter and soap in a jar with water to engage your child's sense of sight and entice curiosity

Soapy Sensory Jars by Hands On As We Grow – Let the little ones explore soapy water without all the mess. These jars are sure to capture your toddler’s attention for quite some time.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Make this DIY sensory idea by adding different textures to cardboard steps for kids to explore with their feet

Sensory Steps by Living Creatively – Let your toddler’s feet do some sensory exploration with these DIY steps. Explore what it means to be hard, soft, bumpy, smooth, squishy, brittle, and more. Some materials might even make noise when kids jump on them or rub their feet. I bet older kids would love using them for funny a game of hopscotch, too!

Sensory Bin Ideas for Seasonal Play

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Using tissue paper to explore and make an Easter craft

Easter Egg Sensory Play Activity – This activity is perfect for Easter sensory play. Toddlers can scrunch, tear, roll and squish tissues paper for a fabulous tactile experience! 

Sensory Activity for Toddlers - decorate a sticky tree with foam or real leaves and enjoy sensory play with rice, lentils and beans

Halloween Sensory Play – Another nature bin that includes one of my favorite elements—a sticky tree! Kids can explore the smaller elements of the bin, like rice, lentils, and beans, then add them to the sticky tree—or not!

how we learn, how wee learn

Leafy Jack-o-Lantern – You can use colorful fall leaves as a sensory bin filler for any sensory activity for toddlers. Grab a marker and a sandwich bag and whip up a last-minute craft to boot!

Sensory Activities for Toddlers - Use shaving cream to create a pretend winter wonderland with figurines and toys

Slippery Sledding Sensory Bin – We always have extra shaving cream on hand for craft projects, so this sensory play was easy to create—and super easy to clean up, too! Keeping that squishy goodness contained in a sensory box or sensory table keeps toddler and mama happy.

Christmas sensory bin with a sticky tape Christmas tree to decorate

Christmas Sensory Bin – The holidays are a wonderful excuse to introduce all sorts of themed activities! This simple Christmas sensory activity for toddlers is full of rich opportunities to promote learning and development. All you need is rice, some painter’s tape, and festive items to stick to your sticky tree!

20-sensory-activities-for-toddlers-that-are-sure-to-wow

I hope you found a sensory activity or two just right for you and yours.

Thank you so much for reading friends, I hope to see you back here soon!

P.S. Don’t forget to grab your free visual playdough recipe!

 

You’ll also love these How Wee Learn best-sellers:

 

 

43 Quiet Time Activities for 2 Year Olds

50 Perfect Crafts for 2 Year Olds!

Playful Playdough Activities!

Filed Under: Activities for Toddlers, Explore, Loads of Ideas!, Other Learning Fun, Science, Science, Toddler, Toddler Activities, Toddlers, Toddlers Tagged With: sensory activities, toddlers

« February Preschool Classroom Ideas
Your Best Motherhood in 2020! »

Trackbacks

  1. The Ultimate Quarantine Survival Guide for Families | The Centered Parent says:
    August 25, 2020 at 8:53 am

    […] offering quarantine activities for your kids that are centered on sensory experiences. This post on sensory activities from How Wee Learn is perfect for toddlers. And this collection of sensory play activities from […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 512 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, other. Drop file here

Annual Sale Save $40 and Get FREE Shipping on the Kindergarten at Home Curriculum!
Did you know that 90% of a child's brain growth happens before age 6? Play into Kindergarten Readiness

Visit my Sponsor Oak Meadow

Follow How Wee Learn

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
For every step of your journey
  • For Ages 1.5-3
  • For Ages 3-5
  • For Ages 4-6
  • For Ages 6-8
  • For Ages 6-12

Shop Resources


Copyright © 2023 · How Wee Learn · Privacy Policy · designed by blogger boutique · Genesis Framework

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
2120 shares
  • 248