Spring Sensory Bag

Have you ever created a sensory bag for your children to explore? They are very simple to put together and have endless possibilities as you can pop inside all different textures and items to explore.

Now you may be thinking a more hands on approach would be best. An opportunity for children to feel these items directly and in some cases yes however sometimes we need to take into account individual children.

Some children simply do not like getting their hands messy. They don't like too much sensory stimulation. Some children may have allergies and are unable to touch certain items/ingredients directly. Sensory bags act as a great stepping stone in these situations.

My children don't have either of the above that I need to take into consideration however they have loved exploring these bags. I have been able to store them and they can access them whenever they feel like it which I really like. They have proved to be very useful at entertaining whilst sitting in their highchairs, enjoying tummy time on the floor or simply just for fun. Under close supervision sensory bags are lots of fun!




Today I want to share with you a Spring Themed Sensory Bag that we put together.

You will need:
Tap Water
Yellow water beads
Green water beads
Green leaf gems
Yellow Daffodil gems
A strong sealed bag



Open the bag and pour inside the ingredients. In our Spring themed bag we had green and yellow water beads, a tiny bit of water along with yellow flower gems and green leaf gems. You could also look at adding some baby animal characters. Anything that links in with the season would be great!

My daughter began exploring the Spring Sensory Bag on the table top. She pressed down gently on to the water beads and chuckled to herself as they moved about in the bag. You could feel how cold and slippery they were through the plastic.




She lifted the bag up in front of her face and shook it so the water beads bounced up and down. You could hear the water swishing inside the bag.

"Put it on the window" she said.



We took it over to the window and used sellotape to stick it up. Everything fell to the bottom and Little N had lots of fun as she concentrated to push the items up to the top of the bag.




She enjoyed focusing on the flowers in particular and held it in place with her fingertips before letting it drop down into the beads. She repeated this several times.




We also explored the bag on our homemade light box. The lights looked beautiful as they shone through the water beads.

So as you can see not only do sensory bags open doors for children who have barriers, they are great fun for all children under close supervision.

I would advise using super strong bags, laminating pouches even as you can fully seal the pouches to help prevent leaks. Store out of reach of children and only have them accessible to young children whilst you are watching them. As far as older children are concerned I have used these with great success in the classroom. Having lots of themed topics that children have enjoyed squishing and squashing around independently.