Christmas Bins
Salt Dough Snowman
Objective: Create and build a snowman with the materials provided.
Basic Materials:
The major component is the salt dough, which was very simple to make and consists of just three simple ingredients, two of which you probably have in your pantry right now. The recipe calls for; 1/2 a cup of salt, 2 cups of all-purpose flour, and 3/4 cups of water. I do believe I had to add more water to get a better consistency, but don’t overdo it, or you’ll end up with a sticky mess (to fix just add more flour). I just googled a recipe and used the first one that popped up. Any D.I.Y. dough or regular play-doh will do! Jingle bells from your local craft store, a few twigs from outside, dry black beans, and a carrot nose. For this, I used a foam sheet to cut the nose from.
Benefits:
The main benefit of playing with dough is the open-ended opportunities for your little one, as they experiment with it. The squishing and squeezing, pulling and poking, twisting, and rolling. This all builds hand strength and offers a tactile, texture, and consistency experience as they manipulate the dough. For an added sensory element I added peppermint oil to it, since it’s not often that bins incorporate smell. With the holidays here it made for the perfect opportunity to do so!
How I Interact:
For this activity, I let her do her own thing and acted as an observer, encouraging her to play, pound, roll, and squish the dough. As there are a lot of small parts, twigs, bells, and beans, close supervision is required for this activity. I simply played with the dough alongside her until she lost interest. She was entertained for about 30 minutes. Will fully be doing this one again soon!
Ice Melt Holiday Wreath
Objective: Melt the wreath to free and set loose the items inside by pouring warm water over it!
Basic Materials:
For this activity, I grabbed a magnifying glass, a pitcher of warm water (for refills), a plastic squeeze bottle, and some loose parts: pine tree clippings, cranberries, and gold glitter. I threw the loose parts into the only circle pan I had, placed a small bowl in the middle for the hole, and threw it in the freezer overnight! If you have a bundt cake pan, that would be ideal for this activity, use it! Tongs, ladle, and a cup provided later for the cranberries once they are free from the ice. You could add green food coloring, or any festive/themed holiday items like the bells, or pine cones, and freeze them as well!
Benefits:
This is a simple, low fuss, nature and ice, STEAM activity that is perfect for the holiday season! It offers an opportunity to explore nature, the different types of trees, as well as a great sensory experience. They are able to examine the pine needles closely with a magnifying glass, smell that pine tree smell by giving the clippings a good sniff, squishing the cranberries, and of course feeling the temperature difference between the ice and warm water. The ice melting is a good display of temperature change! As they squeeze the water onto the ice and watch what happens it encourages both observation skills, and patience.
How I Interact:
To start, I gave her a demonstration by squeezing the warm water, aiming for the wreath. I then, pointed to where the ice had melted and how the cranberries were no longer frozen and stuck. I handed her the bottle, as she was definitely eager to do it herself, and let her have at it. She squeezed, I refilled, she squeezed, I refilled. If you have more of these bottles, or a larger option that might work best! The wreath I froze wasn’t too thick, so this didn’t become too tedious or tiring, and made for a good amount of time. It also, gave a mini lesson on step taking, as she had to stop, let me refill the bottle with warm water, and hand it back to her. Yumi fiddled with the needles as they became free from the ice, which was where she seemed to realize they were stuck in the ice. Once the ice melted away she sniffed some pine needles, played with the tongs and cranberries, and repeatedly squeezed empty and refilled the bottle. Overall, it was a hit, lasted for about 30 minutes, and we’re doing it again tomorrow!
Jingle Bell Hunt
Objective: Dig and retrieve the bells using tongs, a scoop, or just little hands!
Basic Materials:
A tool of any kind, a scoop, tongs, or even just a small spoon, as an added option to retrieve the bells. A festive bowl in the shape of a Christmas tree, ornament, Santa, or whatever you have. It can very well be any old regular bowl! This one I just so happened to come across at The Dollar Tree, and the bells I grabbed from our local craft store for $2.50 a bag. The rice was D.I.Y, using green food coloring, and a regular old bag of rice. A link here for how I made it!
Benefits:
This transfer activity is great for hand-eye coordination, promotes focus, concentration, and is good fine motor practice with the scooping, and grabbing to remove the bells from the rice.
How I Interact:
For this activity, I simply pushed the bells down into the rice, and provided her a quick demonstration by using the tongs to dig around and remove the bell with, setting it outside of side of the bowl. I also showed her that there were other bells to dig around for and find by uncovering one and pointing to it.
Yumi, is still learning to use tongs and mainly used them to dig and slosh the rice around and then would set them aside to grab the bells out with her hands. Once she removed enough bells, she proceeded to hide them in the rice herself. She was also more keen to scoop and grab the rice with her hands and drop it wherever she pleased, and when that happened I’d simply say “we keep the rice inside the bin” and move her hands back over the bowl to drop it into. This activity can be messy, so it’s a good idea to do it on a mat or tarp of some sort to make cleanup easier on yourself. It is important that kids get to make messes, that’s how learning happens! As a miniature and modified sensory bin in the shape of a Christmas tree! This is a much smaller scale than the bins she’s used to dealing with, which was an added bonus for me, because less rice to sweep up!
Safety Tip: It is important to note that this activity is one done with supervision, as you’re dealing with small parts. I would suggest you count the amount of bells you provide for the activity, just in case. Even if your l.o. isn’t mouthing anymore, it’s piece of mind to know that they haven’t managed to swallow any by knowing how many were there to begin with.
Loose Parts Christmas Tree
Objective: Match and fit the objects with the corresponding hole and drop it through!
Basic Materials:
Loose parts i.e. wooden rings (also available at Amazon.com unpainted), pom pom balls, popsicle sticks, wooden cones, etc. A bin, or container, or even a shoe box for the base. A recycled piece of cardboard to either draw on a Christmas tree, or use a felt sheet, like I have done here. The felt tree cutout I just so happened to find at The Dollar Tree. After I glued the tree down to the cardboard, I took a pencil, traced a rough outline of the different items in various spots on the tree, and used a box cutter to cut them out. This took a little bit of work, but wasn’t too difficult to do!
Benefits:
This Christmas themed, invitation to play involves fitting items through different sized holes/slots, and forces your toddler to stop and think about the shape of the item they are holding. It promotes concentration and wrist and finger control, which gets them ready for those more refined movements involved in daily tasks like pencil holding, shoe tying, and cutting with scissors.
How I Interact:
At this juncture, she is fairly familiar with what’s going on when one of these is set in front of her. She needed a little guidance in regards to not just fitting the popsicle sticks through the larger slots, and that sort of thing, but went at this for about 15 to 20 minutes on and off. A fun and themed way to continue practicing fine motor work! Yumi is 18 months, for reference.
Cranberry Scoop
Objective: Scoop and transfer the cranberries from the bowl to the cup.
Basic Materials:
A small scoop or spoon of any sort, here she is using a coffee ground scoop. A festive bowl, if you’ve got it, or whatever you have! A towel handy for spills, a mat or tarp, water, and some cranberries.
Benefits:
Here is another simple transfer activity that is a bit easier to put together as the base is just water. It is good continued practice for wrist movement, hand-eye coordination, and practical life skills. With the added challenge of learning the way water reacts to motion. If you move quickly it will spill, where moving slowly, less spillage. So there is a bit more focus required to successfully get the berries into the cup! Yumi enjoyed this activity and did it for about 15 minutes before losing interest and running off. Potentially, a show that she may be up for a little more of a challenge. Next time, I might try using a cup with a smaller opening to increase the difficulty level of transferring the berries into the cup.
How I Interact:
I gave her a quick demonstration by scooping the berries out and transferring them from the bowl to the cup. She instantly grabbed the scoop and did the same! Once she was done, she proceeded to pour them all back into the bowl, and repeat the process. She grabbed them with her fingers, bit into a few, and then moved on to just playing, scooping, and drinking the water.
