Tag Archives: sensory bin

Toddler Activity: Mermaid Swim Party

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With summer heat waves, it can be hard to stay cool when you’re outside. Our favorite way is to add water play to our routine. This week started off with a Mermaid Swim Party.

Every day, I like to do a hands on activity with Mila. In the summer, that usually happens first thing in the morning. It’s a great way to set the mood and guarantees extra learning for the day!

A win-win right?

Since Mila loved the beach sensory play activity earlier this month, I thought I’d bring those themes back.

The best part, we used actual water this time!

A mermaid swim party wouldn’t be complete without these:

This activity was pretty simple to set up. The hardest part was getting the sprinkler in the hose.

All I did was setup the sprinkler (which wasn’t that hard at all), grab the items for the sensory bin, place them in, and fill up the bin with water. That’s all!

Before I let her play with the bin, we read a book. I believe reading books everyday is so crucial for a child’s development. They’re able to expand their vocabulary with every new word they here and start becoming familiar with sight words.

For this activity, we read That’s Not My Mermaid from the Usborne series.

It was a fun stepping stone to get her describing the differences of our mermaids during the activity. Plus, Usborne books are so educational. We love this series and find different ways to learn from it each time.

I would recommend the That’s Not My series to anyone!

After we read the book, I showed Mila her sensory bin and let her do whatever she wanted with it.

She went wild!

Between the water, the mermaids, and the sprinkler, she thought it was the best activity. I loved the way she reacted to it all. It’s always so much fun to see her growth through play.

I’d love to say I watched her the entire time, but she played with this activity for two hours. Yes. You read that right THREE HOURS.

For some reason, she really just thought this was a blast. We did different educational activities like talking about the resin letters and talking about the differences in the mermaids. She also loved pretending and making up stories about them.

At one point, Mila even got into the sensory tray to try to play with them more.

Eventually, after three hours, Mila was finally done with this activity and playing with the the hose. I was amazed that she was so engaged. It allowed me to wash the dishes, change the laundry, and tidy up. Of course, I kept checking on her, but it was hot!

Honestly, it makes me so happy to see how much she loves to play, use her imagination, and be outside. If creating simple activities helps, I’ll keep doing just that.

What are some of your favorite ways to beat the heat waves? Do you stay inside or like to play with or in water too?

Make sure to check out these other water inspired play ideas too!

Toddler Activity: Beach Sensory Play

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Sensory play is so important for children to learn about the world around them. Since it’s almost summer and we just got back from the beach, I knew Mila would enjoy this sensory bin.

They’re also great if you need a minute to yourself. Sensory play can extend imaginative play and your toddler can be as creative as they please. This translates into more time to do a quick chore, sitting down for a second, or playing with them!

The best part, I already had all the materials and it was easy to do.

Here’s what I used:

To make the ocean part, I laid down blue tissue paper on the bottom of the box. Then tore up other pieces of tissue paper to be the water.

On the other half, I added sand colored packing peanuts. These are so amazing and I reuse them in Mila’s play frequently. I didn’t even have to buy them, just reused from other packages.

Then, I added candy fish to the water, mermaids, and seashells.

For the beach, I used resin letters to spell out beach and then added fairy garden beach accessories too.

Before we started playing with the bin, we read How to Catch a Mermaid. This is one of Mila’s favorites! She’s a little obsessed with mermaids at the moment.

The book prompted us to hide the mermaids and she played with the bin to find them. It was such a cute activity. She also loved talked about the book and pointing out what accessories we had in the bin with what was in the book. It really was a hit!

Mila enjoyed touching the tissue paper and packing peanuts. I had her explain how they felt in her hands and what colors they were.

We also talked about how to spell beach, the letters in it, and what color they were. Resin letters are such a great investment and can be used all the time! They’re pretty cute too!

Her favorite had to be when she realized she could eat the fish! She loves sour candy, so it was a pleasant surprise for her.

Mila actually asked me to keep the box together for her. I guess that means she really likes it. She’s constantly playing with her mermaids and talking about the beach. It must make her feel like we have a little part of it at home!

The best part of sensory play is watching your toddler be imaginative. We’ll definitely be using this one over and over again.

What’s your child’s favorite type of sensory play?