The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Christmas Sensory Tub

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Create a sensory tub filled to the brim with Christmas colours, textures and scents! Perfect for baby and toddler play and lots of hands on, open-ended fun and learning this season.

As you probably know by now, we LOVE sensory play! And seeing as it’s nearly Christmas it seemed the right time to put together a new sensory tub using all of the bits and pieces we have around.
christmas sensory tub
 We dyed some rice green using green food colouring which we stirred through it. I squirted in some alcohol hand gel to help it dry more quickly and we then left it spread out on a large baking tray overnight. I sprinkled over some green glitter too, of course, then added some drops of peppermint oil for a real multi-sensory experience!

The next day we added it to one of our wide, shallow, garden trays and found lots of tactile, sensory elements to add, including some extra bits of tat that I bought at the £1 shop!

We used a packet of mini plastic baubles and also sprinkled through some gold star sequins.

Some sparkly pom poms.

A few small branches off our real Christmas tree to add a lovely pine scent and a touch of natural play to an otherwise rather gaudy scene!

Some plastic candy cane decorations.

A string of pink bead decorations. Cakie delighted in snipping these with scissors to make them into lots of shorter pieces!
A mini scoop for digging and pouring and lastly, a mini Christmas tree for decorating!
Both girls are loving playing with the sensory tub and the main attraction is to decorate and redecorate the little tree over and over again. With hindsight I should have bought two of these (only £1 each) as of course there are some sharing issues over this favourite element!
I’m thinking this tub may be around long after Christmas and perhaps we will add some more elements to it as we go along. Some mini presents and stockings perhaps?
Putting the star on the top! Voila!
Have you made a Christmassy sensory tub? I would love to see what you added to yours!
If you liked this you may also like our Flower Fairies Sensory Tub that we made together in the summer.
Learning Links:
  • creativity: using the imagination to tell stories, recreate scenes, role play and imaginative play with objects, using objects to represent others in play
  • sensory: using all of the senses to explore materials
  • motor skills: scooping, pouring, pincer grip to pick up small objects
  • literacy: using language to tell stories, take on roles and recreate events in play
  • maths: counting out objects, exploring volume and capacity

Comments

  7. Jode says

    Looks fantastic! I just posted about my twins loving playing with their rice so perhaps i shall take some and make a lovely xmas tub too…thanks for the great idea!