I'm always looking for ways to challenge the toddler twosome with some sensory, messy play outdoors and I've noticed on Pinterest lately that there is a lot of play going on with salt…..sensory trays, tracing, painting and so much more. What a fantastic medium….and one that can be reused so therefore budget friendly too!
I decided to start off with quite a basic activity and see how it evolved and how Ruby handled the feel of the salt.
Squeeze Bottles & Salt Tray Fun
To begin the invitation to play i poured some coarse cooking salt onto our large paint tray and added a few of our DIY Paint Squeeze Bottles and some small spray bottles also filled with water paint.
The girls immediately began squeezing paint into the salt on the tray…..
The paint made some great marks in the salt and they soon learnt how to get a pattern going and how to make the white areas of salt turn colourful!
The spray bottles were another matter! The toddler twosome have never painted with them before and i had to do a lot of modelling with the trigger before they began to understand the concept. It is a tricky fine motor skill for toddlers to master!
As you can see in this pic….Ruby eventually got the gist of squeezing the trigger to spray but unfortunately she could only get the right tension with it pointing toward her!
A little 2 handed action here…..Ruby did at first have some concerns when the wet salt began to stick to her fingers but after providing a bucket of water and a cloth where she could go to wash them when she felt uncomfortable it no longer seemed to be an issue for her!
As the salt got wetter the girls began moulding it and then wetting their little ‘mountains'!
The texture became very grainy and was a fantastic sensory experience which they enjoyed having a little control over…
Tara was not letting go of her new friend the spray bottle for anyone though!
And she stayed with this activity for quite a while making patterns and arranging and colouring the salt!
But look out if you tried to take her paint bottles!
Ruby meanwhile decided the cubby could do with a paint job!
Not to mention herself!
She had so much fun using her new skill to spray paint the inside and outside!
The cubby hosed off easily but Miss Ruby took a couple of soaks in the bath!
All in all a lovely morning full of sensory, messy fun outside with the Kookaburras watching us intently…we'll be doing this one again!
Hope you are having a wonderful week so far……
Warm Wishes…
OMGosh! You are such a BRAVE mom! I would have had several fainting spells followed by a very strong drink! The kind you need to be 21 to have! My hats off to you! What fun! I love watching a youngster develop a new skill and repeat it, over and over! FYI: My son never liked sand, or mud, not even a big fan of water! Go figure! Paint on his hands was OK. (Sorry it took me so long to make it over to your wonderful blog! My son started 2nd grade last month but with a new aide and he can only handle it until lunch, then I pick him up, so my days are cut in half, oh well! You can read my quick blog post about him here http://www.lifehappensthenwrite.com/2012/09/what-does-back-to-school-mean-to-me.html.)
Thanks Lisa…it was a pretty stress free activity actually lol! There are certain activities Ruby won’t tolerate unless she can wipe her hands but most she is doing ok with thank goodness!
Glad you are at least getting half a day now…hopefully that will improve for you soon!
This is a really great idea! How awesome!
I really like this idea. What a unique sensory experience! My sons fight over the spray bottle. They love it too. :0
What wonderful messy fun!
We will be giving this one a go, it looks like a tonne of fun.
We’ve never tried salt play before. Thanks for the brilliant idea Jode. Pinning. xoxo P
I love their beautifully mess clothing.. it looks so pretty!
We have a HUGE big bag of salt that was recycled from my husbands work. I use it to make play dough because it is no longer ok to eat, but even if I made a batch of play dough every day I wouldn’t use it all in a year… but now… now I know how to use it up!! Thanks
Yay! More messy play. I love your messy play ideas. I never even though of using salt (other than in play dough of course). This is very timely. I just bought some spray bottles!
I just Love how you to take your messy play ideas outdoors, it always seems to allow for even more mess! What fun!!
Oh this looks like SO much fun. You and your girls always have the best messy play ideas.
I just love your messy play ideas. I’ve got a bag of cooking salt there. Will have to give this a try when the sun comes back on Thursday.
haha, love it when they finally manage to squirt it only to squirt themselves haha. Your two always look like they’re having such great sensory experiences. Mess washes off! A fabulous experience for kids 🙂
Ha! They look on Tara’s face as she clutches her squeezy bottle Too funny. wonderful sensory play!
It looks like a lot of fun! JDaniel would love getting to use a squirt bottle!