Today’s idea is a great one to do at home, inside and is mess free (once it is made 😉 ). Your older ones will love making it and your younger ones will love playing with it, win win.

Nature Sensory Bag

You will need:

• a sealable plastic bag
• water
• leaves, flowers, any other natural items you think would be nice in there
• liquid water colour or food colouring
• oil
• sequins, sparkles or other lovely things for fun
• sturdy tape or sellotape

Once you have decided what will go in your in your sensory bag pop them in. Lay them out flat in the bag, making sure they are not overlapping and that there is space in-between so that when your bag is finished there is room to move them around.

Once you are happy with how many items you have in the bag you add the oil. How much depends on your bag size. You want just enough that all the items are covered in oil and can move around in it when your bag is sealed and lying flat on a table but not so much that your bag appears full or is bulging. Coat all items with oil in the bag and seal the bag while you get the rest of the supplies ready.

Now you can mix up your liquid water colours or food colouring into small amounts of water. You may want to do more than one colour. You will only need a few teaspoons of each colour.

Open the bag and pour your coloured water in in drops or spurts so you have individual drops of colour through out the oil — the water and oil will not mix. Why?

Now add any sparkles or sequins you would like to add.

Seal the bag, making sure you take all the air out. Now tape over the seal to ensure it stays closed — you do not want this opening on anything as the oil can make an incredible mess.

Now play away! Push the leaves and flowers around, push the colour droplets and sequins around. What do you notice? We would love to hear how you get on. Do let us know on Facebook, twitter and/or instagram.

Happy poking and prodding!

April