Ideas for the
SENSORY TABLE
by Jarrod Green, with input from lots of wonderful people
http://jarrodgreen.net • jarrod@jarrodgreen.net
© 2011–14 • See below for distribution information
• Beads
with strings or pipe cleaners
• Beans (dried)
• Bird Seed
with sifters
• Bubble Wrap
with hammers or tweezers for popping
with dish soap - it’s slippery!
• Chicken Feed
• “Clean Mud” (recipe below)
• Cloud Dough (recipe below)
• Corn on the Cob (dry)
kids can pick it off
• Cornmeal
not too deep - you can draw in it
toy cars - make tracks
• Cotton Balls
with airplanes - they’re clouds!
• Dirt
Potting Soil is best
with shovels
with animals
• Eggs—those plastic easter eggs, I mean
put them in with other materials
• Fabric Scraps
• Flax Seed
• Flour
add a little salt to keep the dust down
with cooking utensils
• Flubber/Goop (recipe below)
don’t leave it in the table overnight - it gets weird
• Fruit or Veggies
whole fruits—with hammers, or plastic knives...
• Gelatin
make large pieces
with eye-droppers and colors
• Glarch (recipe below)
• Glitter
a whole tub full! (messy)
a little mixed in with sand or other materials
a little sprinkled on top of water - it floats for awhile
• Herbs
fresh rosemary or bay branches are great
• Ice
cubes or chunks
in water or not
add colors, with droppers or in ice
with salt shakers
freeze toys inside
with hammers
buried in sand
• Kinetic Sand (recipe below)
• Leaves (dry or fresh)
• Legos
• Oobleck (recipe below)
• Paper Scraps
with scissors
• Pasta (dry)
you can color the pasta in a bag with a mix of watercolor and rubbing alcohol
with penne, add strings or pipe cleaners
• Plastic Bags
with scissors
• Playdough (recipe below)
• Shaving Cream
with airplanes
• Real Snow
• Snow Dough (recipe below)
• Straws
with scissors
when there’s a lot of small pieces, you can add pipe cleaners
• Tissue Paper (colored)
put in whole sheets
tear with hands, or cut with scissors
• Water
with ice
with ping-pong balls (put in spoons or ladles too)
with babies and washcloths (put in soapy water)
with dishes and sponges (put in soapy water)
with boats
with toy animals - esp. sea animals
with funnels (perhaps suspended over table)
with bottles (perhaps with holes punched in them)
with aluminum foil, to make into boats
with foam numbers/letters
with ziplocs bags (perhaps full of air)
Sensory Recipes
• Clean Mud
toilet paper + water + soap
use warm water, and grate ivory soap into it; experiment with textures
• Cloud Dough I
5c flour + 1c oil. Mix well.
• Cloud Dough II
⅓c oil + 2c flour + 2c salt; gradually add ½c water; knead until smooth
• Cornmeal Dough
1.5c flour + 1.5c cornmeal + 1c salt + 1c water; mix and knead
Changes texture over time! Don’t let it dry out too much...
• Flubber (aka Goop)
elmer’s glue + water + borax
more specific recipe to follow
• Glarch
elmer’s glue + liquid starch
• Kinetic Sand
2 parts baking soda + 1 part baking powder + 1 part liquid dish detergent
mix and knead, adding more baking powder as you go to make it fluffy
• Oobleck
cornstarch + water
start with a whole lot of cornstarch and add a little water at a time
• Playdough
In a large pan or pot, mix 2c flour, 2T oil, 1t cream of tartar, 2c water, 1c salt, food coloring. Cook over medium heat, stirring almost constantly, until mixture is smooth and thick and less sticky (it will never be un-sticky while it’s still hot, but try to get close). Take it off the heat, let it cool a bit, then knead it until it’s not sticky at all. It’s great to play with it while it’s still warm! When it’s room temperature, store in an airtight container.
• Snow Dough (from theimaginationtree.com)
2 cups cornstarch
⅓–½ cups vegetable oil (or baby oil)
3–4 Tbsp silver glitter
Do you have a more specific or improved recipe for any of these? Please email me — jarrod@jarrodgreen.net .
“Ideas for the Sensory Table” by Jarrod Green is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
That means you can share this and change it as much as you want, as long as you credit me and you don’t try to make money off it. Thanks!