Preschool Christmas activities can be such fun. As part of our quest for
Christmas activities for kids, we loved the thought of the FEELING of Christmas that comes through with this Christmas Sensory Tub. Christmas is touchy, feeling and Kids Activities Blog wants to get in on the fun.
Preschool Christmas activities
Sensory tubs are wonderful for open ended play and they are so quick and simple to put together. Just put a few themed items in the tub, and then let your kids explore and experiment in whichever direction their imagination takes them.
Our fun and colorful Christmas themed sensory tub has a been a big hit with my son and he has come up with lots of different ways to play with it.
Christmas Activities for Kids
What’s in our Christmas sensory tub?
I used plain rice for the base of our Christmas sensory tub. It gave the effect of soft wintery snow and it has a lovely silky feeling when you run your hands trough it. As a variation, you could color the rice in Christmas colors like red and green.
To make colored rice, simply put the rice into a zip lock bag, add a few drops of food coloring, seal the bag, and shake. Remove the rice from the bag, spread it out on a tray and leave to dry.
For the
contents of our Christmas sensory tub I used:
- Plastic candy cane ornaments
- Colored bells
- Silver bells
- Pine cones
- Pom poms
It looks so colorful and festive!
Very inviting for little hands to dig in and explore. The rice is wonderful for scooping and pouring so be sure to provide some large spoons and small cups or bowls.
Learning through play.
I usually set out a pair of tongs with
all our sensory tubs. This provides some great
fine motor skills practise. We used the pom poms in our Christmas sensory tub to play a
color sorting game.
Sensory play.
My son enjoyed running his hands through the rice in this tub, picking up handfuls and then letting the rice fall down between his fingers like sand. I also added some sound sensory play to this tub with the inclusion of the silver bells. They made their lovely jingling sound as my son was digging and scooping through the sand, making it a very relaxing play time. We also played a game of hide and seek with the silver bells, burying them under the rice and the digging around trying to find them again by listening out for their sound.
What fun item would you include in a Christmas themed sensory tub?
More Christmas Kids Activities
Looking for more
preschool Christmas activities? We have them! Check out all of our
Christmas activities for kids…here are a few favorites:
I love this so much! I really want to make this for my kids soon. I featured this post over on my blog for the weekly kid’s co-op. You can check it out here.
http://www.homelearningjourney.com/the-weekly-kids-co-op-1220/
Thanks!!
I love your sensory tub, Ness … the white rice really brings out the colors in the other items. It all looks like so much fun! I featured your post and photo in my 40+ Christmas Sensory Tubs post at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2012/12/17/montessori-monday-40-plus-christmas-sensory-tubs/
I made Christmas bins for my daughter and to mail in a secret santa swap. Since I was mailing one I used red sparkly tinsel for the base to keep it light. I also included pompoms, “table scatter” shaped like stockings and trees, jingle bells,mini bows, and since my daughter likes to play pretend with everything, some erasers and cupcake toppers shaped like Christmas characters. Fun ideas!
I love this! What a fun idea. All the sensory stimulation is so good for babies and the white rice really make your colorful objects POP! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Lynn. Leaving the rice uncolored certainly did make all of the other items really stand out!
I love your blog posts and ideas!! There is a much easier way to color rice actually. Put rice in a bowl, add liquid watercolors (found at Discount School Supply website), stir, add color as you desire, let sit in the bowl for about 10 to 15 minutes to dry and the color is ready! Liquid watercolor is washable but dries super fast. This keeps you from having to lay out rice to dry.
Another great winter sensory item is salt. You can include all the bigger items. And it vacuums up so easy!
Hi Kay. Thanks for the tip about using water colors to color rice. Salt sounds like a lively sparkly material for a winter themed tub however my son has extremely sensitive skin (he has eczema) and the salt stings his hands. That’s what we love so much about the rice – it’s smooth and kind to his skin.
Using rice to give the feeling of snow is a wonderful idea. Such imaginative ideas make Christmas much more exciting for the kids.
Thanks for your comment and kind words Preschool in Yorba Linda! My son really enjoys rice in sensory tubs. It is so smooth and silky and it also makes a lovely sound as it moves around the tub. It’s a very calming material to use in sensory tubs.