I had mention in a previous post that we did sensory activities on the weekend for our toddler population this summer. This was a HUGE success and we quickly realized that even though we aimed the activities at kids ages 2-4, it was popular with the whole family!! Even parents and teenage siblings were getting in on the fun.
We had a general set of rules for playing with our bins (Not leaving children unattended or taking items out of the bin and carrying them to other parts of the library) Our staff was also made away that while it wasn't their job to babysit everyone coming to play with the sensory bins, they should keep a watchful eye out to make sure our materials were being used with properly. This was important because our materials were out in the open. While we had a drop cloth and worked to pick up any major messes when they happened, we didn't have a contained play area. We had to make sure that our young patrons got along well with the materials in the sensory bins as well as respecting the other areas and patrons of the library. Not an easy task, but I'm safe to report no one smashed play dough into the reference computers or dropped an armload of paperbacks into the water bin! I would just stress with everything getting your co-workers on board with a project like this or at least aware of what's happening, otherwise you might end up with cranky co-workers.
We had six weeks of sensory activities on the weekend. We covered the Five Senses: Touch, Smell, Sight, Sound, Taste and had a water table for our last week.
Touch- We had two bins of Moon Sand and Cloud Dough, along with shovels, cups and other sculpting material- More about that here, on my first post about our sensory bins this summer.
Smell- I had a bin of Scented Rainbow Rice and some Kool Aid Playdough. The rice idea came from Growing a Jeweled Rose which used the Duncan Hines Icing flavors to scent the rice. Just one tiny Pinterest fail.For some reason one of colors of rice got moldy when I was making it so I had to throw it out so there was very little pink in the rainbow. I had used the rice bin the night before in my toddler storytime. A good number of activities were recycled from storytime, which was the night before I set up the sensory bins for the weekend. We had four colors/scents of playdough and I don't think they lasted 10 minutes before all the colors got mixed up. I loathed having other kids mix up the colors or playdough or clay when I was a kid >:( Still do I guess.
Sight- We made up an I spy bottle with leftover rice, lots of odds and ends from our craft supplies and a 2-liter bottle. We also had several other discovery bottles that focused on colors, shapes and density. Great information about making your own Science Discovery bottles over at Laguna Preschool.
Sound- Again I used leftover from Toddler Storytime. I had plenty of rainstick crafts as well as a bin full of egg shakers, bells and other noise makers. We also had a built your own shaker station using those little 8 oz Soda bottles. This was our own hiccup. Many of the older kids filled up the bottle all the way with the intend on taking supplies home, instead of just using a little to make them shake. One of my co-workers had to ask a girl to please not take two bottles filled with pony beads. So the make you own shaker station lasted a day.
Taste- A challenge. We didn't want to make anything edible because of the risk of allergies and other dietary needs. Our simple solution, play food which is always a treat for our kids because we don't have a play kitchen or imaginative play area like some library do.
Water- I think this was the one kids and parents had the most fun with! We had a sink or float table with more odds and ends available to for kids to test in the water. Grown-ups where very interactive with the kids asking them to make guesses on what would sink or float and why! Also the kids were very creative and vocal with their critical thinking.
We also had handouts with sensory activities for kids and parents to try at home as well as a give-away (a container of playdough, sticker, etc.) Looking back, I would skip all that! We had signs telling patrons to ask for these items at the desk, but they were too busy enjoying the experience to care. Which is the point. So handout are a noble effort, but in hindsight a waste of time(and money). For the next round, we are going to have play for all, so we will probably not call it Toddler Sensory Lab anymore, but a more generic and welcoming name.
Our efforts hopefully created many positive experiences for families visiting the library that they can connect with when they think about using the library again. Not everyone has the luxury of crafty stay at home moms/dads who can make them oddles of sensory bins to play at home. But I'll keep researching the digital stacks of Pinterest to bring more sensory activities to my patrons in the future.
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