Mud Rally Sensory Box

If you are reading this you must be interested in making a Mud Rally Sensory Box?
This was a fun outdoors activity that I set up for Dimples near his Mud Kitchen.
It has all the Sensory and Tactile benefits of playing outdoors with dirt and mud, as well as these 8 benefits of playing in Mud with one appealing difference; It is contained in a Sensory Box.

 

 

I realise not everyone has a mud kitchen (or wants one) and many parents aren't open to letting their child freely explore mud but they still want to provide the learning experiences and messy fun that mud provides for their child.

The solution? The Mud Rally Sensory Box.

Its all the fun and mess but contained in a box.

This means it can even be bought inside on a spill mat or done on your back patio as a quick and easy messy play activity that can be emptied and cleaned out afterwards.

Simply mix a little dirt and water into the tray, add cars and once the messy play is finished, return the mud to its original place, rinse out the tub and rinse of the cars. Easy Peasy!

 



Dimples gathered some of his diggers and carted them up the yard. I wasn't keen to do the entire messy play thing on this particular day and we had limited time, so I put a shovel load of dirt into a plastic tub and mixed in some water, I sat his cart next to it and let him play.
It wasn't long before he came down from his tree house and came over to start exploring.
Initally he was very delicate, mixing the mud and carefully pushing a car around slowly and then inspecting its wheels. It didnt take long for him to warm up into his usually imaginative self.

Diggers, dump trucks, monster trucks, bull-dozers, tractors, jeeps and 4wd cars were lined up into the mud. The tractors were great at pushing the mud and clearing a path, Dimples experimented a while with this, looking intently at the cleared path. He added a little more water and watched it wash mud back over the paths.
He made some rally tracks and imagined that it was a race circuit, thrashing the monster trucks through the mud (with sound effects of course). Pretending they were doing all sorts of "tricks", flipping, rolling and skidding.
He used his diggers and dump truck for some track construction, even going to the extent of burying a car under dumped out mud.

 

Looking for some more Messy Play ideas?

Mud Kitchen: Recipe for Marvellous Mud Play

8 reasons to play in the mud

fun- green-monster-slime-mess

D is for Digging

Happy Adventures

Number Hunt to Marbling Activity

Number Hunt Trail to a fun Marbling Experiment.

I started Dimples on a Number Hunt. He put on his hat & grabbed his bucket at the first arrow.

Yesterday while searching the bargain shops I came across a stick it note pad shaped as an arrow.

I started with 1 with a picture of a camera, so we grabbed One camera.

the follow was an arrow with the number 2 and a dinosaur on it, Dimples followed the direction of the arrow and came across 2 dinosaurs. He put them in his bucket.

then there was an arrow with the number 3 & a pictures of a car, he followed the arrow to 3 cars and put them in his bucket. Then there was a 4 with a stick looking thing on it :-? It was a pipe cleaner, so he followed it and found 4 pipe cleaners.

The trail led him outside where I had set up an experimental Marbling Activity, like the one we done previously experimental-marbling.
Next, an Arrow with 5 lizards leading to 5 toy lizards, 6 was knives and forks, which lead to a trail of plastic cutlery. Last was 7 with a picture of a marble which went to 7 marbles just under the table that was set up.

All the things in Dimples bucket were to be used as tools in the shaving cream tub.  I set out a tray filled with shaving cream, the paint/ink, glitter, a brush, a bucket of water (to wash excess cream off and for Dimples hands) and some paper.

First he sprinkled the glitter on and i sprinkled the ink, then he picked out some dinosaurs and lizards to trudge through the mass of cream, glitter and paint. then they walked across the paper.  The idea wasn't to put prints on the paper, this was just part of Dimples process- what he wanted to do.
The main idea was to mix around the colours before putting the paper face down in the tray to absorb the swirled ink. Just like we did in our experimental marbling.

It got messy very quickly, that's how we like it (& that's why we do a lot of our activities outdoors)
Next he used the cars to make a donuts/burn out rings. I sprinkled some more colours in it and Dimples made the cars make circular tracks.  Then the paper went face down and pressed down, then i scrapped the excess cream off the top of the paper with a card & what was left was a cool swirled pattern of ink.

Dimples tried out the forks and lightly manoeuvred them through the ink, then a rolling pin, a brush, then his fingers. Dinosaurs and cars were his favourite!

The best results came from having a dull base colour (mix one colour through all the shaving cream and smooth it all. Then using bright colours to sprinkle over the top. The mix these around a bit, but not too match that they blend. When you put your paper down, smooth it out from top down first to bottom so you have no air pockets that will leave big blank spots!

Then let it sit on it face up for a little while, less than a minute & scrape it off with cardboard of a plastic spatula or take away container lid.

with a pink background

swirls

with a grey background

Fun Foot Prints

I recently read a post by Hands on as we grow about BIG ART. I have always been a fan of big art and they share 40 fun ideas here at hands on as we grow . I think this activity falls nicely into the category of big art, it uses big movement and gross motor skills in the process and has a BIG result. My little monkey got into the paint, it was a big process, it was outdoors, it got him moving & it got a little messy.

 I totally agree with their statement that it is all about "the process and not the product".

Footsteps can be fun and little ones just love covering their hands & feet in paint, smearing it over the bodies and making a real mess, so we took this outside on a rolled out drop sheet (a Vinyl off cut), I love outdoor art, its much easier to wash up- If something gets thrown or splats on the floor or wall or we just go a little wild its too easy to grab the hose & wash it away. No biggy.

This was pretty simple to prepare. I got 2 trays and filled them with 2 different coloured paints then lined the paper across the vinyl and let the little monkey at it (you could tape it down if it is windy out or if its sticks to their feet). 

We discussed left and right, we talked about the colours and the types of "walks" animals do. 

FEET in instantly, that was the plan and he was straight in, feet first with out any instruction. He walked across the paper and into the water bowl then back again.

He tried Dinosaur STOMPING, TIP-TOEING, DUCK WALKING & FROG HOPPING.

We did a few different colours but here are some snaps below of the brights we did up first.

Treasure Hunt

A Real-life Treasure Hunt!



I have been planning to do this for a while but haven't had a free weekend or the props so the weekend just gone I made a point of planning a real-life treasure Hunt for Smiley.



I pre-made & painted some "coins" made from cut cardboard that had written & pictorial clues on the back of them, a treasure map and a box of treasure, oh and of course I needed a pirates flag to mark the buried treasure.  When Smiley was occupied with Daddy helping him feed the farm animals I snuck off and left a trail of semi-hidden clues around at significant land markings & large visual hiding spots (the large gum tree, the camp fire, the veggie garden, the river bank, the Caravans etc.)







Once the clues were out I drew up a treasure map. Smiley is only 2 and obviously cant read yet so I did the treasure map with visual cues and drawings, I drew on a circle with a $ symbol that represented where the coin clues were hidden. At the end of the trail was a large X mark, where the treasure was buried.  







The treasure consisted of some real .20 cent coins, some foam coins and of course some chocolate coins. Not too many though... I buried the treasure in the soft dirt down by the river bank. This seemed the most logical spot because the dirt is soft and the pirates must have came by boat to bury it there!  (Smiley is never unattended at anytime while he is on the farm so of course safety near the waters edge had to be considered).




Here is one hidden next to a canoe.



The clues read things like;  'Follow the fence to you find a Red canoe under a tree, look close & you will see a purple coin with your next clue'
  "Where the cows play you might see a very large tree"
  "Oink oink, what has a curly tail and rolls in the mud?"
 "Pirates come by boat, can you hear the water splashing & the sound of birds tweeting. Look close & you might find the Pirates have left something behind!"



Once the treasure was buried I put up a Pirate flag and marked the treasure with a big X made out of river stones then went back to start the hunt with him.







The first clue was accompanied by a shovel.  I told smiley that a little bird had told me there is treasure buried on the land near by and that it left me with a treasure Map. I showed him the map and explained that the coins are clues that will help us find the treasure and that we need to follow this trail.
He was a little hesitant at the beginning but once he had found the second clue he caught on to the game and was jumping with excitement (literally!) .
This clue below got the best reaction because he could see it across the Field and ran flat out yelling "found it. there it is! " until he got there with the hugest grin on his face :-D
There were also pictures on the back of the coin clues and of course i read it to him but let him take the initiative to follow the clue and tell me what he thought it meant and where that next clue was. It worked a treat and he caught on really quick!  If he got stuck we kneeled down and compared the place/picture on the map as I re-read the clue...

The next best thing was spotting the Pirates flag, and his face lite up. There really is treasure here. The he had to look around to find the X of rocks and start digging. The treasure was only loosely buried so it was easy enough for him to do it himself.

TREASURE. He was shaking with excitement and so happy he had found it, it was one of the best activities we have done together. He ran up the hill and found Daddy & his Uncle to show them what he had found and he held on to his treasure map for a couple of hours. It was a good outdoor activity to get us moving, and explore the outdoors, it challenged his cognitive processes and encouraged his imagination. It really was an awesome Adventure! 

Huge Floor Maze

Masking tape is an invaluable resource. You can pick up cheap bulk rolls from the bargain shops for a few dollars and they can provide hours of fun.

We often do roads made of tape and racing tracks but this time it was a Maze.

Here is our Floor Maze. We did it with the concept of "roads" and I thought it would be a little over my boys head but he caught on real quick when I mentioned cars and roads.

I initialised the game with an example, the roads are inside the tape this time (we usually use the tape symbolic as a road its self) and then i went around with a car "uh-oh, stop we cant go that way its blocked off"  "turn around or reverse and try again" "If we go this way will we make it to the middle "

This seemed to work a treat and he did it so easily.

Mazes are very tricky for little ones and rely on problem solving, which helps develop your critical thinking / logic skills.

Maze games and other puzzle-solving activities encourage a multitude of mental abilities. Maze games can help maintain short-term memory.

The ability to anticipate, to change the mind, and to reverse direction offer practice in faster brain processing and reaction times. This concept, called mental flexibility, may help your child sort through problems & make decisions more quickly or with more appropriate responses, because planning, anticipating, and looking ahead are all activities involved in playing a maze game.
Many cognitive processes are benefited by mazes and it has strong links in improving neural circuits in elderly and aiding against dementia (I know that's not at all relevant BUT its interesting and shows how powerful the brain is).

Before long my little monkey had a car-park of cars in the centre of the maze and listening to him play was so cute. In his little 2 year old voice he was mimicking from my example and he has an obsession with "work" at the moment so it was "bye, I'm going to work" "woops, not this way. beep beep beep (reverse on a truck)" "turn here, quick down this way" "STOP, we are here!"  It was very amusing & is still on the floor. He usually enjoys ripping them up when he has finished playing that day but this puzzle remains :)

FOSSILS

We Made Fossils.

This was a quick & easy activity, my little man has done this before at daycare & we have experimented with play-doh but this time around it was time to get down to business.....   This is how we made our realistic fossils!

Recipe:
*1.5 cup flour
*2 cup salt
*1 cup water
*1tsp oil
*1 cup warm water with your choice of food colour.

Mix it up, knead it like a dough. I think I added some ingredients as i was going so just experiment with the texture. It needs to be dough consistency, thick & not overly sticky.
This is a great opportunity to get the kiddies helping with mixing recipes & baking.

Pre-heat your oven on low. I think I had ours on 100 degree. You need to slow cook it for a couple of hours, not too hot or they may crack/crumble or you can leave them in the sun to dry for a while, the oven is quicker & it was a rainy day so we used it.
Remember: its only flour & salt so it will get taken away by birds or ants and wont last if its rained on so don't stick them out on the balcony to dry & forget about them, or they may disappear :-D

Divide your fossils pieces up into small balls & softly flatten. Try to make them roughly the same size & not too large or the dough in the centre will cook unevenly or stay too soft.
We did palm sized balls & placed them on baking paper to cook.

Choose your Fossils: What type of fossils will you do?
In this batch we did an elephant, dino heads, dino feet, animal feet & some realistic shell fossils.

Once they are cooked let them cool & test they are solid.
& now you have some great fossils to play with. 

Dig with them:  My little man is right in to his dinosaurs so we will be burying them in a sensory box to dig up & re-discover, like we did with the dino skeletons here in our digging discovery boxes. 

As a gift:  Half of them were given to my little ones nan as a gift, she has collected real fossils for a very long time & has a good collection of interesting artifacts so these were a little humorous for her and a nice surprise. My little monkey wrapped them in pink tissue paper in a stack & i tied a ribbon on top. He was very pleased to give something home made....

Please be warned: Since you mix these like cookies, bake them like cookies & they kind of look like strange cookies younger kids will no doubt test them out to see if they taste like cookies :)

Play dough tracks - Bike track & foot prints

TRACKS & PRINTS IN DOUGH!

This is one of our favourite things to do inside.  You can adapt it & allow your child the initiative to expand and invent new ways to play.  My little one never gets bored of it!

We have done this before with farm animal foot prints, construction trucks, bikes, hands, feet, put plants in ect. On this occasion we started off with it being MUD.
I attempted to make it brown, added a little green glitter in!


First we made our dough
*2 cups of flour
*1 cup of salt
*1 cup of water with your food colouring if desired.
*You can add glitter if you want.

My little munchikin went to work making tracks.  Exclaiming that the play dough was mud with a big muddy hill!
His older brothers, his Daddy, and his Uncle all have dirt bikes and have built their own real dirt track so this was very appealing to him.


MUD Jumping! he would exclaim, we made a jump a corner and I was in my glory watching his creative little mind wander. He was right into it, "KTM goes UP!" he would say as it jumped over the jump & then it did go up, right above his head where it flipped around, went side ways and then came down to land on the jump.
Mind you, all the sound effects were happening aswell.

By his own lead, my 2 yr old then wanted to do handprints..........  Then feet prints!
I wonder what it felt like inbetween his toes.

We have done this a few times and most often then not, my 2 year old brings out the animals.....
This time he done faces, At his Family daycare they once did 'clay fossils' so I think he got the face & the sharp teeth imprinting idea from his lovely daycare Mumma, then he did the dinosaurs spikes & tails as well, experimenting on what the imprints would look like.  Then he would ask me to turn it over (which meant turn it over, smooth it out & start fresh).

In the past we have used a bulldozer, fences, trees and kangeroos.....

We have also experimented with BIG animals vs. little animals, big prints & small prints.  Long toes & short toes, long tails and no tails. two legs vs four legs.
You can really do whatever your mind comes up with!

Happy Play doughing....