We teamed up with Rozanne from Bright Little Brains to create playful summer activities. Follow along on Instagram for more ocean inspiration, ideas, and fun facts!

We love doing sensory activities outside, especially during the summer. Gather materials from the toy bin and kitchen cupboard and head to the backyard for this sensory activity that turns

What You Need:

• Medium bin or deep tray

• Dried pastas for coral

• Paint

• Play dough

• Water

• Blue food coloring (optional)

• Scoops or cups for playing in the water

• Ocean creature toys and loose parts like pebbles, shells, starfish

How Set Up the Sensory Bin:

1. Add a cup of dried pasta to a resealable plastic bag or container. Add a squirt of paint to the pasta. Use paint colors that will represent coral.

2. Seal and close the resealable bag or container.Shake until all the pasta is covered in the paint color. Lay out on a baking tray and let it dry

3. Add play dough to the bin by making little play dough rocks. Press the pasta into the play dough to create a coral effect,

4. Add water to the bin along with a drop of blue food coloring if you’d like.

5. Place any ocean-themed animals and water play toys next to the bin as an invitation for kids to explore and add to the bin to create their underwater world.

Play Tips:

Sensory activities give children the space to explore and investigate the world. It encourages language development, motor skills, and problem-solving.

With water activities kids often use ‘scientific method’ of observing, forming a hypothesis, trying different things, and making conclusions.