Small children, like toddlers and preschoolers, learn about holidays through simple activities. Sensory boxes are meant to help kids learn to count, identify their colours and shapes, practice fine motor skills and develop language skills by describing how things feel or look like. Here are some activities your child can do with our Ramadan sensory box.
- Count the white crescent moons.
- Count the big yellow stars; count the small yellow stars.
- Place pom poms into container using tongs (practicing fine motor skills.) Count the shiny golden pom poms.
- Spot the gold coins and place into the gift box using tongs. How much Eid money is in the gift box?
- Compare lengths of pipe cleaners. Line up according to longest to shortest or shortest to longest.
- Touch the prayer rug. Describe how it looks and feels.
Materials
- Plastic bin to act as container
- Inexpensive long grain rice
- Vinegar
- Purple food colouring, gel or liquid
- 8.5 x 11″ sheet yellow foam
- 8.5 x 11″ sheet white foam
- Yellow metallic pompoms
- Tinsel gold pipe cleaners
- Small piece, purple felt
- Small piece, yellow felt
- Scissors
- Gold coins, chocolate or plastic
- Small cardboard gift box and yellow bow
- Small plastic container to fit inside sensory box (like tupperware without lid)
- Plastic tongs
Steps
Colouring rice:
- Measure out how many cups of rice will be needed to cover the the bottom of your sensory bin. The rice layer should be at least 3/4 of an inch high.
- To dye rice, mix food colouring with 1 teaspoon of vinegar per 1 cup rice. Add several drops of liquid food colouring or a large toothpick full of gel food colouring to the vinegar to get a good concentrated colour before adding to the rice. You can mix the colour and rice to a large zipper bag and shake well till its dyed or you can mix the rice and colour in a large bowl or dish.
- Once the rice is well coated with colour, dump it on a large sheet or parchment or a roll of kraft paper to dry. Allow it to dry really well, preferably overnight to prevent mold later.
- Once dry, lay the rice down into the plastic container to begin building the sensory box.
Building the sensory box:
- Cut out different sized stars from the yellow foam and randomly scatter in the box.
- Cut out crescent moons from the white foam and add to box.
- Scatter yellow metallic pom-poms throughout the bin.
- Cut pipe cleaners into different lengths and scatter.
- Add a prayer rug to the box. Make a felt prayer rug by cutting a mihrab from yellow felt and gluing to a rectangular piece of purple felt, then fringe the ends of the purple felt with scissors.
- Scatter gold coins in box. Add a small cardboard gift box with a yellow bow to the box as well.
- Finally, place a small container and tongs in the box and let the play commence!
Hello Holy Days Shop!
Shop products by Hello Holy Days!
