Spring is a wonderful time of year to enjoy, explore and learn about the natural world, from new growth, buds and blossom of plants to animals nesting and raising young. Here are 30 fun and easy sp…

Bring in the spring with these fun math activities! Your preschooler is going to love learning all about numbers, counting, even addition with these 25 Spring Math Activities For Preschoolers. Let's go! It'll be fun

This is your ultimate guide to understanding gross motor skills for preschoolers including activity ideas and product suggestions!

An epic collection of Sensory Play Activities for kids with Autism. If you're looking for sensory activities for kids with ASD or Sensory Processing

Are you looking for the best sensory activities for preschoolers or older kids? This ultimate list of sensory activities for kids of all ages will give you tons of ideas! From the easiest homemade playdough recipe to sensory bins and bottles, this list will provide ideas for hour of fun sensory play for the children.

We’re all quarantined with nowhere to go and are desperately trying to find things to keep our little ones entertained. I get it. I’m right there with you. So after our first full week of quarantine, I wanted to share some things we did that were big hits with the kids, and I’ll be doing...Continue Reading

Feed the caterpillar pom pom drop is a fun twist on the classic pom pom drop activity for toddlers. This is the BEST indoor activity for spring!

Laura @inspiremyplay Founder of @inspiremyplay, Early Years teacher for 11 years and mummy to three gorgeous girls. I'm passionate about about the benefits of play in early childhood. This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and go on to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you). Please read my disclosure policy for more details. Ocean themed activities seem to be a big hit in our house! I realised the other day just how many ocean and beach themed activities I've shared on Instagram over the past 18 months and thought it would be great to collate them all in one place to share with you. Many are sensory play based, with a few STEM activities and art & craft thrown in too. I hope you find some inspiration! Spaghetti Ocean We love a bit of spaghetti play! It's such a fun sensory experience and makes a brilliant ocean/seaweed base to play alongside ocean animals. To make coloured spaghetti cook it according to the packet instructions (or use leftover spaghetti). Add a few drops of food colouring and use tongs to toss the spaghetti in the food colouring. Once it has soaked for a few minutes, remove any excess food colouring by rinsing it under water. To make this ocean I divided the spaghetti into two and coloured one half green and one half blue. Ocean & Beach Clean-up Explore the problem of ocean pollution with kids in a hands-on way! I allowed the girls to have fun playing with a lovely clean beach before I sent them away for a few minutes and added the rubbish. They were shocked and saddened by the mess! It was a really powerful way to highlight the issue. The girls then used their fine motor tools to remove the rubbish and restore the beach. Sticky Fish We love the possibilities of sticky back plastic (otherwise known as contact paper)! For this activity cut out a fish shape from cardboard and add a piece of sticky back plastic to the back so that the sticky side is facing upwards. Draw lines over the fish and provide pom-poms or other craft materials to decorate. This activity is great for fine motor skills and can be used many times over as the pom-poms come off easily and can be re-stuck. Jelly Ocean Jelly is a great sensory play option for little ones who are still mouthing. I found this blue jelly in the supermarket, but if you can't find some you could use a packet of gelatine with some blue food colouring. Add the sea creatures before leaving the jelly to set. Then provide spoons and other tools so that the kids can enjoy digging them out and 'rescuing them' from the jelly. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laura | Inspire My Play ® (@inspiremyplay) Under the Sea Salt Painting We love salt painting! It is such a fun and effective art technique that just uses salt, glue and watercolours. You can learn about the whole process on this Instagram post. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laura | Inspire My Play ® (@inspiremyplay) Shaving Foam Ocean I made this Arctic Ocean using shaving foam with a few drops of food colouring swirled in. To make the ice I used freezer frost! But if you're better than me at keeping your freezer in check you could use blocks of ice frozen in packaging or bits of polystyrene. Layers of the Ocean This liquid density activity is a brilliant way of exploring the layers or 'zones' of the ocean and uses everyday liquids that you should be able to find at home. Find out all the details on this Instagram post. Rock Pool Play Tray We may not be able to go to the beach at the moment but you can bring the beach to the kids by creating your very own rock pool! Set it up in a large tray or tub so they can get their feet in and get the whole experience! Salt Water Habitat Sort Explore where different sealife come from with this mini habitat sort. I chose a coral reef, open ocean, rockpool, polar ocean and mangrove for my habitats. The girls sorted the sealife into the right habitat and we discussed a few that you might find in different places. Then they had a lovely time playing with the small worlds afterwards. Frozen Aquarium The girls loved rescuing the sealife out of our frozen aquarium on a hot day last summer. I gave them bottles of warm water and tools to chip away at the ice. Find all the details about how I froze it in layers on this Instagram post. Bubble Foam Ocean We love bubble Foam! It's a great enhancement to water play and quick to set up. To make bubble foam put 1 part tear free bubble bath (or washing up liquid) to 2 parts water into a bowl. We usually do 1/2 cup of bubble bath and 1 cup of water at a time. If you'd like to colour your bubble foam add a little food colouring at this stage. Mix it up using an electric hand mixer until you start to get stiff peaks and then scoop it out into a tray for play. We usually make 3 or 4 batches of different colours to fill a tray. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laura | Inspire My Play ® (@inspiremyplay) Get your FREE ebook For more simple DIY recipes & ideas for sensory play at home download your Beginner's Guide to Sensory Play by subscribing to Inspire My Play today. Get Yours Now Fizzy Ocean Have you tried mixing bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) with vinegar before? It makes an exciting fizzy reaction that little ones just love! To make a fizzy ocean lay out a thin layer of bicarbonate of soda onto a tray and add in some sealife figures and shells. Then fill a couple of dishes with white vinegar and add a few drops of colouring to make one blue and one green-blue. Provide pipettes or droppers for children to transfer the vinegar to the play tray. As they squeeze it into the tray it will react with the bicarbonate of soda and create a fantastic fizzy, foamy ocean. Once the girls had finished creating their ocean I then provided them with a bowl of water and they had fun cleaning up the animals. Sand Play Dough This may be slightly off the ocean theme but sand play dough is great stuff and I had to share it! Sand play dough has a really unique texture to it and perfect for at-home beach play. Add some shells and loose parts for them to make their own pictures in the dough. You can find my sand play dough recipe on this blog post. For more beach and ocean themed activities do check out my pinterest topic board here. You can find a full list of our favourite play & craft supplies on my Amazon storefronts. Amazon UK Supplies Amazon US Supplies

50+ Awesome Summer Activities is a fabulous collection of easy summer activities for kids! Tons of ways to keep your child busy all summer!

Celebrate our planet with these fun and educational Earth Day fine motor activities that will get your toddler's fingers moving!

It's tough to keep a toddler entertained for longer than a minute. These fun activities, however, are sure to keep your little one engaged.

Here are 22 circle time ideas for toddlers and preschoolers that are easy, fun, and perfect for social development!

This Frozen Sand Sensory Bin doubles as a small world ocean. Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers will love this summer sensory activity.

What a great quick and easy toddler activity! Make a puzzle hunt sensory bin for a perfect indoor toddler activity! An easy toddler sensory bin.

Here is a GIGANTIC list of the best indoor activities for kids. Turn those dreaded rainy or snowy days to the most memorable!

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I never get tired of Pinterest. There are so many great ideas, and it’s just fun! Here are some of my favorite finds as of late… Use clips to connect the letter cards to make words. Als…

with the plan to stay home the next few weeks, i’ve hopefully gotten through the worst of my panic mode about the fact that i forgot to buy any cauliflower WHATSOEVER lol. seriously woke up a…

Need Painting Tuff Tray Ideas and Activities for your Toddlers and Preschoolers today? These easy activities can be set up quickly and cheaply

Anya, the founder of Montessori From The Heart, is an educational coach, a blogger, an author, a digital creator, and an influencer.

Bored at home with your kids? Here are 50 awesome toddler activity ideas your little ones are going to love + a FREE checklist.

A quick and easy fine motor scissor skills activity cutting leaves. It's a great Fall activity to do after a nature walk.

I just love this color changing flowers science experiment! It is really easy to do and the kids love watching the flowers change color. We think it is the perfect science activity for spring! I even created printable recording sheets that kids in preschool and early elementary can use to show their observations.

Try this FREE popsicle stick flower themed printable to work on number recognition and counting for toddlers and preschoolers

Okay these are wheely great!

Create a colorful sponge painted ice cream cone craft with this easy summer craft for kids! A fun craft for kids of all ages!

Keep your toddler busy with these fast, fun activities. You won't even need to make a trip to the store because you probably already have what you need!

Whether it's using leaves, twigs, rocks or flowers passed their prime, here are 30+ nature crafts to do with kids of all ages!

This fun, hands-on pet sensory bin activity is perfect for your preschool or pre-k students. Teach your kids about pet care with fun mud and soapy water!

Balloon Printing💚💚So CoolEnjoy!! Please like👍 before saving💾 and dont forget to check out more of my tips👉

Looking for some super easy toddler activities? Check out this list of 40+ crazy easy toddler activities - no prep, lots of fun, and perfect for toddlers!

Today we have made these nature sensory bags which are a great way of introducing your child to nature while being a great sensory experience too!

In my home, I have a closet of kids art and activity supplies, and when I am looking for ideas, I sometimes just go and look inside and see what inspires me. Today, I noticed some easel paper and bubble wrap. We have had lots of fun with bubble wrap in the past, creating Bubble Wrap Prints and Painting with Rolling Pins and Bubble Wrap. I decided to pair up bubble wrap and paint again, but this time I wanted it to be more of a gross motor experience. And so, Bubble Wrap Stomp Painting was born. You will need: Tempera paintEasel