Farmer's Market Printable Dramatic Play Kit: Sparking Imagination and Learning

Are you looking to add a touch of creativity and education to your child's playtime? Introducing the Farmer's Market Printable Dramatic Play Kit! This kit includes an awning, flag, open sign, bunting banner, and food labels to set the stage for a fun and interactive pretend play experience.

Sensory Activity Bins:

Silicone Fruit and Veggies Bin:

Fill this bin with realistic-looking silicone fruits and vegetables from @nugg_butts to spark tactile sensations and encourage imaginative play.

Pasta & Grains Bin:

Utilize egg noodles as a taste-safe filler in this sensory bin to introduce different textures and promote sensory exploration through touch.

Cash Register Checkout:

Enhance cognitive skills by incorporating a cash register into the play, where children can role-play as vendors or customers, practicing basic math and social interaction.

Benefits of Sensory Play:

Engaging in sensory activities like those provided in this Farmer's Market kit can benefit children in various ways, including improving fine motor skills, enhancing cognitive development, fostering creativity, and aiding in language and social skills development.

Vocabulary List (25 words):

  1. Fruit

  2. Vegetable

  3. Market

  4. Stall

  5. Customer

  6. Vendor

  7. Cash

  8. Register

  9. Scale

  10. Price

  11. Buy

  12. Sell

  13. Bunting

  14. Banner

  15. Checkout

  16. Open

  17. Sign

  18. Awning

  19. Produce

  20. Grocery

  21. Basket

  22. Shopping

  23. Play

  24. Role

  25. Pretend

Unleash your child's imagination and educational potential with the Farmer's Market Printable Dramatic Play Kit, designed to make learning fun and interactive through sensory-rich activities.

Dive into Mermaid and Sea Animal Ocean Sensory Play: A Flisat Table Adventure

Sensory play is a wonderful way to engage children in hands-on learning, stimulating their senses and fostering creativity. It provides an opportunity for children to explore, experiment, and discover new textures, colors, and shapes. This blog post will guide you through three exciting sensory play trays for the IKEA Flisat table, each designed to transport your child to an enchanting underwater world filled with mermaids and sea creatures. Don’t forget to snag the Surf Shack Printables so that you can bring this fabulous ocean theme to life for Ocean Week!

Flisat Table Bin 1: Mermaid Insert

Our first sensory tray features the Mermaid Insert from WonderYearsPlay. This activity insert is perfect for filling with rice or chickpeas, creating a colorful and tactile experience. We used rainbow-painted chickpeas from @curiouswren to add a magical touch to our mermaid world. To recreate this setup, here’s what you’ll need:

Here’s how you can create your own colored rice or chickpeas at home:

How to make colored rice for flisat table sensory play:

  1. Measure out the desired amount of rice.

  2. In a zip-lock bag, add rice and a few drops of food coloring.

  3. Add a teaspoon of vinegar to help the color adhere to the rice.

  4. Seal the bag and shake until the rice is evenly coated with color.

  5. Spread the rice out on a baking sheet to dry.

How to make colored chickpeas for flisat table sensory play:

  1. Place chickpeas in a zip-lock bag.

  2. Add a few drops of acrylic paint to the bag.

  3. Seal the bag and shake until the chickpeas are coated in paint.

  4. Spread the chickpeas out on a baking sheet to dry.

These colorful fillers create a vibrant and interactive environment for your child to explore, matching and sorting different mermaids by color.

Flisat Table Bin 2: Coral Reef Tray

The Coral Reef Tray uses magnetic sand as a base filler, providing a unique texture that mimics the ocean floor. To create the coral reef, use dried pasta noodles of different shapes and sizes, painted in various colors with acrylic paint. Here’s how to prepare the pasta:

  1. Select different pasta shapes such as bow ties, rotini, and shells.

  2. Lay the pasta out on a protected surface.

  3. Paint each shape with acrylic paint in bright coral colors like pink, orange, and yellow.

  4. Let the pasta dry completely before adding it to the tray.

Arrange the painted pasta on top of the magnetic sand to create a vibrant coral reef, and add small sea animal figures to enhance the underwater adventure.

Flisat Table Bin 3: Taste Safe Beach Small World Play

Our final sensory tray is a taste-safe Jello beach, perfect for younger children. This tray combines crushed graham crackers for sand with blue jello for the ocean, creating an immersive and edible play experience. Here’s how to set it up:

  1. Crush graham crackers to create a sandy texture.

  2. Prepare blue jello according to the package instructions and pour it into a shallow tray.

  3. Once the jello has set, add the crushed graham crackers to one side of the tray to represent the beach.

  4. Place small ocean animal figures into the jello for children to dig out.

  5. For added fun, use whipped cream to create white foamy water on the beach.

This tray allows children to enjoy sensory play while also exploring new tastes and textures in a safe way.

The Benefits of Sensory Play

Sensory play is an invaluable tool for early childhood development. It helps to build fine motor skills, enhances cognitive growth, and promotes language development. Through activities like these mermaid and sea animal trays, children can learn about the ocean, develop their imagination, and engage in meaningful play.

Mermaid and Ocean Vocabulary for Preschoolers:

  1. Mermaid

  2. Ocean

  3. Coral

  4. Reef

  5. 5. Fish

  6. Seaweed

  7. Shell

  8. Starfish

  9. Crab

  10. Dolphin

  11. Whale

  12. Jellyfish

  13. Octopus

  14. Seagull

  15. Beach

  16. Sand

  17. Wave

  18. Boat

  19. Tide

  20. Current

  21. Anchor

  22. Buoy

  23. Sailor

  24. Lagoon

  25. Harbor

By incorporating these words into your sensory play activities, you can help your child expand their vocabulary while having fun. Dive into these mermaid and sea animal sensory trays and watch your child’s creativity and learning soar!

National Pick Strawberries Day

Happy National Pick Strawberries Day! We’re so lucky in that we live right next to Watsonville which is the strawberry capital of the US. And for Mother’s Day this year we took Sofie strawberry picking as a family. It was so much fun to watch her snag all of the strawberries and eat them as we went. The whole trip inspired me to design this adorable Strawberry Picking Dramatic play kit. How cute are these sensory set ups by @allthibgslambandroo and @pockets.of.sweetness!?