This fun sensory set up has the added bonus of your kids getting to make their own treasure maps!
What you need:
- black beans, rice and chickpeas
- blue food coloring
- white vinegar
- gold acrylic paint (we used the IKEA MALA type)
- Ziploc bags
- fun pirate loose parts like coins, a treasure chest, eye patches and mini telescopes
- a bin or container
- A4 white paper or card
- markers (we used Magic Stix)
- we also added our favorite pirate book, Pirates Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
- blue food coloring
- white vinegar
- gold acrylic paint (we used the IKEA MALA type)
- Ziploc bags
- fun pirate loose parts like coins, a treasure chest, eye patches and mini telescopes
- a bin or container
- A4 white paper or card
- markers (we used Magic Stix)
- we also added our favorite pirate book, Pirates Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
How it works:
There is a little bit of prep involved to color the rice and chickpeas but both are really easy to do. To color the rice add one cup of rice, a few drops of blue food coloring and a small squirt of white vinegar to the Ziploc bag and shake it all together. Once the color has spread, pour the rice out onto a baking sheet covered in foil and let it dry overnight.
For the golden chickpeas, add half a small (1lb) bag of chickpeas to a Ziploc bag and squirt about 2-3 tablespoons of the gold acrylic paint into the bag. Shake it all up, making sure the paint spreads over all of the chickpeas. Pour them on to a different foil covered tray and leave to dry for about half an hour. I must give credit for this fun idea of coloring the chickpeas to @prekwolfpack over on Instagram!
Once all of the sensory materials are dry, arrange them in your bin or container along with the pirate-themed loose parts. Then add some paper and markers, as well as a fun pirate-themed book if you have one. As soon as my kids saw this set up they were both super excited to get stuck in... and in character!
Both of them went straight for the sensory bin. They explored all of the different loose parts and loved filling up the treasure chest!
It wasn't long before big bro spotted the treasure hunt map I'd made as an example. He was excited to get to work on his own map, complete with eye patch of course.
He had so much fun drawing maps and hiding the treasure. I had assumed he would just bury it in the sensory bin, but he had the great idea to actually draw the map for the house. He hid the treasure and then got me to follow his map to find it. We even had to avoid broken bridges and angry alligators!
Meanwhile, baby sis was still busy being hands-on with the sensory bin! She carefully explored the various colors and textures of the black beans, rice and chickpeas.
She also really enjoyed testing out the telescope!
I really enjoyed watching them both working together to fill the treasure chest and carefully hide it away from me. There was so much conversation and collaboration!
I really like making small world set ups like this because they seem to work well for both my 2 year old and 5 year old. They engage with the materials in different ways, but are both hands-on and learning through play. Winner!
For the golden chickpeas, add half a small (1lb) bag of chickpeas to a Ziploc bag and squirt about 2-3 tablespoons of the gold acrylic paint into the bag. Shake it all up, making sure the paint spreads over all of the chickpeas. Pour them on to a different foil covered tray and leave to dry for about half an hour. I must give credit for this fun idea of coloring the chickpeas to @prekwolfpack over on Instagram!
Once all of the sensory materials are dry, arrange them in your bin or container along with the pirate-themed loose parts. Then add some paper and markers, as well as a fun pirate-themed book if you have one. As soon as my kids saw this set up they were both super excited to get stuck in... and in character!
Both of them went straight for the sensory bin. They explored all of the different loose parts and loved filling up the treasure chest!
It wasn't long before big bro spotted the treasure hunt map I'd made as an example. He was excited to get to work on his own map, complete with eye patch of course.
He had so much fun drawing maps and hiding the treasure. I had assumed he would just bury it in the sensory bin, but he had the great idea to actually draw the map for the house. He hid the treasure and then got me to follow his map to find it. We even had to avoid broken bridges and angry alligators!
Meanwhile, baby sis was still busy being hands-on with the sensory bin! She carefully explored the various colors and textures of the black beans, rice and chickpeas.
She also really enjoyed testing out the telescope!
I really enjoyed watching them both working together to fill the treasure chest and carefully hide it away from me. There was so much conversation and collaboration!
I really like making small world set ups like this because they seem to work well for both my 2 year old and 5 year old. They engage with the materials in different ways, but are both hands-on and learning through play. Winner!
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