Sensory activities can be very helpful to early childhood development. This Disney Princess sensory activity will help them understand their environment more, learn how to focus, and help with many other developmental skills, all while playing and having fun. Learn how to make four different DIY sensory items to go along with this fun and educational toddler activity.
We are big Disney princess fans at our house and love going to Disneyland to see all the princesses but that isn’t always in the works so we’ve brought Disney princesses home with this fun I Spy activity that is the perfect toddler sensory activity. Pick from chia seed slime, pasta & rice or the least messy option, a squishy sealed bag filled with glue & any paint color of choice. Or mix it up each week and try all three!
This first activity is a taste safe sensory play idea using chia seeds! If your little toddler happened to explore a little with their mouths, it would be okay. For this activity, you’ll want to print and laminate our Disney princess scene page and our “I Spy a Disney Princess” checklist page. Then make chia slime.
Chia Seed Slime is one of the easiest slimes to make and the texture is so fun for toddlers! To make chia seed slime for your taste safe sensory play bin:
To play, place the laminated princess scene underneath a glass baking dish like shown above. We used our pyrex casserole dish, but you could use any clear dish. You just want to make sure it’s big enough that you can see the whole Disney princess scene underneath and that it has sides so that the chia seed slime doesn’t escape.
Next, add your chia seed slime! Add enough to cover the entire Disney princess scene. Now the really fun part — using little baby spoons or fingers and toes, your toddler has to play “I Spy a Princess” and search for each princess. Depending on their age they can play in the chia seed slime and just mark off any princess they find. Or to make it a little more challenging for older toddlers, have them go in order finding the princess next on the list to check-off. Chia seed slime is messy but oh so fun! Depending on how messy you let them get, we’d suggest playing outside where you can hose them off afterwards for easy clean-up.
This option is a lot less messy, but still just as fun! To make this sensory bin you’ll want to first color rice or pasta (or leave as is). For a simple and quick tutorial on coloring rice and pasta, click here. You’ll want to print off our Disney princess pages, cut out the circles, and laminate the game pieces.
We had some Disney princess character toys that we also added to the bin. The object of this game is to hide the laminated princess game pieces in the rice and pasta sensory bin and have your toddler match the princess to their checklist. When they find the princess, they check it off. This is a great matching game that helps toddlers with visual training, increase attention to detail, and helps them find similarities and differences in objects.
To make it a little more challenging and increase fine motor skills, have them use tweezers when searching for the princesses. Sensory bins are a great hands-on tool for children to explore their world through senses and creative play. And they’re a lot of fun!
This option is least messy out of all of them and perfect for controlled indoor play. We also love it because you can reuse the bag for other activities like writing letters or drawing simple pictures.
To make the squishy plastic bag, just pour glue and a touch of paint (any color and as much as you want for the desired color) into a gallon size plastic bag. Get out as much air as possible, seal the bag and mix. Place the scene under the bag and tape it down.
Now comes the fun part. Your toddler gets to squish and push the glue all around, searching for all the princesses. Help them mark off each one until they find them all.
This is just like the chia seed slime, but with ooblek. This was by far the favorite of all the kids — ranging from our 23 month old toddler to our 12 year old! Oobleck is such a cool medium. It’s not a liquid or solid, but has properties of both. It’s known as a non-Newtonian fluid. When not being played with, oobleck is gooey, sticky, and melts in your hand like a liquid. However, as soon as you hit it or roll it in your hands and put pressure on it, it appears to be a solid.
Here is how to make Oobleck with basic household items:
To play I Spy a Disney Princess with oobleck, place the laminated princess scene underneath a glass baking dish like shown above. Again we recommend a pyrex glass baking dish, or something similar. Add oobleck to your dish and make sure the Disney princess scene is completely covered.
Using hands or baby spoons, let your kids play in the oobleck and move it around to search for the princesses. Our kids preferred to use their hands! When they found the princess they were searching for they added a blob of oobleck to the page to check the princess off the list. Oobleck is definitely messy, but clean up is easy. It washes right off, or if you let it dry you can just sweep it up.
*Click here to download the printable I Spy a Princess Toddler Sensory Activity!
*I Spy A Princess Toddler Sensory Activity can now be found in our Etsy shop at a super discounted price. Go check them out!
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We hope your toddlers enjoy these sensory activity games. Follow us on instagram @thealohahut to see what activities free prints are coming up. And please tag us so we can see your toddler in action.
Much love and aloha,
Stacey and Niki
Aloha Friends! We hope to inspire you to create magical memories with your ohana through play, learning, and celebrating. We offer ideas that make celebrating and playing fun and easy, so that you want to do it more often! We love sharing our creativity and talents with you, and hope you find some content on our page that inspires you to create a beautiful life with your ohana.
