Baby Play: Sensory Tray with Recycled Materials

Toys don't need to be expensive. Fill our play area with recycled materials for your little ones to explore. Great fun to allow babies to fill and empty pots and boxes.

Often I find my self with a small gap of time to fill, like before dinner for instance or just before the school run. This activity is great for filling this time and keeps not only babies busy but even my eight year old enjoys sitting and playing with this activity. I tend to keep a good stash of recycling in door's in case the children want to do some junk modelling or for when I have crafts planned. 

As soon as I emptied the recycling box into the tray Tinnie jumped straight into the tray and started exploring the materials that I had added. His eye's were instantly drawn to the bottle tops ( I removed any which were small enough to go in his mouth). When he discovered the inside of the egg boxes they were soon filled with the bottle caps once each one had been in his mouth.

It took him a while to spot the shiny materials. The bowls were placed up to his face to look at his reflection, although the image wasn't clear I think he could make out the shape of his eyes. These then also got filled with the bottle tops.

P spotted that the toilet rolls could slide up and down the kitchen roll tubes and she showed Tinnie how to do it. Tinnie took the two pieces a part and then tried to fit them together again like his sister.

Links to Development Matters:
• Showing curiosity about objects, events and people
• Using senses to explore the world around them
• Engaging in open-ended activity
• Thinking of ideas
• Finding ways to solve problems

I have added some products below on a carousel which help support sensory play for babies.

(The carousel links to Amazon using my affiliates account. That simply means that if you buy anything after following a link, it will not make any difference to you but I may earn a little bit of pocket money!)