Click here to read Flour Sensory Play for Toddlers (& Being Okay with the Mess) on Hands On As We Grow®
Set up a fun busy activity for toddlers and preschoolers. An easy flour sensory play station will entertain children again and again!
I recently challenged my newsletter subscribers to three very simple activities (get on the list to get the challenges!). I love these challenges and often find that they even help myself get out of a rut.
One of the three activities was this one, set out a tray of flour to let your kids explore. You can see the fun readers had with the challenge (and previous ones) here.
After giving that challenge, I saw all these photos coming back of their kids doing the flour activity. I found myself kind of panicking with the messes in their photos and surprised that so many chose to do that activity because of the mess.
It was kind of a wake-up call for me. I don’t normally mind messes!
And I usually promote messy play. But we haven’t been messy like that in a long time.
One of the last times was Henry’s version of the flour sensory play activity from years ago.
The challenge that I prompted my readers with actually challenged me to do it. So we did!
I’ve just gotta remember that messes can be cleaned up!
And can I tell you that now, after allowing the mess, my kids are asking to do this activity every single day since? And it is one of the simplest ever!
How to Set Up Flour Sensory Play for Toddlers
I found two trays I had on hand for George and Louis. And dumped just a quarter cup of flour on each. That’s plenty! Less flour is more in this case. You can always add more.
Don’t overdo it, because you will be cleaning it all up and the trails it makes with the kids.
I gathered a few supplies, such as measuring spoons, a slotted spoon, and a can strainer… basically any kitchen utensil I thought might be interesting for them. And I just let them have fun!
You could add in a large bowl or muffin or ice cube trays to let the kids transfer the flour back and forth with the scoops, which is great hand-eye coordination practice!
If you want, you can make a cloud dough recipe easily enough with just two ingredients. Just add in some oil to the flour. It’s super easy and molds a little bit. But just plain flour is lots of fun, so try it first!
But we just made doodles in flour.
And drew letters and shapes.
They made handprints (over and over again!) which led to flour splashing out.
FYI: I did have readers say that flour is NOT good to eat plain (I believe in large quantities, so I don’t believe this will be an issue). So if you have a toddler that eats everything in sight, keep an eye on it. But I have a hunch that once they taste plain flour, they’ll stop pretty immediately.
We learned quickly that we could erase away any of our marks my a quick shake of the tray. Much like an Etch-a-Sketch (affiliate link)!
And they could start right back over again.
Then the boys dug out their cars and trucks to drive in the flour. There had to be a snowplow to move all the ‘snow’ too.
Just the first day we got the flour trays out three times. Cleaned up, shoved them off to the side and came back later. This is one that I need to learn to be okay with the mess because it’s well worth it!
You can try this flour sensory play with other pantry items: we’ve tried cornmeal sensory bin, a rainbow rice sensory tub, shaving cream works much the same and is so much fun (add in food coloring!), and oatmeal is also a simple sensory bin. There are tons of ideas you can use a sensory bin filler.
Burst out your creativity (you have it!) and see what you can use in your pantry (do you have dried beans or pasta!?)! Or sandbox!
My easy clean up tip:
Prep your area beforehand, have your sensory tray (a cookie sheet is fine) in a large tub if possible. Lay out a plastic table cloth under the area the kids are playing. This helps you easily fold it up, take it outside and shake it off.
Or just take it outside if you can.
If you forge to prep the area first like we normally do when we’re planning great activities… Get the kids involved in clean up!
What can they do to help in a fun way?
My kids love the vacuum so they get to suck up all the spilled over flour mess.
After playing with all the toy cars in the flour, they were a mess! I set them to wash off the toys in the sink, and they just think its part of the fun!
Our Previous Flour Sensory Play
When Henry was younger, I set out a jelly roll pan with a layer of flour spread along the bottom.
Be sure to only add as much flour as you want to clean up because there is guaranteed to be spills.
Check out these 10 tips to keep messy play clean
I intended for this to be practice for drawing and writing with his fingers in the flour. However, Henry only made a circle and that was the extent of that.
Oh well.
Henry soon got his backhoe, loader, semi and went to town plowing ‘snow’ and clearing the path.
It’s like an indoor sandbox!
This provided the entertainment for the entire morning. Even though Grandma was visiting.
I’m not sure which was more fun though… the plowing… or the cleanup.
Sucking up the flour with the vacuum showed instant gratification. It’s always nice to see that it actually makes a difference when you’re cleaning.
I did set a sheet down under Henry, although flour still got everywhere. But it’s easily cleaned up. This is one of the 10 tips to keep messy play clean.
Vacuuming gets the majority of the flour mess, but it doesn’t make the table spot clean.
How do you encourage (and handle) messy play or activities?
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