Some of the best ideas for play and learning comes from kids, as they take one activity and turn it into completely different direction! Similar happened with an activity we are sharing here, the one we called Slippery LEGO sensory play and it all began with a simple sensory bin filled with water beads!
Both of my daughters, particularly younger, enjoy an everyday sensory play. And if you followed us for a while, you might have noticed that we have quite a collection of sensory based ideas! If not, you can browse our sensory play category for inspiration!
Setting up Slippery Lego Sensory Play
We used:
- sensory bin
- water beads
- LEGO DUPLO® bricks
- plastic spoons in different sizes
- bottle caps from recycle bin
I have prepared sensory bin in advance for kids to find when they wake up.
Filled it up with water beads
Let’s Play!
Girls approached exploring sensory bin very differently – while the older one had to touch water beads with her hands, little one decided to use spoons and fill in bottle caps with water beads.
She continued until all bottle caps were filled. Then she spotted that, as she was scooping and pouring water beads, that some of them ended on top of LEGO DUPLO® bricks, in those little studs. (Had to Google it! Apparently, that’s what little indents on the top of the Lego bricks are called, according to LEGO® glossary!)
She placed LEGO DUPLO® bricks on the table, just next to the sensory bin and began placing one water bead on top of each stud.
You wouldn’t believe how hard this is! I had to try it myself!
Water beads are so slippery and they tend to “run away” from hands, even with smallest pressure! (Yeah, that’s why this post ended up named Slippery Lego sensory play!)
Still, she continued to fill in studs until all were filled. Awesome for fine motor skills practice!
Next, she decided to bring up on the table “city” she created day before from LEGO DUPLO® bricks and fill studs on them with water beads too. Of course, Dora the Explorer
All in all, Slippery Lego sensory play was a fun and easy to prepare sensory play that doubled as fine motor skill practice for my toddler.
Hope you’ll be inspired to do some mix and match with toys you already have on hand and add some sensory elements to change it up.
It’s interesting how small changes make a toy completely new and interesting for kids!
365 Things to Do with LEGO Bricks
Hundreds of creative LEGO® build ideas, activities, games, challenges, and pranks! Go on a LEGO treasure hunt. Create and perform LEGO magic tricks. Make a LEGO stop-motion movie. Build your own LEGO pet. Challenge your family to build the tallest LEGO tower—and much, much more! Featuring imaginative play and building ideas—from LEGO games that take just a few minutes and require a handful of bricks, to inspirational build ideas and activities to keep you occupied for hours. Find 365 Things to Do with LEGO Bricks here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom
Additional Activities with Lego bricks
- enjoy sensory play with Lego Color Graphing – free printable included
- for down time set up a Lego Tea Party Pretend Play
I can imagine how slippery this activity was! What a fantastic way to develop those fine motor skills. Never knew the knobbly bits were called studs!
Ha! 🙂 Me either! 😉 Will you be trying this with Adam? Think he would enjoy this activity?
That looks like fun! Slippery and slimy activities are always a hit in my house with my son 🙂
Here too! 🙂
Water beads — what a fun addition to Lego blocks! I love the idea of setting the water beads on each bump of the Lego block. So fun!
I love when our kids discover something interesting in their play like this. Thanks for sharing with Made for Kids. I hope you can visit our all-new link party this coming Sunday at the same time (10pm EST).