Sensory play is an excellent activity to help your little ones learn about textures and how different materials work. Do they make things sink? Or float? Or do they make things dirty? Or clean? Do they rustle, or make other sounds? MiniZoo figures are perfect for use in sensory activities as your little one can play with their favourite animals.

For this activity we’ve used 3 different sensory trays: dirt, sand and water. This is mostly because I wanted to focus on the idea of cleaning something that’s dirty for my almost 2 year old daughter.

The MiniZoo figures she has been cleaning today are from her farm collection, but any MiniZoo animals can be cleaned in a sensory play activity such as this one. The use of farm animals is great because farms can be quite dirty, particularly pigs and cows, as we’ve recently seen in our farm visits as a family. I love integrating recent experiences with Norah’s playtime as it builds on her understanding of the animals she’s learning about on many different levels.

The farm figures she's washing include: CollectA Friesian cow and calf, Papo Alezan English Thoroughbred and foal, CollectA sheep and lamb, CollectA sow and piglet sitting, CollectA rabbit, Schleich German shepherd puppy, Schleich Dalmation puppy and Schleich Yorkshire Terrier puppy (the puppies are her favourite). There are a few other figures in the mix as well. 

The trays we use are from IKEA and work perfectly for this kind of activity as they're deep enough to bury animal figures in (and they're stackable which is handy for storage when not in use).

Our ‘dirt’ mix is mostly damp soil from an unused garden bed, which I’d previously bought from Bunnings, but any good soil or dirt would do the job – it depends on how muddy your child likes to get. My little one is still warming up to the idea that getting dirty is fun, so our dirt mix is easy to brush off. 

For the sand, you can get it from Bunnings, or if you live near a beach - it’s free! I got this sand from our “beach” (AKA the river here in Canberra where we swim in Summertime).

Our third tray of water is straight from the tap, but you could also add some soapy dish detergent to the water tray to make some bubbles for your little one to splash around. Depending on how long your little one wants to play, you may need to freshen up the water at some point as it will become quite dirty and cloudy as the wash continues. Be sure to tip the old water on the grass or plants to save wasting water. 

So those are my 3 sensory trays for our 'dirty and wash' activity, but the list of sensory items you could use for an activity like this is endless: rice, cereal, leaves, grass clippings (from the last time you mowed), mulch, split peas, pasta, oats, gravel, jelly, pom-poms... I could keep going but we’d be here all day. Some of these options are less messy than others, but getting messy is part of the learning as well, so just set it up outside to minimise the clean up.

As this activity can be both messy and wet, I suggest old clothes or an apron/smock be worn to minimise your laundry later on.

We love seeing your sensory play activities with our MiniZoo figures so please share your photos with us through our Facebook and Instagram pages. Our Instagram page is also a great place to see how others have incorporated sensory activities into their child’s playtime. If you’d like some more inspiration for sensory play activities with MiniZoo figures, check out our Pinterest boards as well.

Enjoy watching you little ones learning through sensory play (and don’t stress too much about the mess - that’s half the fun!).

Jenna @ MiniZoo