Sensory play activities are always a hit with young children, and this sensory activity is at the top of our list of favorite sensory play experiences. The Sensory Chef sensory activity idea came to me when I was doing a sensory Easter egg hunt with my kids. When I had the idea I wondered why I had never thought to do it before. It combines so many things that children love – plastic Easter eggs, messy play, hands-on activities, and pretend play – all rolled into one! My kids had an absolute blast with this sensory play activity!
In this post, I will show you how to do the Sensory Chef sensory activity with your child. It’s super easy and quick to prepare. If you are comfortable letting your child (and your kitchen table) get a little messy, you can let older children do this activity somewhat independently while you supervise and get something done, like pay some bills, do the dishes, or maybe even read a book! Younger children – I’m thinking one and two year-olds – will likely need more help and interaction from you. But – if you take the activity outside you can probably let even toddlers do this independently, while you get that book in! – and supervise close by, of course. I’m excited to explain how Sensory Chef works, but first, let’s talk about the importance of sensory play.
Why Sensory Play is Important
Sensory experiences are really important for a child’s development. They play a huge role in a child’s brain development, language development and the development of fine and gross motor skills. Sensory activities also have a calming effect on a child’s nervous system and they help your child’s brain develop nerve connections. Sensory learning is part of the everyday activities of life. You don’t have to go out of your way to find opportunities for sensory exploration – simple activities like listening to music, jumping on the bed, and splashing in the bath all engage your child’s senses and enhance your child’s cognitive development. However, in today’s screen saturated indoor society, it can be a challenge to provide as much sensory variety and stimulation as children crave.
The benefits of sensory play in early childhood are so numerous that it is well worth the effort to create some sensory activities for your child. They don’t have to be fancy or complicated. If you provide your child with different materials with a variety of textures, tactile play will naturally follow. Sensory Chef is a great way to get your child cooking with sensory play in a fun, low effort way!
You Will Need the Following Materials for Sensory Chef:
- Plastic Easter eggs
- An egg carton
- A few small plastic or metal bowls or containers (the material doesn’t really matter – they just need to not be breakable, so no glass!)
- A large bowl
- Kitchen utensils such as a wooden spoon, whisk, spatula, etc.
The following items are optional – choose some items from this list and your child will have fun with whatever you provide!
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Flour
- Sugar
- Salt
- Raisins
- Chocolate chips
- Nuts
- Sprinkles
- Chopped dates
- Dried cranberries
- Diced apples
- Cinnamon
- Ginger
You really can use anything edible for this activity. Here are some things to keep in mind as you are gathering the sensory materials:
- How much mess factor are you willing to tolerate? For example, you can use peanut butter or coconut oil, but mess factor goes way up with these ingredients!
- Anything is fair game in this activity – your child is most likely going to put these items in her mouth. Make sure everything you provide is safe for your child and not a choking hazard. Different ages will have different needs, of course. Older kids will have more safe options than a one year-old child. Cater to the youngest child that is participating in the activity.
- Try to provide foods with different textures, smells, and tastes in order to provide lots of interesting sensory experiences for your children’s senses.
Other optional materials:
- A plastic tablecloth – this is to help contain the mess. It isn’t required, but it’s a great idea and I recommend it for a fast and easy cleanup.
- An apron – it’s a good idea for fast and easy cleanup of your child!
Note: If your child is the type who really gets into sensory play in a smear things on his body and rub things in his hair kind of way, you might want to plan to do Sensory Chef right before bath time!
Instructions for Preparing Sensory Chef Sensory Play
- Place your plastic eggs in the egg carton.
- In each egg, put just a little bit of a single ingredient – a little salt, a few nuts, a few chocolate chips, a little cinnamon, etc..
- Set up a small bowl of flour for your child.
- Put a little water in a bowl and place that on the table.
- Provide a large mixing bowl next to the ingredients.
- Lay out measuring cups, spoons, a whisk, a wooden spoon, or whatever kitchen utensils you would like to provide. You can keep it simple with just a few spoons, or let your child experiment with different ways of measuring and mixing. Older children can probably handle more options, younger children may need just one measuring cup for scooping and one spoon for mixing in order to stay focused and not get overwhelmed.
Now it’s Play Time!
Show your child the Sensory Chef setup and let her take it away! Tell her she’s the chef and she gets to cook. Let her know she can mix things up however she would like. Make sure she knows that there are things inside the plastic eggs and she can crack them into her mixture. Let her know it’s ok to put her hands in the bowl and get messy. Then stand back and watch as she puts her fine motor skills and cognitive skills to work! She’ll be pretending, making decisions, wondering about what will happen if she does XYZ, and more!
This type of play is so much fun and so good for child development! It’s also a great opportunity to work on language skills by talking with your child about what she is experiencing – how does that look? How does it feel? What are these ingredients called? How do they taste? How do they smell? Use as many descriptive words as you can to capture the sensory experiences that your child is having.
When your child is starting to lose interest, make sure you move on to cleanup. If you let the activity go past the point where he is engaged, you are likely to end up with all the ingredients dumped on the floor. If you think this is likely in any case, do the activity outside on the grass or on the porch where you can hose off the mess!
I hope you and your child had so much fun with this sensory play activity! Thank you for visiting! I hope you stop by again!
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