Here’s our homemade sensory stepping stones activity…
My 4yo is all about textures, he adores soft textures, but cannot stand rough textures, so an activity based around textures is highly beneficial for him. My 2yo just loves making a mess and standing on things he thinks he shouldn’t, so a sensory stepping stones activity sounded right up his street.
I carefully thought about all of the possibilities for the stepping stones, and they were endless. I wanted to use both everyday items, and items that were readily available. I collected together various items and made sure they were safe to step on with bare feet. I wanted my boys to get the most they could out of this experience, and bare footedness would most definitely accomplish this.
I set up two strips of blue coloured material. On one strip I placed A4 squares of fake green grass, two coloured acrylic tiles, two pieces of wood, two ceramic tiles with a 3D patterned metallic finish, porridge oats, and two A6 pieces of brightly coloured fake grass.
On the second strip of blue material I placed two ceramic tiles finished with different 3D metallic patterns, A5 brightly coloured fake grass, A4 green fake grass, A5 piece of oak, several sticks we collected at the park the previous day, an orange acrylic tile, a mirror, cotton wool balls, a silicone Lego mould, silver plastic wrapping, clear plastic packaging, and a large present bow.
I told my boys the blue strip of material was a river and they had to make their way safely across using all of the items as stepping stones. They loved this idea, and took their socks off straight away! It was such a good way to incorporate imaginative play into our activity.
We spoke about the textures of the sensory stepping stones along the way, and asked my boys what each one felt like. They walked along, ran along, tiptoed along, and crawled along. They used their feet and their hands to explore the textures.
The porridge oats stepping stone was a big hit. Both of my boys loved stepping into this, and wriggling their toes around. It soon turned to a game of ‘lets see how far we can kick these oats’! Boys will be boys!
After walking down the first strip several times my 4yo decided to rearrange the sensory stepping stones himself, and they both then walked up and down the arrangement several times, and then they crawled up and down it! This let them both practise their balancing skills too – they didn’t want to fall into the ‘water’!
My boys then moved onto the next strip of blue material. They loved stepping into the sticks, and they were even more delighted about them being the sticks they had collected at the park the day before. My 2yo loved standing on the plastic packaging and hearing it crunch under his feet – he loves anything that seems mischievous, and this certainly sounded it!
The present bow sensory stepping stone was also very popular with my 2yo. He loved the feel of it on his feet and the crunching noise it made.
As they made their way through the sensory stepping stones they then went back to explore each one. The cotton wool turned into ‘snow’, and then we had a snowball fight – initiated by my 4yo of course! A huge plastic T-Rex was placed onto the sticks sensory stepping stone, the pieces of wood were piled high, and the mirror was used to pull faces into!
We loved this activity, and would recommend sensory stepping stones to everybody with children. It is such a versatile activity in terms of setup too. It is also good for their senses, their balance, their agility, and their imaginative play – the possibilities are endless. And the best thing about this activity is that you can use anything you want for your sensory stepping stones – next time we are going to try an edible sensory stepping stones activity!
Give it a go!