Tag Archives: sensory play

Finger paint – fun sensory experience


finger paint |marmite et ponpon

This interactive finger paint activity will teach your baby about his senses. The more he explores, the faster his cognitive skills will develop.

As explained before, sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your baby’s senses: touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing. When babies first interact with the world, they don’t have words to describe what they encounter, but they do absorb information through their senses, build vocabulary and understand language. It’s your turn to articulate his sensory experience by using descriptive words to explain your baby’s experience and help solidify the meanings of these words in a young child’s mind.

finger paint|marmite et ponpon

This activity is definitely meant for sensory exploration more than art. Don’t expect masterpieces from the first experience, but expect lots of fun and discoveries. Enjoy the process rather than the final product at this age. You can start this activity from age of 7 months, it’s a taste safe paint, don’t worry.

finger paint | marmite et ponpon

It’s basically 1 part flour, 1 part water and food coloring. I did 2 cups flour and two cups water to make these 7 colors, and i added 3-4 drops of vanilla extract for a nice odour to stimulate his smell. And here is my little artist, ready to go!

finger paint - sensory play|marmite et ponpon

I was handing him the colors one after the other to stretch the activity the longest possible but wasn’t expecting to stay one hour, Joud was really enjoying.

finger paint-sensory play|marmite et ponpon

He was curious touching the paint and feeling the texture but mostly pouring it. And as you noticed in the pictures he tasted it as well. We will definitely do more of this activity.

As for the cleaning, don’t worry at all, it’s the easiest part since all the mess is contained in the bathtub. I wiped it away with only water. No food coloring stains. I always recommend wilton coloring gel.

finger paint -sensory play|marmite et ponpon

finger paint- sensory play|marmite et ponpon

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Digging toys in ice sculpture


ice sculpture

An enthralling sensory play to experience melting ice. Very simple activity but has a lot to discover and learn. You will hear lots of ahhhhhs once your kid touches the ice. Nady was so fascinated by his frozen toys and got so excited to melt the ice and take them out, he got so driven, he forgot how cold the ice was.

How to do this beautiful sculpture? I put Nady’s favorite small toys in 3 different shape containers, added few drops of food coloring and froze them for over night. To remove the ice, I ran water over the outside of each container and held it upside down. I placed the three parts on top of each other to make the sculpture like form.

We started with squeeze bottles full of warm water, Nady was in a hurry to take out his yellow ball!

ice sculpture

ice sculpture

Nady was so enthusiastic, he was eating raisins when we started the play, he grabbed the bowl to fill it with water to throw it on ice, experiencing different ways maybe the gush of water can melt the ice faster!

ice sculpture

ice sculpture

Now it’s hammering time we should get all toys out!

ice sculpture

ice sculpture

It’s a fun activity for all the family actually, we were all playing with Nady! We must admit it’s a senses stimulating play, (experiencing hot – warm – cold and of course solid – liquid or frozen – melted) it fosters learning in all developmental areas and engages extra words to your kid’s lexicon.

ice sculpture

All toys are out, mission accomplished! Nady’s hands were ice cold, but he was warm at the heart! He really enjoyed playing…

ice sculptureIf you liked this post and you want to see more of interesting activities , follow this blog and like marmite et ponpon facebook page. Happy reading!

Bathtub basketball frenzy


bathtub basketball

There was so much excitement you would have wished to be a kid again to participate in this frenzy of delight!

All you need to do is hang a basketball hoop, (i made it with a foam piece, should be light in weight to be able to stick it), fill the tub with water (at desirable temperature), load it with colorful balls and let the energy flow!

bathtub basketball

Amazed by his concentration and fine motor skills as if he always played basketball, I showed admiration which encouraged him and made him keen not to miss any shot!

bathtub basketball

Such games are not just for finer motor skills but also to develop gifts! My treasure isn’t only a beautiful artist, he is a sportsman as well! Now Papa Antoun please rest assured, Nady likes sports too 🙂

bathtub basketball

He got so excited to dunk as well!

bathtub basketball

We guess Nady is ambidextrous with ability to use both hands at equal ease.

bathtub basketball

bathtub basketball

Fun game in the bathtub with lots of energy, skills and laughter. Watch this video:

You can also see from previous bathtub games:

If you like to join me to the fun and see more of interesting things, follow this blog and like marmite et ponpon facebook page. Happy reading!

Bring the sea to the bath


A great and simple way to bring the sea to the bathtub and add more fun to the bath.

In previous times we explored other fun activities to enjoy the bath time and encourage sensory play such as “the bathtub paint” and water balloons”.

Today we created a small sea world in our bathtub simply by adding cyan color gel to the water and tucked in all the sea creatures that we have with nady’s favorite toys.

sea in the bath

We are back in doha, the weather is too hot reaching almost 45ºC. This playtime was an opportunity to beat the heat, enjoy the bath and introduce new vocabulary words.

sea in the bath

When you try this play you will notice how hard to stop it! Nady can play for hours with water without giving any sign of boredom. He manages to invent games not to step out of the tub. The advantage of messy play in the bath is you can contain all the mess and clean up easily.

sea in the bath

Nothing will spoil this prolonged fun except the non desirable temperature of the water. It’s a sign to stop the play and take the bath!

sea in the bath

Bon Bain Nady!

sail away with paper boats


paper boatSail into summer with fun paper boats. Such a fun water activity, sailing boats into water streams played magic on me when i was a kid.

Since we arrived to lebanon, i wanted to take Nady to this specific place where i used to play when i was his age or even bigger.

paper boats

The sound of water flowing increases the energy and causes great eagerness! With less than a dollar you can make 20 colored boats to launch in this cool water.

paper boatsHere is a detailed tutorial paper boat craft:

paper boat tutorialFold an A4 paper in half. Again fold from both sides to the middle two side triangles to make like the roof of a house.

paper boatsFold up the rectangular part under the triangle from both sides. Fold the edges to the inside to make hat shape.

paper boats tutorialFold the hat exactly in the middle, then fold up the edges (triangles) from both sides. Again if you open it it looks like a hat.

paper boats tutorialOpen the hat sideways, et voila the beautiful paper boat!

paper boats

The multi colored boats and the green on the sides of the water stream created a charming frame! If you don’t have natural water streams nearby, you can play by the sides of a pool or even in the bathtub to make the shower more fun.

paper boats

paper boats

We could stay forever playing, sensory water activities are endless, as i always say it’s one of the most exciting things to explore! Even when all the boats sailed away, Nady found another game to stay by the stream. Throwing stones in the water! Yes splash, slosh and slop! He was so excited he just wanted to soak his hands in the cold water…

throwing stones

Imagine how exciting and fun playing with water!

paper boats