Play Idea: Kinetic Sand and Legos

When my daughter was younger, one of her favorite sensory things to play with was kinetic sand. This is a special kind of sand that has a soft and squishy texture, and it’s moldable and holds its shape until you squish it again.

We used to play with all sorts of containers to fill and mold, and cookie cutters to make other shapes. There are all sorts of ways to play with it, but I never thought of adding Legos or Duplo blocks to the mix.

And Next Comes L shares the idea of stamping kinetic sand with blocks. This is a simple fine motor activity that can be used in a lot of different ways. You can stamp out the shapes of letters or numbers, count the number of dents the block makes in the sand, practice sight words, make a repeating pattern with different blocks and have kids complete the pattern, make shapes with the blocks and stamp those into the sand (and challenge someone else to build the same shape) and so on.

Kids will probably come up with their own activities when you give them sand and blocks together to play with. This is a great invitation to play that you don’t have to set up at all other than putting our some different kinds and sizes of blocks with the sand, or you can make some idea cards if you want to steer the play in a particular direction.

Check out the post from And Next Comes L to see how they played and more ideas for what you can do with them.

And visit this post all about kinetic sand for more information on what kinetic sand is, how it works and how you can make your own if you want to.

How do you play with kinetic sand? I’d love to hear your ideas!

[Photo: And Next Comes L]

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Easy Sensory Activities for Valentine's Day

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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