35+ Sensory Bag Activities

The sensory bags are pulled out of the cupboard daily at home. I started with just a few, but now they have about 15 in a basket. It's fun to see how the simpler the toys are, the more they stimulate the imagination. If your child never learned to play with open-ended toys, you might have to help them a little. You can do this by simply playing with them yourself.
That's why today I'm sharing my 35+ sensory bag play ideas, divided into three age categories for you to use them in.

De-stimulating with sensory bags
Besides being open-ended toys, sensory bags are also great for helping your little one de-stress. Your child receives a lot of stimulation throughout the day. And sometimes that bucket overflows, or you want to prevent it from overflowing. Playing with sensory materials can help your child calm down. By fidgeting, using your hands, and stimulating their senses of touch, they can more easily distract themselves. Another reason to include them in your daily play.

From +/- 3 months:
From 3 months onwards, your baby will start exploring the world more with their hands. You'll likely have more tummy time, and your baby can stay awake a little longer, giving them more time to play. From 3 months onwards, you can introduce sensory pouches:

• Explore different textures. Start with a maximum of three bags at a time, and later offer more. Your little one will initially be particularly interested in the different textures of fabric. They'll gently feel it, squeeze it, knead it, and perhaps even taste it.
• Explore different fillings. The sensory bags are filled with different natural materials, so each bag feels different. The different fillings stimulate your child's sense of touch.
• Lifting and growing stronger. As your baby gains strength and can lift the bags, they'll notice the difference in weight.
• Discover the difference in sound. Because each bag is filled with a different material, each bag also sounds different when your child shakes, throws, or drops it.
• Sitting and balancing while playing. Sensory bags are also great fun to play with while sitting. Place the bags in a basket and give it to your child. You'll be amazed at how often a child puts them in or takes them out of the basket. This requires your child to constantly maintain their balance. A wonderful exercise.
• Encourage crawling. Once your baby is crawling, you can also play fun games with the sensory bags. Toss one bag a short distance away from your child and let them crawl to it. Once your child has the bag, toss a second one a little further away. Once your child has crawled to the second bag, toss the next one a little further away. Fun guaranteed.
• Treasure basket. This is a basket filled with different items for your child to discover. Sensory bags are a great addition. Add 3-5 items made of different materials to each basket. For example: 2 sensory bags, 1 ball, 1 wooden toy, and 1 play silk . Children often find it incredibly interesting to explore all the different materials.

From +/- 1 year:
Most babies start walking around the age of one. Whether your little one is already walking or not, you can still use the sensory bags in your daily play.

• Learning to throw. Sensory bags are the perfect material for learning to throw. The bags are a bit heavier and don't roll or bounce as easily as a ball. Therefore, they're usually a safer option for your home accessories. A child needs to throw, and this way, they can practice endlessly.
• Learning which toys are and aren't allowed to be thrown. Around the age of one, children often start experimenting with throwing things or dropping them on purpose. It's helpful to have something at home that they're allowed to throw. So, say your child is throwing wooden blocks and you think it's not a good idea. Point this out and direct your child to the sensory bags to continue throwing. I wrote a blog post about how to take the bags away while lovingly restraining your child when they're throwing toys.
• Stacking. Teach your child to stack bags! Bag by bag, build a tower together and then, of course, knock them over again. This can be a little easier at first than building with blocks.

From +/- 1.5 years
Around age 18, we noticed our daughter was playing with the sensory bags differently. Instead of throwing, feeling, or stacking them, she increasingly incorporated them into her imaginative play. Suddenly, I'd find the sensory bags in her kitchen, or little animals sleeping on them. The possibilities were suddenly endless.

• Part of an obstacle course or monkey cage. After dinner, we often build an obstacle course or monkey cage to laugh, jump, and climb with our family. Sensory bags are often placed to mark the route or to be thrown into the course.
• Stepping stones for better balance. Sometimes the course also features stepping stones. Once your child has more balance, it's fun to walk over the bags. Because the filling shifts when you step on them, you have to regain your balance. Children also often enjoy the feel of the different fillings and fabrics, which stimulate their sense of touch.
• Playing hide and seek. Hide the sensory bags in the room you're in and start searching! Also great fun with multiple children.
• Soft beds in imaginative play. The animals are tired and want to go to bed. Luckily, the sensory bags are nice and soft.
• As an addition to the play kitchen. We regularly eat the sensory bags as pretend cakes during tea parties.
• A sensory path. Build a road for cars and use all your open-ended toys. A wooden rainbow as a bridge, peg dolls as trees or passengers waiting, and play silk cloths to create water and grass.
  
  
• Building materials. Need materials for your trailer or forklift? Load them up!
• Matching activity. If you have two matching sets at home, you can have your child stack matching bags. It's great for their development!
• Desensitization. As I mentioned earlier, sensory bags can help your child desensitize. From 1.5 to 2 years old, you can introduce a "calm-down kit" or a "desensitization basket." These contain items that help your child calm down. For example, a very soft stuffed animal, a calming book, headphones with an audio book, essential oils, or sensory bags.
• Boating. Here, the sensory bags are regularly used as boats. The blue play side represents the water, the bags represent the boats, and the wooden figures are the passengers.
• Use it to build forts as a weight for cloths or blankets . Building forts is so much fun! To keep the cloths in place, you can place sensory bags on top. Handy!

From +/- 2.5 to 3 years old

• More balance exercises. You can practice your balance by walking over them. A bit more challenging is standing on a bag on one leg. Or balance the bags on your head. How many can you balance on your head? One? Or two, or three...?
• Decorate cakes with loose parts. The sensory bags are cakes! Decorate them with gems, pom-poms, and other loose parts.
• Learn to throw accurately. Set up a hoop, or make circles with a wooden rainbow, or place a sheet of paper on the floor and throw the sensory bags into it. It's a fun game to teach your child to throw accurately. You can increase the difficulty by increasing the distance between your child and the target, or by making the target smaller.
• Jeu de boules. Throw a small ball far away. Everyone gets a few bags. Everyone takes turns throwing a bag as close as possible to the ball.
• Mindful exercise. Because of the different fillings, each bag feels different, and this can be a wonderful mindfulness exercise for your child. Sit together and give your child a bag. How does the bag feel? What shape is inside? And what does the bag sound like when you move it? You can also do this exercise by having your child stand on a bag. How does it feel and how does it move?
• Learning to throw. This is also a skill your child needs to learn. We practice this by passing sensory bags to each other. Start close together and gradually move further away.
• Learn to count. Roll a die and take as many sensory bags as the die indicates.
• Making numbers. Once your child shows interest in numbers, you can make them together. Start simple. You make the number and your child names it. If that goes well, you can make them together using sensory bags. Once your child has mastered that, you can name the number and your child can copy it.
• Creating shapes. You can also do this with shapes. Make a square, circle, triangle, etc. together.

From 4+
Once your child starts primary school, you can use sensory bags to encourage playful learning. And after a busy day at school, throwing activities are still a hit at home!

• Learning directions. Make it a game. Toss the bag up. Or down. And can they also toss it to the left or right?
• Passing and catching with a stacking stone or another container . Stand opposite each other, each holding a stacking stone or other container. Place a sensory bag in the bag and toss it from your container to the other person. They then catch the bag with their stacking stone or container.
• Making letters. Once your child shows interest in letters, you can make them together. Start simple. You make the letter and your child names it. If that goes well, you can make them together using sensory bags. Once your child has mastered that, you can name the letter and your child makes it.
• Learn math. Use pieces of paper to make +, -, and = symbols and do math problems with sensory bags. For example: 2 bags + 2 bags = 4 bags.

I hope my enthusiasm has come across and that you are eager to play with your little one.

The sensory bags are available in four different sets in my webshop . They are handmade from Oeko-Tex-certified fabric. This means that no harmful substances for humans or the environment were used during the production process. I also package everything plastic-free and offset the CO2 emissions from shipping your package.

Have lots of fun playing!