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Sensory Play with Jelly

sensory play ideas for preschoolers and toddlers

Ooey, gooey, slushy and messy!  Playing with jelly!

I have had this sensory play activity planned for some time and I am so thrilled that spring has finally arrived and it is warming up outside!  We can start doing more outside fun things like playing with Jelly!

Playing with Jelly is a sensory activity for kids to explore through their senses the many wonderful textures and qualities of jelly.  Yummy too!

What you will need?

What you will need for jelly sensory play activity?
jelly sensory play

You will need jelly of course!   You will also need an assortment of plastic containers of all shapes and sizes, ice cube trays and a large tray or container to put all the jelly mess in for playtime.

I prepared the jelly a few days before with big eyes watching with excitement!

ideas for using jelly for play

When the jelly was set, I used a plastic spoon to help get the jelly out without destroying the shape too much.  I was really surprised at how easy they actually came out!

Let’s Play 

Building and making things with the different jelly shapes but that didn’t last long before squishy the jelly altogether……so much fun!

Let’s Explore 

Exploring the sense of touch!  We talked about all the wonderful describing words of how the jelly felt in our hands.  Squishy, sticky, slippery, slimey, sloppy and smooth.  We joked about how it would feel to have a bath in a tub full of jelly.

Let’s Discover

We explored our other senses too: sense of smell, taste, sight and hearing.  The jelly smelt sweet and fruity, tasted yummy and sweet, sounded like popping bubble wrap and looked colourful and lumpy!  So much fun!

Let’s Pretend 

As the sun started to melt the jelly it turned into a watery slush; great for toy animals to play in pretend mud.

Let’s Learn

Jelly hands and jelly feet, I ended up chasing the kids around the back yard with the hose to clean up.  I also hosed the jelly into the grass, too easy and no mess.  The kids had so much fun that I have been asked if we can do this again soon!

Learning Opportunities 

  • Sensory play encourages children to manipulate and mold materials, building up their fine motor skills and coordination.
  • Sensory play uses all 5 senses, but the sense of touch is often the most frequent. Toddlers and children process information through their senses.  They learn through exploring these.
  • Sensory play is process-driven, not product-oriented; it is the purest sense of exploratory learning
  • Self-esteem: sensory play offers kids the opportunity for self-expression because there is no right answer and children feel safe to change or experiment with what they are doing.
  • Language development and learning new words.

Other jelly activities on learning4kids: click on the image

What is hiding in our Jelly?  

Available in our Online Shop 

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Buy large activity art and craft tray online

33 thoughts on “Sensory Play with Jelly”

      1. Hi Hayley, it is so lovely to have you here! We got our large trays from an online deucational shop Educational Experience, I just tried to find the link for them but was unable to find them. I bought them a long way back, probably 5 years now. They are still probably on their website but it may take a little bit of searching for them. Maybe try and google ‘art trays’ to shop around for a better deal also. There are tons of options out there. 🙂
        Alternatively you could also use the lids off large plastic storage tubs, they work just as well too. Good luck and let me know if you need anymore help…..thanks 🙂

  1. Janice … you are tooooo brilliant!!!!! My kids would LOVE LOVE LOVE that!!!!! However … I’m going to have to wait for summer to try that so we can go outside. It’s getting a little too cold now on the other side of the world!! lol!! But that is a brilliant idea!! You rock chickie!
    HUGE hugs!!
    Ro 🙂

    1. Hi Suzanne, the black and orange jelly for a halloween theme sounds fabulous! 🙂
      You are very brave doing this inside!
      Thanks for stopping by! xx

    1. JellY or JellO…..I love it! The Jelly for ocean week sounds fabulous!
      Thanks for stopping by Beth, I will pop over and join up to the linky party……thank you!

  2. This WAY FUN! I found you at TGIF Linky Party & am so glad I stopped over! This is awesome! I haven’t figured out the whole follow thing yet, i’m pretty new. But I will look for you at the party next week cause if you came up with this I can’t wait to see what else you have in store!
    Meg

    1. Thanks Megan for your lovely comment!!
      I am still pretty new to this aswell, I started Learning4kids back in August so I was so thrilled to receive your commentl! Hope you stop by again soon! xx

  3. Ooooh, I love this and my kids will too! We have to try this out soon. What a wonderful sensory activity. Thank you for linking up to Every Day Sensory Play. This is perfect!!

    1. Hi Michele, Thank you for your question. I have had a few people comment on this. From my understanding jello is the same as jelly but here is Australia we say Jelly. Wishing you lots of sensory play fun! 🙂

  4. Great Ideas!! A variation for those of you who have a little one that does not like having their hands get sticky – put the 3 primary colours (red,blue, yellow) in a resealable bag. Then sit back and watch them as they feel the cold jelly, and make a rainbow in a bag.

  5. i know im going the thread a little late, but you mentioned having a bath in jelly, so i thought i would let you know, theres and funky product out now called jelly baff, it turns you bath to jelly and back to water again, its my toddlers favorite thing in the bath

    1. Hi Jessie, never too late to add to a thread, your comments are always treasured here 🙂 I have heard of jelly baff, it is certainly lots of fun! Thank you for adding some information to this post! 🙂

  6. This is awesome!
    My boy is 13 months just now! I can’t wait for the weather to get nicer to go to the garden and play with jelly!
    I love your page, It’s my frist baby so sometimes I’m not sure how to play with him, I’m sure he will love this. <3

  7. Hello..
    I really admire what you do…I am a psychomotor therapist and I work with children and babies with physical disabilities and developmental delays……you cannot imagine how thrilled I was to see that someone is not afraid of using the senses and being “messy” with the children!!! I love being messy and i also do that with my boys…I love getting all hands and feet dirty and play all kinds of sensory games!!!
    Thank you so much for your efforts…and I have to say : i am quite creative myself and your ideas boosted my creativity again!
    Thank you again !
    Love from Lebanon!

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Picture of Hi and welcome to Learning 4 Kids!

Hi and welcome to Learning 4 Kids!

My name is Janice and I am an Early Childhood Teacher in Australia.

I have a strong passion and love for teaching and creating meaningful learning experiences for my students. What I love most is watching children discover in those amazing light bulb moments. I hope Learning4kids brings you some useful ideas.

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