Okay, so before you see this awesome muddy monster truck derby sensory bin and think it’s all fun and games over here all day every day, here’s what you need to know… This morning Sam came along for the school run in undies, a t-shirt, and a sweater. In minus four degree {celsius} weather. No pants. No socks. No boots. And no jacket. Let alone a toque or mittens. Thank goodness we do the whole car blanket thing and he at least had that once in, but you guys – this morning was a doooozy. We got home, I moped a bit, he continued to shout and whine and throw things, and I made a cup of coffee and gulped the whole thing back in bed with the door closed. Then we hugged it out, agreed to start our morning over, cleaned up, and put this sensory bin full of mud and monster trucks together.
Thank fricken goodness sensory play and calm music have the power to turn a day around.
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Here’s what we used to put this taste-safe, scented, amazing-feeling sensory bin together…
- one of our go-to Sterilite sensory bins (any shallow bin will work)
- cornstarch from our play cupboard (when it comes to cooking with it, I always use an organic version)
- cocoa powder
- a couple of small toy monster trucks
and later on, these Green Toys cars too.
If you haven’t guessed yet, our ‘mud’ for our monster truck derby sensory play is CHOCOLATE oobleck!!
We didn’t even bother mixing this up in a separate bowl! Sam just dumped the cornstarch and cocoa powder straight into our bin…
Then whisked it up…
And mixed with a wooden spoon as I gradually added water.
You can play with the amounts of each ingredient to create thicker or thinner oobleck, but here’s our recipe…
CHOCOLATEY OOBLECK
- 2 cups of cornstarch
- 1/2 cup of cocoa
- 2 cups of water
Whisk the cornstarch and cocoa together well. Add the water and stir with a wooden spoon {or better yet – your hands!} until the oobleck has a uniform in texture.
I gave the chocolate oobleck one last mix before Sam very enthusiastically popped his monster trucks in.
{It goes without saying that Chloe was in on the fun in approximately 2 minutes flat. Seriously – this kitty of ours loves sensory play just as much as Grae and Sam do!}
It obviously depends on the size of your bin, but our layer of oobleck was thin enough to leave very visible monster truck tracks and Sam noticed right away.
He also realized how insanely neat oobleck is to touch and hold and squish.
As for the mess? With activities like this one, I just remind him to keep his hands in or over the bin. The truth is that the oobleck mud dries up on surfaces and is a cinch to wipe up, but I still don’t want it all over the kitchen obviously.
Part way through his play Sam asked for something for the monster trucks to drive over, so that’s when I offered him a few little Green Toys cars. We lined them up just like you’d see at a monster truck show and after getting a thorough drizzling of mud, the monster trucks began driving and jumping over them.
Although this addition was initiated by Sam, starting simple and adding things in here and there during play is one of my go-to methods for extending play activities.
Also his request? ‘A tool and a bucket’, plus later on, a ramp which I chopped from an almond milk carton. This was during a full one-hour play session and though I have a feeling that it would have lasted significantly longer, we had to put it on pause for nap time. With the promise that he could continue later on in the afternoon, of course.
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Have you every come home from a shopping trip with surprise item in your bags? That’s exactly what happened with this hair gel… I do not use hair gel. Brad does not use hair gel. No one in our house uses hair gel. Yet after returning home from a grocery shopping trip with Miss G a few weeks ago, there it was in one of our bags. My immediate thought was, ‘Crap! Did we accidentally steal this?!’ I checked the bill and nope, we’d paid for it. How it got through the checkout and into our bags, I have no idea. 
Anyways, knowing that we wouldn’t be using it in our hair anytime soon, I decided we’d use it for some sort of play. And when nothing brilliant had come to mind in a few week’s time, I decided that we’d mix it with cornstarch. Because cornstarch mixed with any sort of liquid = cool, right?
It took some serious mixing to bring the ingredients together first, then it took some serious kneading to smooth it out and soften it up. The result, however, was quite lovely. Pillowy soft and lightweight, this dough behaves a lot like 
Gracen wanted to play with it immediately, so together we collected some bowls, silicon moulds, and plastic utensils and brought everything outside to play with.
She began exploring her new dough by sinking her hands into it, squishing it between her fingers, and poking holes into it…
Then it was time to fill all of the containers with “oatmeal”.
With a good breakfast in our tummies, it was time for dessert. ☺ The dough rolls into balls really nicely, so Miss G turned our ball collection into cupcakes with cherries on top.
When we were done with our first round of dessert, Gracen shouted, “Cookies next!” and took off into the house running. She returned with a tray of creative table goodies – buttons, pony beads, straw pieces, gems, and sparkly pompoms. I was put in charge of forming the cookies and she was in charge of decorating.
To show that we had eaten the cookies all up, Miss G crumbled them all into a bowl. 
The cool part was that as soon as she was done, the crumbles had already started melting together to form one mass. 
Today Miss G and I tried making and playing with the ridiculously fun {and equally messy} substance called Oobleck. It’s made out of only 2 ingredients (or 3 if you want to add a little colour), and it isn’t quite a liquid and it isn’t really a solid… In fact, it behaves like both. 
All you need in order to make Oobleck is water and cornstarch, plus food colouring if you wish.
I like to start by adding the colouring to the water first because it’s a lot easier to stir colouring into water than into the finished Oobleck.
Plus, this way you get to watch the colouring disperse into the water, which is always kind of neat.
Start by giving your water a little stir to make sure the colouring is evenly dispersed.
Then add your cornstarch a cup at a time, stirring it into the water as you go.
When the mixture is nice and thick and you’re not able to pour off any excess water, your Oobleck is ready.
