I really love making up sensory tubs for the little ones to play with. Yes, they can be messy even though I lay out an old tablecloth underneath, but to be honest the living room usually needs a hoover anyway so it's not that much extra work to clear up afterwards!
This Halloween sensory tub has the same base that I use for all my tubs - coloured rice. It's really easy to colour rice, you just need a big bag of plain white rice (I use the supermarket value brand) and some food colouring. In a big bowl, mix up the rice with the food colouring. If you add a squirt of anti-bacterial hand gel it will dry quicker, otherwise you can just spread it out on a tray and leave it to dry.
I also used a big handful of pumpkin seeds which I saved from our pumpkin last year. I just scooped them out, cleaned them up, and left them out to dry. They have lasted fine from last year, I just need to watch that they don't end up in any little mouths!
There are some suitable coloured pom poms, and a selection of Halloween themed plastic toys, including glow in the dark bats that I picked up in the post-Halloween sales last year. I also found some Halloween foam cut outs and sequins which were left over from Halloween craft kits.
When I give the tub to the children to play with I also give them a selection of spoons, little pots and bowls. I love seeing what they do with the materials. Mia tends to spoon the rice about for a bit before getting bored and throwing the rice about. Harry will play for ages. He makes Halloween soup in the bowls, and then moves on to small world play with the plastic pieces, in particular the witch keyring and the bats.
Here are some of the other sensory tubs that I've made:
I blog about the different activities that I get up to with my baby and preschooler, toddler crafts, days out, outings, places that we've visited and local information (Sussex), crafts that I do, thoughts on parenting and all the other things that go round in my head.
Blogs at: Jennifer's Little World
Twitter: @jenniferjain