Fall Toddler Sensory Play

Sensory play is so important for fine and gross motor skills, language development, and even supports feeding. Here are some of my Fall sensory play ideas that were super fun to come up with. My son loved all the fun textures. If you try any of these out or adapt them to something else I’d love to hear about it!

Also, check out my Fall-inspired activities here.

Spooky Spaghetti 

This one was by far the biggest hit and so easy to make. I got the eyeballs and spiders from the dollar store and then made squiggles out of pipe cleaners. To make the black spaghetti I boiled a pound of spaghetti with a tablespoon of olive oil until it was cooked. I then drained the pasta and put it in cool water with black food coloring and let it sit for a couple of hours. I provided tongs, a small bowl, a strainer, and a spaghetti spoon. My son loved transferring the spaghetti and eyeballs from one side to the other with the tongs along into the small container. He also loved feeding the dog who didn’t object.

Fall Rice

We have used the rice for a couple of different things like transferring along with hiding things in the rice. In the picture above I have our Fall language cards but I have also done matching cards, color-matching cards, and puzzle pieces. To make the rice, take 1 cup of rice and add a few drops of food coloring along with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar. Mix it up and then place it on a cookie sheet to dry. To dry mine faster, I placed mine in a 200-degree oven and mixed it around every few minutes until it was dry. Repeat for all the colors you want and then mix them together. Check out the free download below for my Fall Language cards.

Spooky Jello

This one again is super easy and I loved watching my son be grossed out by the feeling of jello. For this one, I made 2 large boxes of gelatin and added black food coloring. I placed some Safari Toobs and long with nicknacks from around the house as well as Halloween Dollar Tree finds in a glass Pyrex and poured the Jello over the top. I then placed it into the fridge to set it up. As you can see someone was excited and got into it a couple of times while it was in the fridge. We played with this for a few days and when my son was done we took all the things he found in the jello and created a cleaning activity.