Sensory play for toddlers is both fun and important for their development. Today I’m sharing a simple winter sensory play for toddlers. I love setting up seasonal invitations to play for my children. Find more Winter activities for kids here.
This one is mess-free too which is a bonus sometimes. As much as I don’t mind messy play, sometimes mess-free play is needed. I set this one up when my toddler had been ill and neither of us had had much sleep. Find more seasonal activities for kids here.
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Winter sensory play
Below you’ll find details of how to set up a winter tuff tray. Another mess-free Winter sensory activity is Winter in a Bag Sensory Play Activity.
You will need:
Tuff spot * or tuff tray
A selection of blue and winter toys and board books.
How to set up a simple Winter tuff tray in less than 5 minutes
Whilst a tuff tray or tuff spot is not essential is does contain the space. You could simply spread out the emergency blanket and set up the other items on top.
Emergency foil blankets make great sensory toys for toddlers. They love the look and sound of them in my experience. They reflect the light and make a noise when they touch or crinkle them.
Add the large foam snowflakes and then it is time to search out all the winter-themed items you can find. Look in the toy box first. Do you have any blue bricks, stacking cups or rings? What about any toy penguins, polar bears or other arctic animals? Perhaps you have a toy snowman you could add. A musical sensory element like some bells would also be a good addition.
I also added a board book about animals found in wintery lands. I bet you have some winter-themed books for toddlers, if not click through to find out the ones we love.
Exploring the winter tuff spot
My toddler loved this activity. Her face lit up when she saw it. She was immediately drawn to the blanket and she really enjoyed crinkling it between her fingers to hear the sound it made. She also hid her head under it to play peek-a-boo with me. She explored all the toy animals as well as the snowflakes.
The book was a nice addition to the tuff spot as she currently loves books and it was nice to have one relevant to the activity. We didn’t have one of each of the animals in the book but it was nice to show her a 3D one of the ones we did have whilst we read the book.
Find my favourite winter books for toddlers by clicking through. These books would all work fantastically in this tray.
Expanding the activity for older children
You might notice that the snowflakes have sight words written on them. This is for my 4-year-old, a great way to encourage reading in primary school children. For preschool and toddlers, you could write numbers or letters on them.
My 4-year-old also enjoyed the winter-themed tuff tray. She made caves in the sensory blanket for the animals and made-up play scenes developing her storytelling skills. She wasn’t interested in the sight words on this occasion but she really enjoyed the imaginative play.
More winter sensory activities for toddlers
If you want to set up a snowy small world you could also add different things like blue or white water beads * or the glass beads *, if you have older children who are past the putting everything in their mouth stage. Or white play dough or even make some cloud dough.
More things to do with toddlers in winter
Winter is a great season to explore with toddlers, both indoors and outdoors. From the books that you read together to the activities and games that you play, winter is a great theme for toddlers. Here are a few ideas to get you started with your winter themes for toddlers.
Find more Indoor winter activities for toddlers here.
For more winter sensory activities for toddlers click here.
Get my free winter scavenger hunt printable here. A great way to get toddlers outside and engage with nature.
Find lots of ideas for outdoor activities for toddlers in this post. Most of them are suitable for winter.
Develop your toddler’s listening skills with my free sound hunt printable.
Another great thing to put in a winter tuff tray is snow. You could try letting your toddler paint the snow. Find out how here – Painting snow.
Would you like more ideas for enjoying winter with toddlers?
If you loved this post then you’ll love my free 5 day email series where I will guide you through simple ideas for enjoying winter with young children. You’ll receive 5 daily emails, each with ideas for things to do with your child in winter. There are ideas for outdoor play, indoor play and our favourite picture books to read aloud in winter.
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That looks brilliant! We were playing in the sensory trays at sure start this week.
Sensory trays are so much fun.
Love this! Great idea!!
Thank you
Oh this looks fab!! I’ll have to give it a go! X
I hope you children enjoy it
This looks like great fun! I am always so amazed by how versatile the tuff spots are, I really need to get one!
They are great for many things.
What a fab activity. I really want to get a tuff spot. I really must jusy get on with it!
You won’t regret it.
Oh this looks fab! my kids would have loved this when they were a little younger! Such a great idea. xx
Thank you.
Great idea. I love finding new activities for my little one. x
What a lovely mess free activity. I love the winter theme too x
This looks like so much fun.
This looks like lots of fun! #SharingtheBlogLove
This looks fab, we have always done things like this and it is amazing how engrossed they become by the simplest of things isn’t it? #SharingTheBlogLove
Love these ideas. Especially the mess free angle! We don’t have much space so a lot of mess goes a long way #Sharingthebloglove
What a great idea! Very creative. #sharingthebloglove
This is a lovely idea! I’ve recently bought a Tuffspot and I’m loving creating little worlds in it – I have a lot of things now I can use for winter. I think my son would love the snowflakes, and we have a whole set of penguins and polar bears I used for one recently. Thanks for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
My girls loved sensory play and this is a lovely idea. Thank you for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
Aaaw this looks like so much fun! I keep saying I’m going to get myself a tuff spot because they do look fab, and it’s a good way to keep everything contained during play. Thanks for the ideas #sharingthebloglove
Very nice ideas! I like the foil blanket, would never have thought of that. #bloggerpinparty
I have not heard of the tuff spot before, but I’ll be getting one now! That looks perfect! This is such a fun, sweet little activity. I know my 14 month old would adore it! Thanks for sharing! #BloggerPinParty
Oooh lovely crinkly silver blanket! Love sensory play! You’ll get loads of use of your Tuff spot in the warmer months I expect when you can get outside. #bloggerpinparty
We’ve only just got into the whole sensory playing. I’m always looking for new ideas. This ones great.
This looks great- I love the idea of using the foil blanket! #bloggerpinparty
This looks fab, and really easy to set up – I’m pretty rubbish at doing things like this at home though, I should probably make more of an effort! #ShareTheBlogLove
Little man loves sensory play – but right now he is all about feeding me from his pot and pan in his peppa pig kitchen hahaha! #sharingthebloglove
We love our play kitchen too. And my kids love Peppa!
This looks like a lovely sensory experience. Sadly when I tried to make a little one (we don’t have a tuff tray) my eldest was less impressed. #sharingthebloglove
A great sensory idea. I love any mess free play too
Thank you. I don’t mind messy play sometimes though.
Ah such a lovely idea! Sometimes I wish my two were little so I could create little scenes like this.
I’m sure you do other good things with them now they are older.