The first five years of a child’s life is absolutely critical to their development, however, sometimes it can be difficult finding ways to engage and entertain young children in educational play based activities. Well let me share with you a fabulous sticky ball activity for babies and toddlers. It’s great for sensory development and problem solving skills. This activity is super quick and easy to put together, which is always a bonus.
If you’ve been following Laughing Kids Learn blog for awhile you will know that I’m quite the fan of sensory play activities for children. I’m sure you’ve also seen some of my previous activities that use sticky tape or masking tape as a material for sensory development. Lets just say I like to keep things simple and use easy to get materials, nothing unachievable here.
How to make a sensory sticky sensory ball
for babies and toddlers
You will need –
- Sticky tape or masking tape
- ball
This really couldn’t be simpler. Wrap the ball with masking tape, but be sure to have the sticky surface on the outside. I decided to wrap the ball a few times to ensure it was well covered. The masking tape doesn’t mould to the surface of the ball, being round, but it was easy to flatten as it stuck to itself!
Recommended ages: 6 months +
(Strict and active supervision is required at all times)
As you can imagine, this sticky ball for babies and toddlers is wonderful fun, even for Possum (aged 4 years). She enjoyed watching it fall from the underside of her hand, which prompted us to start talking about gravity and discuss possible scenarios of what would happen if we dropped it from various heights.
It was lovely watching Boo (19 months) play with the sticky ball. She was very curious about the sticky surface and would grab at it before and pull her fingers away. She also experimented with pressing the sticky ball against other surfaces to see if they would stick, instead of to her own hands. You could almost see the thinking and sensory learning happen, which is always very heart warming.
Would your child enjoy playing with a sticky ball?
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love it!
Thank you Anna. It’s amazing the learning benefit and entertainment something so simple can give. 🙂
OMG – so simple, but kids would LOVE it! Ha, you come up with the most awesome ideas Kate!
Thanks Danya. Sometimes the most simple ideas are the best I think. 🙂
You come up with the best simple play ideas like this Kate! So clever and we can make it from things we already have!
I only like to keep things simple Kelly. I don’t have time to make life diffifult, like us all. 🙂
Thank you for your comment. 🙂
I tried this with my 12 month old daughter this afternoon using sellotape. I made 2 for her and she spent ten happy minutes pushing them together and pulling apart, exploring the stickiness on her fingers and the noise they made when rolled on the floor. A genius idea. Thanks.
Oh Hazel, I love that you made two. I really want to do this activity again but include another ball. It would be so interesting to see them play with two balls and have fun sticking them together and pulling them apart. Glad you had fun with your daughter.