Fairy Mud Sensory Play – Ivory Soap and Toilet Paper
Whip up a batch of “fairy mud” with a roll of toilet paper, a bar of soap, and some seashells, flower petals and glitter. It’s a fantastic sensory activity for toddlers and preschoolers!
We’ve done lots of fairy activities lately, and today, we’re busting out the glitter! Yes. I actually said the G-word. You’re probably thinking I’ve lost it because it’s a well-known fact that I’m a self-proclaimed glitter-phobe.
What’s gotten in to me?
Well, it’s like this. On Thursdays this year, I have only girls here in my daycare, and because they’re all simply mad about fairies and princesses, I decided to make last Thursday “Fairy-Princess Day”. One of the activities I had planned was to transform a batch of traditional ghost mud into “fairy mud”.
I didn’t think that could be done without a bit of the sparkly stuff.
And you know what? It was AWESOME! Ok, so it helped that we were outside (I never could have been so brave inside), and the glitter was contained in the mud, (maybe I’ll get over my issues with loose glitter one day), but it really was awesome, and added the perfect sparkly touch to this awesome sensory activity.
To make our fairy mud, I simply tweaked our ghost mud (or clean mud) recipe, a pure white sensory dough which yields a slightly smaller amount.
Fairy Mud ingredients:
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- plastic ice cream cones
- meatball scoop
- playdough cutters and stampers
- scissors
For embellishments, we added rose petals from the garden, and a handful of sea shells.
Making your fairy mud:
We started by taking all the toilet paper off the rolls. This was an activity in itself. The hooligans had fun running around tossing the rolls into the air, and pulling the paper off the cardboard tubes. When their mission was complete, we gathered up all the t.p., and put it in a shallow plastic storage container.
Then we grated the Ivory soap and transferred it into a plastic container.
Ivory soap is my favourite soap for kids. It smells delightful, and it’s super-mild. We use it for this expanding soap experiment and to make our homemade laundry detergent.
We added the warm coloured water into the soap shavings and the hooligans mashed and mushed the shavings until the mixture was fairly smooth. It smelled so good.
Then we poured the coloured soapy water mixture over the toilet paper, and the girls squeezed and squished it all together, until the t.p. had turned into a pulpy, moldable dough.
*I started out with 1.5 cups of water, but I had to add a little more (a wee bit at a time) to get our mixture to a consistency that I was happy with. The amount of water you’ll require will depend on the amount of t.p. on your rolls.
And when we were happy with the consistency of our mixture, we dumped in the GLITTER!
And THAT, my friends, is how you make FAIRY MUD!
Now add a little bling: some flower petals, seashells, or whatever else you have on hand – sequins, plastic jewels, glass beads etc., and get playing!
The girls created cookies, ice cream cones and cupcakes, and had a great time just mucking around in their beautiful mess!
Keep a bowl of water and a towel handy for those who like to clean their hands frequently while playing with messy materials.
For more fairy fun, check out our fairy soup and pop over to The Imagination Tree to see how they’ve been playing with fairy dust!
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
