Play

Do your kids talk about their upcoming birthday for 364 days of the year? 

If so, they will love this pretend birthday party invitation to play where they can celebrate any day of the year. 

Things like sensory bins and invitations to play are things that probably never heard of until you had a child. 

And then you realized you were supposed to be doing these activities in order to encourage learning and development. Great, one more thing to worry about. 

The good news is that there are tons of ideas for playtime on Pinterest to make things easy. 

I actually really like dreaming up sensory bins for the kids & we have done things like Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal pies, Cookie Cereal Baking Bin, Vegetable Soup Water Table Play and Taste Safe Infant finger painting. 

But as much as I love coming up with ideas, my kids actually made up the pretend birthday party invitation to play.

They came up with this all on their own after a real birthday party last year. I got out some stuff today for them to do it again & they had just as much fun as the first time. 

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Pretend Birthday Party – Invitation To Play

The pretend birthday party invitation to play is so easy and requires very little prompts from the parent. After I provided the supplies, my kids played “birthday party” for 45 minutes straight! 

I will give you the materials that we used & then give you some play prompts if you need them. 

Pretend Birthday Party Materials:

• Recycled Gift Bags (I use the ones that are on their last leg and not something I would reuse again at a Birthday Party) 
• A few sheets of tissue paper
• A roll of gift wrap (we used old Christmas paper but you could grab a roll at the Dollar Tree too)
• Tape
• Scissors (if Age Appropriate) 
• Balloons (again if age appropriate)

I put those items out and tell my kids to play birthday party. 

How to Host a Pretend Birthday Party for Kids

To play birthday party, you first need to “shop” your toys for something to give. 

Next, you wrap that gift. My kids love to wrap with wrapping paper or arrange it in a gift bag. It is something that I usually do if we are going to a real party and apparently it seems super cool to the kids. 

Now it is party time! 

Play Prompts for Party Time

If your kids are struggling to come up with something on their own or if you like to give more structured instructions, here are some play prompts that you can use during this activity. 

My kids did the following: 

• Welcomed their pretend friends to their pretend party.
• Dressed up in themed clothing (My son chose a hero party so my daughter wore a cape & he wore a fire fighter outfit)
• Made a Birthday lunch, cake and ice cream in their play kitchen. 
• Sang Happy Birthday before eating their cake.
• The Birthday Boy/Girl opened their presents 
• Pretended to play birthday games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey
• Played toss the Balloon 

Some more ideas:

• Have the children make birthday cards with paper and crayons
• Decorate the room with homemade decorations
• Make a real cake together, complete with candles & celebrate with a yummy dessert. 

My kids played for almost an hour with this pretend birthday party invitation to play. I did interact some but for the most part they were able to entertain themselves with the activity which allowed me a little bit of time to get other things done. 

More Sensory Activities for Kids:

Rose Petal Princess Tea

Plant a Flower Garden Bin 

A rose petal tea sensory bin is a great spring activity that can be done with common household items!

The other day I saw a mom on a Facebook Support group that I’m on complain about sensory bins.

She didn’t want to have to go to 3 stores, spend $47 buying materials and then spend 29 minutes putting it all together only for her son to play with it for 3 minutes.

And I totally get that. Been there, done that. Nothing is more frustrating than spending time and money on something that your kids are done with in less than 5.

That is just one reason I lover this rose petal tea sensory bin. We used only things that we had at home and I even had the kids help me gather some of the supplies.

So it was cheap, involved a nature item and entertained the kids for more than 5 minutes. I felt like I was winning!

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.

Rose Petal Tea Sensory Bin

To create this activity, we just took a quick trip to the rose bush in the front yard. If you don’t have a rose bush (and don’t want to pick the neighbors) we have some other ideas so that you can still make this rose petal tea sensory bin.

What You Need for Rose Petal Tea Activity

• Clear Bin or Bowl – This is my favorite for sensory bins
• Rose Petals – No roses in your yard? What about a blooming azalea? Wild Flowers? You could also use a package of rose petals from Dollar Tree
• Water
• Red/Pink Food Coloring
• Plastic Tea Set & Misc. Spoons from your kitchen

Creating the Bin

Usually when I do sensory bins, I gather the materials and set up the experience. I then introduce it to the kids and invite them to play.

But with this rose petal tea sensory bin, I wanted to change it up a bit. Since it is spring inspired and roses petals are the star of the show, some outdoor time seemed appropriate.

We went outside and spent time collecting petals and adding them to a bucket. I love my little rose bush so the kids were only allowed to collect the petals that had already fallen.

Once you have plenty of rose petals collected, add them to your bin with plenty of water and a few drops of food coloring.

Place a tea set, kitchen utensils and even plastic cups from your kitchen if you don’t have a tea set into the bin.

Hand the beautiful pink rose petal tea sensory bin over to the kids and let their imaginations run.

Play for Varying Ages and Genders

Our rose petal tea sensory bin entertained both my 2 year old boy and 6 year old girl for a good period of time.

My older daughter made a “real” fancy tea party with her bin. She took orders, brewed the tea, added rose garnishes and served her creations.

The 2 year old just had fun splashing around and pouring from the teapot into the teacups and drinking the tea. I’d like to say he pretended to drink but he got a few real gulps in.

Thank goodness it was just water and food coloring. And of course after a quick Google search, I found out that all rose petals are edible. So if you use real petals, this is technically a taste safe activity (although I personally would not recommend it!).

Learning Activities with This Sensory Bin

I love sensory bins because not only are they fun, it is also a great way for kids to learn through play. 

Here are some things that the kiddos can learn while using this sensory bin:

• Motor Skills – Pouring and scooping are great for developing those fine motor skills that they will need to .
• Colors – You can talk about colors of the water, flowers, even the cups and tea pot.
• Pretend – Developing the skills for the kids to be able to play pretend is so beneficial. 
• Learning about Nature – You can discuss how the roses grow, bloom and then fall to the ground at the end of their life cycle. We played with this bin outside too which added to the nature aspect.
• Sharing and Serving – Learning to share and serve others is something that I think is good for the soul! I loved watching them make “tea” and then let their brother or sister have the first “sip.”

Love this rose tea petal sensory bin? Here are some more to keep those kids busy!

Cookie Cereal Sensory Bin

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bin

Vegetable Soup Water Table Play

Planting Seeds, Growing Flowers Sensory Bin 

A flower garden sensory bin is a spring inspired activity that can be played with indoors or out.

My daughter has been asking to plant things lately. And she wants to plant everything!

If it is up to her, we will have a full vegetable garden, a bunch of fruit trees and a yard full of bedding plants.

Since we haven’t been able to get out and get flowers yet, I thought a sensory bin would be a fun way to practice planting.

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Flower Garden Sensory Bin

A flower garden sensory bin allows for imaginative and tactile play.

The kids can pretend to plant their seeds in soil, water the seeds and watch them grow into beautiful flowers. And once they grow, they can pick them of course!

Materials Needed For Flower Garden Bin

• Artificial Flowers
• Painted Chickpeas* (Acrylic paint and dried chickpeas)
• Dried Black Beans
• Mini Wooden Scoops
• Small Terra Cotta or tin planters
• Mini Watering Can (I got ours at Hobby Lobby)
• Large Container to hold all of the play items – This is my favorite bin, not too big, not too small & inexpensive.

Preparing the Flower Garden Sensory Bin

The first thing you want to do is paint your chickpeas. Simply put a little acrylic paint into a ziploc bag and drop in the desired number of dried chickpeas.

Seal the bag and shake, shake, shake. Remove from the bag and lie flat on some paper towels to dry. They dry pretty quickly.

Then dump enough dried black beans into the large container to cover the bottom. You want plenty of beans because this is your “potting soil.”

Next, cut apart your artificial flowers into individual stems. Scissors will work but wire cutters will be easier. Make sure you cut the wire close so that there is no chance for injury.

Now the best part – just dump all the rest of the items into the play bin. It is time to play!

Planting in the Flower Garden

My 2 and 6 year old kids both had fun gardening in their sensory bins.

For the toddler, lots of time was spent scooping beans. He transferred them from the big bin into the smaller planters.

With a little prompting, he did a little planting and playing with the flowers as well. But the beans were definitely the favorite.

My 6 year old used more imagination in her play. She took the painted chickpeas and planted them in the pots.

Pretended to water the pots and seeds to make the flowers grow.

Then she picked the flowers and made a bouquet for me! Sweet girl.

Learning Prompts:

• Identify the Colors of the Flowers
• Count the Flowers
• Discuss How Plants Grow (plant the seed, water, sunshine, grow)
• Demonstrate volume in a container (fill half way or 3/4)

What would you add to this gardening invitation to play activity?

More Sensory Bins?

Cookie Cereal Baking Bin

Apple Cinnamon Fall Sensory Bin

Vegetable Soup Water Table Play

Edible Infant Finger Paint

Tired of throwing away the cheap plastic toys that come in kid’s meals or birthday party favor bags?

Find new and fun things to do with fast food toys that will keep the kids engaged and having fun.

Does your house seem to pile up with little plastic trinket toys? Whether they are from school holiday parties, fast food toys or birthday parties, they appear and multiply.

My typical protocol was to let the kids play until they lost interest in these little junk toys. You know as well as me, that usually happens in 5 minutes or less.

Then I would throw the toys out because I couldn’t take anymore clutter in our playroom.

I felt joy in knowing that I was not adding to an overabundance of toys. But I also felt a little guilty. Especially if the toys came from a party bag.

Someone spent money on those little trinkets. And here I am throwing them out. So I decided to start finding creative ways to use them beyond the 5 minutes that the kids spend playing with something new.

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.

Things To Do With Fast Food Toys

Giving a new purpose to an old or cheap toy is the best way to get those toys played with.

The Collection Process

The first thing you need to do is save up these little toys.

I keep a big gallon ziplock bag in a cabinet. As the fast food toys come into my house, I simply collect them once they have been discarded by the kids and place them in my toy bag.

Do the same thing with party favor toys.

Once you have a good amount of toys in the bag, you can pull out just what you need for activities or just release the whole bag to the kids to play with.

Ideas for Things To Do With Favor Toys

We have been sheltering in place for the last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The other day, I pulled out my plastic toy bag and handed it to the kids outside.

And do you know what happened? They played for quite a while with all these toys that they had lost interest in before. That I would have previously thrown out.

It was like found treasure. And they loved it.

Here are some ideas on things to do with fast food toys instead of discarding them:

• Take them to the Park – If one gets lost, no big deal.
• Play with them in water table or sand box
• Use as Slime or Play Doh toys
• Play in the Bath time – Since these toys aren’t really meant to be water toys, you may have to toss if they start to get gross but you were going to toss them anyway right?
• Keep A bag in the car for trips or unexpected traffic jams
• Use them at restaurants to keep kids busy while you wait on food
• Take them to Grandmas house for when the kids are visiting.
• Use them in Sensory Bins
• Set up in a doll house
• Build a Lego fort to house all the figurines
• Play hide the toys (an Easter Egg hunt of toys)
• Freeze the toys in water and use a dropper of water to free the toys
• Create a nature fort for the figurines (gather sticks, leaves and flowers and let the imagination go from there)
• Paint the toys with washable paint to give them a new look
• Cover the toys in shaving cream and let kids clean them with a cheap toothbrush or rag.
• Set up figurines in a bowling triangle and play a round of mini bowling using a bouncy ball

Check out these ideas from to stop sending in junk to class parties:

• No Junk Halloween Favors
• Unique Birthday Party Favors

How do you like to recycle trinkets into a fun activity that keeps kids busy?