Hi friends!

And happy shark week! I had SO much fun designing and coming up with this shark week activity. My kids are really into search & finds lately, and sensory bags have always been a hit for me because it keeps my kid’s attention without the mess of a typical sensory table setup. (Plus, if you have younger kids, they can participate too!).

A sensory bag for babies and toddlers is a simple and stimulating play tool designed to engage a child's senses through touch and sight. It’s usually made using a clear, sealable plastic bag, and filled with a variety of safe and interesting materials, such as colored water, glitter, small toys, or textured items like gel, beads, or rice. When sealed properly, the bag becomes a mess-free and secure sensory experience, allowing babies and toddlers to explore the contents freely without any risk of ingestion or spillage. These sensory bags offer a fun and educational way for young children to develop their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and cognitive abilities, all while delighting in the captivating visual and tactile elements contained within the bag.

For this week’s sensory bag, you’ll need the following supplies:

Under the Sea Printables (Download for FREE Here)
Hair Gel
1 gallon zip lock bag
Tape
Red and blue food coloring (optional)

If you’ve read any of my other blogs, you’ve probably caught onto the theme that I love activities that are low cost and simple! And this one checks both boxes. Follow these steps and you’ll be all set for a simple, fun, and engaging shark week sensory i-spy activity. :)

Download and print out both the under the sea printable and the pieces.
Tape the under the sea printable to the table where you’ll be doing your sensory bag.
Cut each of the pieces out. You should have 25 total.
Fill your ziplock back with gel. The amount doesn’t matter too much. I usually do enough so that there is 1-2 inches of gel in the bottom of my bag if I’m holding the bag upright.
Add some food coloring to get your gel a nice deep blue color. (The darker the color, the harder the search and find will be). I accomplished this by doing 3 drops of blue for every 1 drop of red coloring. Mix the gel well by sealing the ziplock and massaging the bag until it’s all mixed in.
Tape your ziplock bag over the under the sea image and spread the gel out so that it covers the entirety of the water in the image.

You’re all set! Have fun picking a card and moving the gel around to uncover each image in this cute and simple under the sea search and find. :)

Cheers,

Meg