Sensory tubes - lots of play suggestions
Author: Sharon Wing
Game leader and mother
Earlier I wrote a piece about the Sensory tubes, transparent viewing tubes to play with. I tested them and found it a nice and solid set. Nice, but I can imagine that there are people who are also curious about what you can put in the tubes. Which materials give a nice effect and which do not?
The manual gives 19 suggestions of what you could do. The manual is in English, French, German and Spanish, but is written simply and gives you some ideas of what you could do. However, I would like to give some suggestions.
Watching and listening (closed caps)
- Water with pompoms in it
- Iron objects (possibly in water) and then move a strong magnet back and forth on the outside
- Beads (possibly in water)
- Water balls
- Plastic toys (lego pieces, studs, animals, iod)
- Bouncing balls
- Marbles
- Loom bands
- Hair gel and marbles
- Styrofoam balls (available at hardware stores) and possibly small toys/objects
Smell (open caps)
- Bay leaves
- Cinnamon sticks
- Vanilla pod
- A cotton pad with a few drops of essential oil (and possibly some nice objects to look at)
- Pine cones
- Rosemary
- Lavender
The manual mentions that you can put oil and water in the tubes, baby oil, but also vegetable oil and possibly some food coloring. You often see examples like this on the internet. I tried it and found the effect disappointing. If you take the tube and move it gently, it gives a nice effect for a while, large drops of oil then dance back and forth in the water. Very quickly the liquids mix so much that you only see a cloudy sludge and it takes a long time for the water and oil to sink back into place. I think the list above offers nicer suggestions with a nicer result.
The manual also suggests filling a tube with water and a dash of rinse aid (from the dishwasher), which I found to give a very nice effect. Especially if you 'shake' the tube a bit (like you would beat an egg) you get a beautiful whirlpool in the tube!
I also highly recommend water with glitter, or uncooked rice with small objects in it.
Video of Sensory tubes with color and oil . Received from a customer, in response to these play suggestions, thanks for this!
