Sensory Muffin/Cupcake Tin Play

How to Keep Your Little One Entertained with a Muffin Tin

Recommended for children 5 months+

Always use active supervision when using this activity and your discretion

 

I don't know about you, but my little one enjoys playing with items other than her said toys. She especially enjoys playing with kitchen items. When I saw a post on Pinterest about utilizing a muffin tin in your child's play I was ecstatic! I knew Maci would enjoy this activity. What a great idea with so many possibilities?!  

What You Will Need:

One thing I love about this activity and many of the activities that I do, is that it requires minimal supplies and they are items you probably have laying around the house. 

You will need the following:

• muffin/cupcake tin
• colorful balls

Depending on what you plan to do with the activity you may need additional items. I will explain what I did with Maci and then give some suggestions on what you could do with an older and/or younger child. Also, ideas I want to try with this activity at a later time. 

The Skills I Worked on with Maci:

This was the first time I introduced this activity to Maci, so I wanted to let her explore freely at first. Maci just sat and admired the setup at in the beginning. That didn't last too long though. Once she was a little more comfortable she began to grab and touch the colorful balls. As she would grab a ball I would describe which ball she was touching. "Maci, you just grabbed the green ball." "Grab this orange ball next." Pointing to the orange ball. "Maci, I see three yellow balls. Let's count them. 1, 2, 3. Three yellow balls." Pushing and pulling the tray around on the tile was another favorite of Maci's. She enjoyed hearing the loud scratchy sound that it made. 

                   

List of Skills we Worked on:

• Colors
• Counting
• Shapes
• Sounds
• Fine motor skills
• Patterns
• Sorting

Adapted for a Younger Child:

If you have a child under the age of one and would like to complete this activity you may do so. I would recommend this activity for children 5 months and up. Always supervise your child's play and use discretion. A younger child could work on this activity while practicing tummy time and/or sitting up. You could add different items with a variety of textures for your child to explore. 

Adapted for an Older Child:

As Maci is getting older I am loving all of our play possibilities. I would like to amp up the difficulty of this activity next time and work on sorting by matching colored stickers placed in the tray. I will get colored stickers that match the colors of Maci's balls. I will place the stickers in the bottom of the tray and have Maci find the corresponding colored ball and place it in the tray. I do not know if she is quite ready to complete this yet. But I could complete this with her by modeling for her and scaffolding her through the activity. 

This same concept could be done with patterns. You could place stickers on the bottom of the pan with a pattern you would like your child to complete. Then have them create their own pattern if ready to do so. 

If you have a child that is ready for multiplication this would be a fun activity. Talk about the balls that are in the rows and columns. "Look, if I have 3 blue balls in these columns and 2 blue balls in these rows I have 6 balls all together."

Have Fun Learning:

The possibilities are really endless with this activity depending on what skills you would like to work on. I hope you and your child have a fun time learning and playing together. Let me know how the activity goes and which skills you worked on. Please, let me know if you have any questions and/or comments. I'd be happy to help!

Marrisa