Textured Hot Air Balloon Sensory Craft

This week’s creative preschool theme is exploring the 5 senses. This textured hot air balloon sensory craft combines sight, smell, touch and sound. It also uses fine motor skills from painting on the glue and sprinkling the colored rice to placing on tiny stickers and pieces of the different materials used.

Textured Hot Air Balloon Sensory Craft

Talk about each of 5 senses and how it relates to the craft:

1. Sight: colorful designs using different materials, shiny glitter
2. Sound: tearing tissue paper (or newspaper, construction paper)
3. Smell: Mr Sketch Markers (they smell so yummy!), vinegar
4. Taste: No tasting anything for this craft, but we talked about how the vinegar smell was so strong we could almost taste it.
5. Touch: lots of textures – soft, bumpy, smooth, feathers, sticky glue

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Supplies Used:

• paper plate
• glue
• scissors
• Mr. Sketch Markers (optional)
• items such as crepe paper, tissue paper, glitter, colored rice, feathers, fabric, felt, bubble wrap, buttons, cotton balls and so on
• string/yarn/cord
• hole puncher
• brown paper lunch bag

Instructions:

We used the thicker paper plates and not the flimsy ones although those would work as well. I cut the rim off but left a small area for the bottom of the balloon.

Sketch the curved lines for the seams on the balloon. We used Mr. Sketch Markers which smelled awesome! The colored rice smelled awful since it was soaked in dyed vinegar leftover from our Easter eggs.

Start with one section and paint on glue completely covering that area. Choose a textured item to place over the glue. Repeat until all the sections are filled. We used scented markers, colored rice, glitter, stickers, tissue paper, crepe paper, feathers, craft foam pieces, cotton balls, bubble wrap and a fluffy ribbon for the paper plate hot air balloons.

Punch four holes on the bottom strip – 2 on each side with a space in the middle of numbers 2 and 3. Cut a brown paper lunch bag to create two baskets – I cut along the crease that was towards the bottom. Using this piece, I cut the piece in half the vertical way giving 2 baskets for the balloon. Tape the open end closed. Punch a hole on both sides of the baskets.

Cut two strings per each basket and thread it through the holes. We went through the back of the first hole over through the top of the 2nd hole. These two string ends were threaded through a hole on the same side of the basket, tying it together inside the bag so the not stayed hidden. Repeat with the other side.

Little Sister wanted to put princesses in the hot air balloon craft which we had previously cut (and saved for future use) from the packaging of a Disney product we had purchased. You could also place a cutout photo of the kids or a small toy that fits inside the brown paper pouch.

Creative Preschool 5 Senses Theme

My Five Senses & Popcorn Preschool Observation Mini Book | I Heart Crafty Things

Learning About the 5 Senses Potato Head Game and Free Printable | A Little Pinch of Perfect

Five Senses Collage Mini Book | School Time Snippets

Explore Spring with Your 5 Senses | Hand Made Kids Art

See you in two weeks for a preschool math theme! For more activities like this Hot Air Balloon Sensory Craft, check out our sensory exploration category.

Amanda

Artsy Momma

Amanda is an ‘artsy momma’ to 2 kids who love making crafts just as much as she does. Follow their creative journey over on the blog titled Artsy Momma. Besides crafts, they share fun food ideas, hands-on learning activities, mommy DIY, + lots more! If you love handprint art, head over to their Fun Handprint Art blog where you will find hundreds of their projects all made with little hands and feet.