Ocean Themed Sensory Bath

This Ocean Themed Sensory Bath I created for Rosie and Jewel the other night was one I got really creative with. I had so much fun creating it, and the girls LOVED it!

I scented the water with ocean mist bath fragrance and colored the water blue using food coloring, both of which I purchased at The Dollar Tree. Then I cooked up some pasta. I ran it under cold water, and then dyed half of it blue, and half of green. The pasta was to act as coral, algae, seaweed, and other ocean plant life. I gathered all of the girls sea creatures, which we use for sensory play often. Then I covered the tub floor with the pasta and creatures, hiding the creatures throughout the pasta.

It looked so colorful and FUN

Then it was time to get the girls! Rosie's imagination is really taking off, so on the way up to bath, I encouraged some imaginative play. I told her she was going swimming in the ocean with sea creatures. As soon as Rosie saw the bath, she was so excited!

As soon as they got in, both girls went right to exploring.

They loved it!

There was lots of splashing!

And giggles!

The feel of the pasta between the toes made Rosie giggle uncontrollably

I think it would make anyone giggle. Just looking at it makes me giggle a bit lol :)

Rosie loved finding the sea creatures hidden throughout the pasta

Rosie and Jewel had lots of fun exploring the texture of the wet noodles

Jewel loved throwing it!

Pasta in the bath? Mom, this is just too COOL!

This was such a fun bath time! While we love the messy stuff and don't mind a mess, I have to say clean up was pretty easy here. Once the girls were finished exploring Rosie helped me gather all the pasta into a strainer. The colored water washed right down the drain. Then, we simply filled the tub once more for a quick bath to get clean.

After the bath, I put the pasta in the fridge to use again before we throw it away. While I do not advocate food waste, the benefits of sensory play far exceed any waste here. We will get several more play times out of this $1 of pasta. You can read more about the benefits of sensory play here and here.

So, what else do you think we did with our pasta? Check back with us tomorrow to find out! :)