I’d like to pretend that art and craft activities are meticulously organised and scheduled in a Martha-Stewart-fashion here. (I’ve seen mums who timetable these things out. Such organisation!)
The reality usually involves me stumbling across a household item and thinking “We could do something with this after naptime.”
Which is what happened when I recently discovered a container of powdered gelatine in the pantry. I immediately thought of this activity from Babble Dabble Do and it was a huge success when we attempted it.
The gelatine was super easy to work with- it appears that I just cannot use it successfully in cheesecakes- so I wanted to give it another whirl.
With all the blooms blooming in the neighbourhood of late, I thought we’d create a Spring-themed sensory play experience.

Choose your containers to set your gelatine in. I used a baking dish and a bowl.
Make up your gelatine mix as per the instructions on the packaging.
2 teaspoons would set 500mL of water according to our packaging.
So I poured 250mL of boiling water into the measuring jug and topped it up with 250mL of cold water.
I poured the mixture into the dishes and repeated the process 3 times.
We then placed the dishes into the freezer for about 20 minutes.
During this time we went out into the garden and picked some flowers.

Once the gelatine mix has cooled, place your flowers, leaves and petals into the liquid.
Place dishes in the fridge and leave to set. We left ours overnight.
To set up the play experience, I sat each dish in a larger dish filled with hot water for about 5 minutes. Using a knife dipped in hot water, I ran the knife around the edges of the jelly.
I then turned the jelly out onto a tray.
I left out various cutting and squishing utensils and….

Squishy, flowery sensory fun.
(It is sticky and messy- best to have some cleaning rags on standby!)
I can see sensory play with gelatine being an outdoor favourite this Summer.