Friday, March 18, 2011

Pinatas are great sensory activities

One fun thing to do is make a pinata by yourself unless you're sensitive to slimy textures. Even if you're child is sensitive to textures he or she might love breaking the pinata open. If you want to stuff it you could put in things for them to fidget with.
How to make a pinata is easy. Blow up a balloon to the desired size. Place a strong string around the knot and hand it with a pan underneath because it gets messy. Take newspaper and shred it into strips. Long strips work great. Make a thick mixture of flour and water until it is a runny paste. Get a piece of newspaper and cover it in the mixture. Then place it on the balloon until it is covered. Make sure to leave a portion in the very top undone so you can put prizes inside it. Make sure the edges of the opening are thick so you can hang it. Let it air dry and then add a layer. Continue to do this until you have a thick, dry paper shell. Remember this is going to be holding lots of objects and you don't want it to fall through. Also depending on how hard your kid can hit it you might want to make it thinner or thicker depending on your need. When it is completely dry you can paint the pinata if you would like or glue tissue paper on it for some color. When you are finished coloring it take something sharp and pop the balloon and pull it out and throw it away.  You should be left with the shell. To hand it up tie a popscilcle stick or something simular in the middle and push it through the top and pull up. The stick should go sideways resting inside against the sides of the shell. Fill with your choice of objects or candy and hang it up in a place where it is safe to swing a bat, wrapping paper tube, dowel or stick.

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