bird seed sensory table

Our girl loves spending time outside on our deck. Lately, a plant or tree has been blowing little seeds all over the deck. Charlotte loves to pick these up, place them on the table, hand them to me, or put them into her bucket. She likes tiny things to collect. This gave me the idea to extend her owl & bird theme we’ve had going on lately.

We went to our local feed store and bought some bird seed. As we walked down the aisles she kept looking around saying, “ohhhh” and pointing. She was way more excited about the experience than I expected!

When we got home we moved her sensory table outside to the deck. I filled the bin with some of the bird seed, her Owl figurine and rocks, and a stainless steel measuring cup. I pulled up a chair to observe.

Disclaimer: yes, these materials are tiny and are a potential choking hazard. Charley, at 15 months old, doesn’t put things into her mouth that often anymore. I did supervise 100% of the time just in case. The bird seed we bought didn’t have any dangerous ingredients in it if she did put some in her mouth. I would only recommend this activity with children that would not eat it. You can always put some bird seed into a sensory bottle too.

She loved this and spent about twenty minutes exploring this material. She scooped and poured the seeds, threw them up in the air, and carefully placed them into an empty flower pot. Then she went to her outside toy bin and brought a shovel and rake to the table.The best part: we were outside and the birds cleaned up our mess! The next few days Charley sat by the glass door watching for birds. We were lucky enough to spot a few cleaning up after us!

One morning Charlotte started squealing and pointing out the window with a huge smile. I looked outside and a squirrel was sitting in a dish of bird seed. Those sneaky squirrels!