25 Awesome Ideas for Light Table Play from Dollar Tree!

by Nikki Schwartz

Over Christmas, my husband built me a light table!  If you have not seen these, they are so great for sensory play and play-based learning techniques.  

So, last week I went in search of cheap light table activities at Dollar Tree®.  There were so many great inexpensive finds, I knew I had to share.  My toddler has had so much fun with these that I went back to buy a few more of his favorites!  What inexpensive light table activities have you found and loved?  Let me know in the comment section!
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(P.S. I have no affiliation to DOLLAR TREE®  and was in no way compensated for this post.)

Plastic Ice Cubes

Each bag has 16 brightly colored cubes.  They're just a little squishy and the colors are brighter on the table than they look here.  We had fun stacking and also used them as obstacles for the mini cars we found and to sort into cups with matching colors.  (I was so excited when I saw Play at Home Mom had found them, too!  They are my favorite play-based learning blog.)

Did anyone notice my little tetris reference? in the photo?

Small Cups for Stacking & Sorting

This set of four square cups match the colors of the cubes and made a great sorting activity.  They are all the same size, so they can be nested, taken apart and stacked in a pyramid of sorts

Plastic Baskets

These clear baskets are available in several sizes and colors.  We picked up four square baskets.  The material is a flexible plastic stretched over a white metal frame.  The plastic seems surprisingly durable.  They were fun to stack on top of one another.  My kiddo also thought they were fun to "trap" other toys and look at them through the plastic.

Crystal Cars

This is by far and away the kiddos favorite light table toy at the moment.  These 8 little plastic cars just glow on the table!  I thought I might need to pull the wheel base off, but it wasn't necessary.  We used the clear, colored boxes and the ice cubes for an obstacle course and away the cars went.  We used a ruler to make a parking lot.

I bought two more packs today, since they are so much fun.

Squishy Cold Paks

These little animal shaped cold paks are filled with little water beads and fun to squish, without being messy.  I saw four different animals: a pink butterfly, a yellow cat, a blue bird, and a purple elephant.

Slimline Plastic CD Cases

A set of 4 in clear, yellow, pink, and blue, made bright backgrounds for other toys.  Here they are tunnels for the glowing cars.

Plastic Crystals

These were in the floral section with candles and such.  They had three colors available, blue, green, and brown, with about 15 crystals in each bag. Fascinating, especially when we used the mirrors.

Glass Stones

I've seen several people use these to make little mosaics.  These came in small and large sizes with about 40 stones per bag.  I found them in blue, clear, and green.  One word of warning, supervise little ones playing with glass.  These do break if dropped on a hard floor or against each other.  Check them for breaks before handing them over.

Plastic Cups

We bought these a few months ago at Dollar Tree.  They are awesome for building pyramids and stacking, restacking.  I didn't seem them on this trip, but I have seen them at other stores.

Jewelry Links

My two-year was baffled at how to get these apart and link them together.  These would be fun in sand, too, I think.

Bracelets

I'm sure these will be great fun as "flaming" hoops for cars to jump through!

Plastic Dividers

I cut these out of a set of 5 plastic dividers that I found in the school sections.  Older kids could cut shapes themselves.  I've seen similar dividers at other stores as well.

Water Beads & Clear, Flat, Plastic Vase

This is a two-fer.  The flat plastic vase opens to hold water and stands on it's own AND it comes with water beads!  I saw it with pink, clear, and green beads.

We played with the beads in and out of the vase and also put the plastic cubes in the vase as well.

Be careful if your kidlet still puts things in her mouth.  These are non-toxic, but I don't want something that's been touched by everyone in her mouth.

Plastic Soap Dishes

The first dish is hard plastic and was fun for sorting and holding things.  The second dish is flexible, plastic.  It's little spikes made for a fun sensory experience.  I think we will try it out with sand and other messy activities.

Mirrors

The first mirror is an translucent orange plastic swivel mirror.  The second is a cosmetic bag mirror.  Both mirrors are glass, so watch their use around little ones.  (I have been searching for acrylic mirrors for months, and finally came across them at a craft store a few days ago.  They were in the quilting section for mirroring quilt patterns.)

Colored Sand

We haven't had a chance to play with the colored sand yet.  I opened one small bag to take a picture.  The sand comes as part of a kit to make sand art bottle.  It has three small bags of sand and a clear travel size bottle.

Rulers

I wish there were more colors, but this set of three rulers has made up for it as part of imaginative play.  (You saw the parking lot earlier? :)  )

Window Gels

Each set of window gels has 10 sticky gels for windows.  I think I saw Christmas gels last month, but didn't think to buy any since we didn't have a light table yet.

Stacking Chairs Game

This is a clever game that older kids might enjoy.   Younger kids will probably just play with the chairs themselves.  You try to balance all of the chairs on top of one chair at the bottom.

Containers

Last but not least, Dollar Tree® is a really great place to get inexpensive containers.  They work fine and you won't care if they get ruined, lost, stepped on, cracked, melted (melted?!) or repurposed.

Messy Play Bin

We've used another Dollar Tree® container for messier activities, sand play, painting, waterbeads, etc.

Did you find any inspiration?

After writing this post, I want to get up and play some more!  I'm always looking for new ideas for play-based learning and play therapy.  I always love to hear from you.  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! And then Go Play!

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Nikki Schwartz is a Counselor Resident at Spectrum Psychological and focuses on using neurofeedback, play, and talk therapies to provide practical, effective counseling to families and clients.  You can find her on Pinterest, Twitter,  Facebook, and Google+.

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