SENSORY CORNER
SENSORY ACTIVITIES See, Smell, Hear, Touch, Taste
The five senses are your child’ s most familiar and most basic way to explore, process, and understand new information and the world around them. Sensory activities are beneficial for young children as they encourage them to explore different activities with their five senses, aiding their development in many different ways. Benefits include:
• Building fine motor skills
• Building language and cognitive concepts
• Developing the ability to use those senses and build the neurological pathways associated with each one
• Becoming more perceptive
• More acute sensory processing
• More able to learn through their senses
• Invitation to explore
If you missed out on our sensory taster classes here are some activities that you can try at home with your children.
Activity One: Jelly Play( Touch)
You will need:
• 2-3 packs of jelly mix, different colours
• Bowl, Spoon
• Plastic animal toys( thoroughly washed)
Method: 1. Follow the instructions for making the jelly mixture. 2. Pour into any shapes and sizes of container preferred. Add plastic animals to jelly and put in fridge to set.( To form layers of different colours, cool and set each layer before adding on a new layer a few hours later). 3. Take it out the next day and play! Extra: Try adding a layer of coloured water over the set jelly, and freeze until semi frozen. This is especially good for an ocean themed jelly play. Encourage squishing, dipping, feeling the gooey texture, and tasting( ensure animals are clean). Feel the temperature and texture describing it with different adjectives: cold, squishy, wobbly, wiggly etc. Tip: For an easy cleanup afterwards, playtime can be done in the bathtub or on a disposable plastic mat( available from $ 2 shops!)
These activities are easy and cheap to do and are a great way to keep your children occupied during winter when there’ s plenty of indoor time to fill in!
6