Sensory Play: More Then Just Fun!
Hello Everyone! Welcome to We are the Village, where we are happy to be a part of your children’s lives and promote all the wonderful milestones that they accomplish daily!
All day long children of all ages are learning new skills/concepts and making new connections in their brains. A lot of the time these connections are made through their senses. They learn so much by watching, hearing, touching, smelling, and even tasting! There are so many benefits to incorporating sensory play into the children’s daily routine. Sensory play can be anything that is hands on with the kiddos, but it is also much more than that! It is play or an activity that stimulates the senses or engages them in movement! Check out some sensory activities that our children have participated in.
Here are a few benefits to sensory play:
Supports Cognitive Development: New and frequent experiences bridge nerve connections in the brain.
Play is inclusive: Children of all ages and developments can actively participate at their own level.
Promotes Problem solving, exploration, and creativity
As an ECE teacher or parent, at times some are a little shy of sensory play because it can get a little “messy”. Here are a few tips for sensory time:
Do not plan every minute of the activity. Leave it open ended. Give the children the materials and watch what they do with it.
Be hands on with the activity too. Depending on the age or development of the child, you may need to model what you can do, but do not let that be the only way they play.
Some children may not want to participate, and that is ok! Just make sure to try to include them on their level. They may not want to touch the activity, but if they are standing back and watching, they are still making connections about the activity.
At home Activity
Who else knows a kid that LOVES slime! Well why not take the slime and turn it into a further learning experience! Here are a few items that you can find at the closest dollar store:
Tray
Pack of slime
Beads with letters on them (can be any manipulative that has letters, numbers, shapes, etc)
Tweezers
Sand Timer
Directions:
Put the beads (or manipulatives) in the slime and mix it all up. Start the timer, and have the child try to collect as many beads as they can. Do not worry about the letter part right now. Once the timer is up, grab the collected beads and go over the letters that they found. You can extend this and even work on letter sounds. Once complete, you can start the timer again and try again!
Learning moments:
Fine Motor skills- Using the tweezers will increase the child’s hand muscles.
Literacy- Working on letter identification and possibly letter sounds. For more advanced children, you can extend the activity and create small words out of the letters found.
After the activity you can reflect about it. Ask them to describe the slime. What did it feel like? Look like? Smell like? This builds vocabulary and helps put words to their thoughts!
