The five senses are an integral part of the human experience. They allow us to explore and understand our world and communicate our ideas. This activity is designed to help children, families, and teachers explore the exciting world of our senses through creating and playing with sensory toys.
Age Group: This activity is very moldable and can easily be used with children ranging from 2-5 years
Type of Activity: This activity is designed to be done either one on one with a child or with a small group of children as some adult supervision is required.
Learning Goal: Children will practice using their five senses to help them investigate and understand their world.
Areas of Development Addressed
Language Development: As children learn words for different sensations and describe how different items sound, feel, smell, etc. they build new vocabulary and expressive language skills.
Social Development: As children manipulate the sensory bags, they learn that their actions can affect objects. This is an important skill that is a stepping stone to understanding the concept that our actions can affect other people.
Cognitive Development: As children explore the sensory bags, they build several cognitive skills. For example, they learn about cause and effect by seeing how pushing or moving the bag makes the contents move. They also start to practice categorization by exploring what items feel cold, smooth, hard, or what objects make a louder or softer sound.
Materials
Container:
- Plastic resealable sandwich or freezer bags
- Glue
- (Optional) recycled water bottle or plastic jar
Filling for Container. You can use many different items to fill your sensory bags. Some possible ideas include:
- Water
- Glitter
- Plastic confetti or sequins
- Cotton balls
- Dried rice or beans
- Hair gel
- Googly eyes
- Small stones
Activity Prep
To complete this activity, you will first need to assemble the sensory bags. For my sensory bags, I used some resealable sandwich bags and random items I found around my house. You can use similar items or something entirely different. The goal is simply to provide children with the opportunity to explore different textures, sounds, smells, etc. so the sky is the limit for what you can use. To give you some ideas, here is what I used.
1. For bag number one, I poured some dried rice and beans and some sparkly pom-poms into a sandwich bag.
2. For the second bag, I mixed together some blue hair gel and a handful of googly eyes.
When I created my bags, I started by only using one layer of sandwich bags. However, I found that they quickly started leaking. I would recommend using a double layer of sandwich bags because this seemed to slow the leaking. I would also recommend folding the zip lock end of the bag over and gluing it to the bag to help prevent it from accidentally coming open.
If you don't have plastic bags or if you want to create more variety, you can also make sensory bottles. To do this, you will need an empty plastic bottle with a lid. I used a recycled juice bottle, but you can use any type of plastic bottle as long as it is clear and has a cap. I then filled the bottle with some colored water, glitter, and plastic confetti. If you don't have glitter or confetti, you could use dried rice or beans, small stones, or even beads. To finish it off, I glued the lid to the bottle to keep it from accidentally coming open during play.
Completing the Activity:
Once your sensory bags and/or bottles are finished, you are ready to complete the activity. Try setting the sensory toys out on the table and invite children over to play with them. If you have children who tend to mouth items, you may want to consider taping the bags to the table to avoid having children accidentally ingest any of the bags' contents. Encourage children to manipulate the bags by squishing them, looking at the contents, shaking them, or even smelling them if you have scented items. As children play, try to engage them in conversations and ask questions that expand their thinking. For example, help them label and understand the different sensory input they are experiencing by asking them questions about what they hear, feel, see, etc. Build their vocabulary and understanding of sensory concepts by commenting on texture, color, size, sound, etc.
Ways to Expand the Activity:
- Turn the sensory bags into a game by having children close their eyes or wear a blindfold and then guess what is in the bags using only touch.
- Involve children in creating the sensory bags by allowing them to choose which items they would like to go in their bag and helping pour in the water, gel, rice, etc.
- Turn the sensory bags into a game of eye-spy by providing children with magnifying glasses and a list with pictures of items to look for in the bag.
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