Activities Ideas to Encourage Sensory Play
Activities to Try:
-For the children who are too small to play safe at the water table, you can fill the tray with water, food colouring, and items that will sink and float.
-You could use a sensory tub and the teacher/parent puts something new and exciting in the tub and sits it on a plastic tablecloth on the floor.
-Then the children/child can sit around the tub and see what is inside.
If you use sand a lot in your sensory table, here are a few ways to add variation:
-You can let the children add plastic glitter (safer than metal) to create shiny sand.
-You can have them add some food colouring to create patches of colour, and then mix the colours into the sand and see what happens.
-You can encourage them add water, and see what happens. Ice cubes are fun to watch melt into the sand.
When using water in the sensory table (you could start with just 2 inches until the children all get the idea of keeping their hands over the table
-Try using turkey basters or pipettes (long eyedroppers). You need to help the children discover how to squeeze the bulb to pick up the water, and then squeeze again to release it. Let them add coloured water this way so they can see more clearly what's happening
-You could buy a cheap bag or box of biscuits that have a variety of sizes and add them to the sand table. You could cover the bones well so the children do not see them right away. The children dig for their bones and then assemble a creation by gluing the bones on construction paper.
-You could use a large plastic container and fill it with Cheerios to make a sensory table for young children. Any cereal can be used in this way so it's ok if any goes in the mouth.
-Encourage exploration with their hands, play hide-n-seek games with toys and our hands, also include some toddler size spoons and small containers to encourage filling/dumping/beginning tool use.
Here are different items to put instead of or in place of sand and water:
Water, jelly, ice, nuts, shredded paper, coffee grounds, soil, sea shells, seeds, dry pasta, cooked pasta, leaves, fresh and crinkly ones, grated soap (use a cheese grater), shaving cream/foam, whipped cream, feathers, yogurt, cotton balls, straws, salt, dry instant mashed potatoes (use them plain or add a little water for a different effect), oatmeal, popcorn (popped or plain kernels), baby shampoo, bubbles, pine cones, sawdust, cereal, marbles, flower petals, hay, play dough, buttons, honey, ice cream, whole bananas (let the children squish them), marshmallows, broccoli, crackers, cookies, tomatoes, salsa, pieces of bread, small balls, beads, puzzle pieces (all different sizes), confetti, scarves, all different kinds of fabric samples, blocks, Lego, cottage cheese, hair gel, pipe cleaners, ribbon, sponges (all different shapes, sizes, rubber animals.