Messy, gooey play ideas excite children. A sock full of beans, lights up their eyes. They love getting their hands on that sticky slime. It’s a different world of messy, fun-filled learning. Few things cannot be taught by words, they require touching, smelling & feeling. Sensory play is such an important part of early childhood.
This is in integral part of early education. Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your young child’s senses – touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing. Experts site various benefits of including this in early education. It can help to build language and fine motor skills.
Few sensory play ideas that can enhance your child’s development are –
Straw Painting: Place random spurts of paint all over on a sheet of paper and encourage your child to place their straw close to the paint and blow to send streams all around their paper for a cool effect!
Straw Beads: Simply cut up a bunch of straws for impromptu beads and places them out for the kids to yarn out for necklaces — I like to wind a piece of tape around the edge of yarn if we are using it for lacing, to make it easier for the kids.
Homemade Dough – Make dough out of refined flour, glues & lots of safe edible colours. Do add some oil so that the dough does not dry out. Knead it well to get a smooth texture.
Bean Socks – Fill one of the child’s favourite colour socks with dries beans & secure the ends well. Excellent way to teach them about texture.
Sand Foam – Sand Foam is perfect for sensory exploration. You can make it using sand and shaving cream. Kids will love running their hands and fingers through the fluffy, textured mixture.
Slime – Make a slime using shaving cream & glue. Do add a lot of glitter & colours to make it attractive.
Primary Colours Squishy Bag – On a thick cardboard attached few zip lock pouches. Fill these pouches with different colours & some water. Let them squeeze them & mix different colours together.