Sensory Play in ECE

Sensory play is not just about fun; it's a crucial part of early childhood education. It challenges our children and encourages them to use their senses to investigate and interact with their environment in new and creative ways. This helps them make sense of the world around them and fosters their overall development.

What is Sensory Play? 

Sensory play is any activity that stimulates the senses, which include touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. It also covers movement, balance, and spatial awareness.

Sensory play can involve various materials such as sand, water, playdough, leaves, shells, and sensory bins filled with shredded paper, birdseed, fabric scraps, ice, and much more! 

It is limited only by your imagination, provided you use common sense to ensure the materials and activities suit your children's age and ability.

Benefits of Sensory Play

With sensory play, there’s always more happening than meets the eye, and there are numerous benefits for babies, toddlers, and children who engage in this type of play.  

• Cognitive Development: Sensory play helps children learn about cause and effect, improves problem-solving skills, and enhances memory.
• Fine and Gross Motor Skills: Manipulating objects and materials in sensory play can develop fine motor skills (such as hand-eye coordination) and gross motor skills (such as balance and coordination).  ‍
• Language Development: Sensory activities encourage children to describe their experiences, expanding their vocabulary and communication skills.  ‍
• Social Interaction: Sensory play often involves group activities, which help children learn to share, take turns, and develop social skills.
• Emotional regulation: Sensory play can be calming and help children manage their emotions, reduce anxiety, and improve mood.
• Promotes Independence: Sensory play activities foster independence and self-direction, allowing children to explore materials and activities at their own pace and in their own way.

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Tips for Implementing Sensory Play 

• Provide a wide range of materials for children to explore.
• Offer open-ended activities. Encourage children to use their imaginations and explore materials in their own way.
• Incorporate sensory play into other activities and learning experiences, such as science experiments, art activities, and dramatic play.
• Encourage children to reflect on their sensory play experiences by discussing what they learned.

Sensory Play Activities

One of the easiest ways to engage children's senses is through outdoor play, where they can experience a variety of colours, movements, textures, sounds, and smells in nature.

We also love these fun and easy sensory play ideas:

Taste Safe Foam (Aquafaba)

You'll need:

• 1x tin of chickpeas
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• A few drops of food colouring (optional)

Drain the tin of chickpeas, reserving the liquid. Then add cream of tartar and a few drops of food colouring (if using) to the liquid. Beat on highspeed with an electric mixer until it turns to foam. Put the foam into a sensory bin or large container and let your children explore.

Sensory Feet Play

Children can learn so much by using their feet including identifying textures and temperatures, testing materials and balancing. Why not give these ideas a go?

• Sensory footpath: A sensory walk made up of a collection of items such as bubble wrap, wet newspaper, feathers, small pebbles, a pillow or paint.
• Wet sand: Stomp in the sand, squeeze it between toes and wriggle feet in it. This provides a great opportunity to explore the sense of touch and can lead to great conversations about what the sand feels like as they play with it.
• Block building: Children can try and hold blocks between their feet and move them around. Can they walk with a block, or do they need to sit down and bum shuffle? Can they place one block on top of another using just their feet?
• Feet painting: This can get a bit slippery, so is best done outside on the grass. On a large sheet or tarp add blobs of paint on top. Kids can either walk slowly through the paint or sit on the edge and put their feet in and out of the paint.

Toy Washing

This is a popular sensory play activity, ideal for warm summer days, and easy to set up (plus you get your toys cleaned too!).

It’s a great activity to develop their fine motor skills, helping hand strength and general co-ordination. Children also learn concepts like empty and full, cause and effect, and wet and dry.

Fill a large container with water and bubble bath or dishwashing liquid — the more bubbles, the better! Add some toys, cloths, and old toothbrushes or scrubbing brushes, and encourage your children to wash the toys. You can also include scoops, cups, and buckets.

Place a smaller container with clean water next to the bubbly water for rinsing the toys, and provide a towel for drying them.

More Sensory Play Ideas

• Cornflour gloop/oobleck
• Colouring sorting games
• Shadow play
• Musica instrument exploration
• Storytelling with sound effects
• Herb garden exploration
• Fingerpainting
• Mystery bag full of objects they can touch but cannot see
• Puddle painting