# data[].attributes.body
Supplies: Milk, Measuring cup, Pan
Procedure: Read the book "It looks like spilled milk," then give each student a tray/pan. Hand out cups of milk and let the students pour the milk onto the tray. Have the students observe and share what they see.
Benefits: promotes creative thinking
https://heydayliving.blogspot.com/2011/08/lets-spill-milk.html

# data[].attributes.body
Supplies: Bin, colorful pasta, gems, misc toys
Procedure: Prepare the bin and have students explore to see what they can find
Benefits: focus, gross motor skills
https://happyhooligans.ca/i-spy-sensory-bin/

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Scented play dough, paper plates, pencils
Procedure: Place play dough on different plates and have the students smell it. After they smell it then they will label the plates with what they think each ball of play dough smells like.
Benefits: explores new smells, relaxing, breathing techniques
https://happyhooligans.ca/i-spy-sensory-bin/

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Variety of Teas, Labels for each tea
Procedure: Students will smell the tea bag and place the bags where their corresponding labels.
Benefits: Breathing techniques, calming
https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/sense-of-smelltea-bag-matching-game.html

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Liquid watercolors, Candy Dye, Mineral Oil, Clear Corn Syrup, empty water bottle, 2 Funnels, Spatula.
Procedure: in one container put water and mix with liquid water color. In another container put the oil and use the candy dye to mix in. then assist students with using a funnel and pouring the liquids into the water bottle.
Benefits: calming, scientific discoveries
https://preschoolinspirations.com/how-to-make-a-color-changing-sensory-bottle/

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Misc. fabrics, sandpaper, buttons, legos, Hand template, glue
Procedure: Students feel a variety of textures and sort them and glue each item onto their appropriate space on the texture hand
Benefits: exploring new textures
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sense-of-Touch-Texture-Activity-4098483?st=71dfaca9ba9d7244957d85e335b6d2a8

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: small cups, rice, flour, salt, oats, tempera paints, papers, stirring spoons
Procedure: students will mix the dry ingredients with the paints and use their fingers to paint on paper
Benefits: relaxing, creative
https://makeandtakes.com/exploring-our-5-senses-touch

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: nontoxic acrylic paint, glass/picture frame
Procedure: Pour a small amount of paint onto glass and allow student to use their fingers to create art. Let dry and place in frame.
Benefits: Calming, gross motor, creative
https://childhood101.com/kids-art-ideas-tabletop-monoprinting/

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Foam Mat pieces, Rocks, puffs, felt, sponges, and any other random sensory items from around the classroom
Procedure: Prepare the sensory steps and place them together. Have students take turns walking around the sensory walkway.
Benefits: Pressure points on feet, calming
https://www.hellowonderful.co/post/12-creative-sensory-walk-activities-for-kids/

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Blender, Ice, water, strawberry, grape, banana, blueberry, raspberry, spinach, cups, sticky notes, markers
Procedure: have blended fruits prepared in cups. Let students taste the smoothies and guess what fruit is in each one.
Benefits: exploring new tastes.
https://handsonaswegrow.com/taste-testing-activity-fruit-smoothies/

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: salt, sugar, coffee, lime/lemon, tomato, small cups, labels
Procedure: Label each taste (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami). Place the appropriate items in the bowl and have students taste each one.
Benefits: expanding pallet, peer activity
https://www.playfulhomeducation.com/post/sense-of-taste-activities

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Chamomile, Lavendar, lemon grass, orange peels, mint, cups, water, strainer/tea filter
Procedure: Allow students to pick out what they want and break it into small pieces and put it in a cup. Have an adult pour hot water and seep it for ten minutes. When the time is up use a strainer to pour tea into a cup to separate the plants. Then drink.
Benefits: healthy calming drinks, independence
https://tinkergarten.com/activities/nature-tea

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Clipboards, checklist of all the possible sounds around your school, pens
Procedure: go on a walk around the neighborhood with your students, have the student check off as they hear sounds.
Benefits: calming, exercise, listening skills
https://toddlerapproved.com/sound-scavenger-hunt-listening-activity/

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Small Empty containers filled with different small objects
Procedure: students will take the time to shake each jar and explore how different small items make different sounds.
Benefits: promotes curiosity of "what's inside","why is there different sounds"
https://handsonaswegrow.com/easy-sound-sensory-jars-to-make-play/

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: Device that plays music
Procedure: Play music and allow students to dance. Randomly pause the music and have students stop dancing.
Benefits: exercising, socialization, brings excitement
https://www.playandlearntogether.com.au/play-experiences/06102021-09466-freeze-dance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
These sensory activities are a perfect way for kids to explore through their five senses.

There's never a right or wrong way to do it, and there's never an end outcome to expect. Which is one of the best things about them!

That's what makes these excellent for the youngest kids! So, even preschoolers and older kids have lots they can learn by using their senses.

In the past, we've shared many sensory activities for kids to do (check out our 25 sensory activities for kids, our sensory weekly plan of activities, and many more edible sensory ideas).

However, most of these sensory activities have been limited to touch.

This is because touching sensory activities are the easiest to implement, and may very well be the most intriguing for the kids.

But what about sound, smell, sight and taste activities?

Five senses activities are a must for young kids, especially young toddlers and even babies. Here are 48 ways to explore the 4 forgotten non-touch senses.

Download a week of sensory activities to do this week

So, today, we're digging a little deeper into sensory activities and sharing ideas that explore with the four senses that are often forgotten.

Below you'll find:

First, sensory activities that explore smell with their nose

Second, sensory activities that use sound to explore

Third, sensory activities that explore with their sight

Lastly, sensory activities that use taste to explore

48 Sensory activities for kids to explore using all five senses!

Sense of Smell Activities:

Let's get started! This might get a little stinky... But use that nose to find out what smells!
Does it smell good?
Can you describe how it smells?
Do they smell the same?
Can you tell me what is making the smell?
These are all great questions to keep in mind as you explore these activities and smell with your noses!

Sense of Sound Activities:

Let's move onto listening and sound. Because I don't know a single parent that doesn't think their child could listen better, right?
Do you hear the difference?
Is this one louder or quieter?
Does it have a higher pitch or a low roar?
Do they sound the same?
Have you heard that sound before?
Use these sound sensory activities as a way to get your child to turn on their listening ears and see what they can hear!

Keep these questions in mind as your explore the wonderful sense of sound with these activities!

Sense of Sight Activities:

Exploring with their sense of sight is hard to put into activity terms as we 'see' all day long and use this as our primary sense to explore on an everyday basis.

These activities take it a step further into exploring with your eyes.

Sense of Taste Activities:

Let's explore through the sense of taste. This is a great way for picky eaters to be introduced to new things.

However, if you have a picky eater, these activities might not go over the best, so introduce them with care and don't expect it to be a home run off the bat.

Download a sensory week of activities

And finally we can't forget the sense of touch.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
48 Five Senses Activities for Kids to Explore All Five

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Five senses activities are a must for young kids, especially young toddlers and even babies. Here are 48 ways to explore the 4 forgotten non-touch senses.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Enhance Listening Skills With 17 Fun Hearing Activities For Preschoolers - Teaching Expertise

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We've compiled a top-class list of 17 unique hearing activities that focus on enhancing the listening skills of your littles. From sound scavenger hunts to

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The five senses are our windows to know the world. You can see all our posts on the five senses . Continuing with the activities for learning the five senses, here are some activities based on the sense of taste. This is probably the most fun among all the sense organ activities because we can actually eat the activity components.

Why is sense of taste important?

The sense of taste is very important for mainly these three reasons:-

1. Sense of taste is crucial to digestion. When we taste food, our salivary glands release digestive enzymes and the process of digestion starts even before the food has reached the stomach.

2. Sense of taste provides information about the food. A small bit is enough to tell us what is tasty, what is spoilt, what is bitter (and possibly poisonous), etc.

3. Sense of taste is important for nutrition. When we cannot taste food, we do not feel like eating, and that can lead to disturbance in the nutrition of a person, as well as cause diseases.

We perceive different flavours (taste) from the things we eat and drink by this very important sense of taste, also known as gustation. Tasting is made possible by taste buds or papillae, which are special receptors on the tongue and mouth. Our tongue has nearly 10,000 taste buds. Each papilla has dozens of taste receptors. The taste receptors send the information through nerves to the brain, which interprets the taste.

Humans have five kinds of taste buds - salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and the newly recognized, umami. Umami describes foods with an inherent savoriness and acidity. You can taste umami in foods like Parmesan cheese, seaweed, miso, tomatoes, mushrooms, fish, chicken. Previously it was believed that certain parts of tongues have taste buds for a specific taste, which is no longer believed to be true.

What about the Taste Buds Map???

Taste Buds on Tongue are ALL OVER!

The different kinds of taste buds are distributed on the tongue all over, and not confined to certain areas of tongue for certain kinds of tastes, as previously believed.

Here are some easy activities to do for exploring our sense of taste.

Tell the child the names of the five types of tastes and mention their names when you eat something from a particular category. Some food items are easily available at home to use as the way of examples of each type of taste: sugar for sweet, salt for salty, coffee or bitter chocolate for bitter, lemon for sour and tomato for umami.

You can use the printable worksheet we have on our Subscriber's Page for this activity. Or you can make it as a do-it-yourself activity by printing out pictures of some food items and printing out the names of the taste. This can be used for a food sorting activity as well.

If you are a subscriber, click below to go to the Subscriber's Page.

If you are not a subscriber, just click below to sign up and get access to all our free printables!

"Blind Identification" Game

Keep ready two food items of each of the five types of tastes. Blindfold your child. Put an item on your child's tongue and ask them to identify the taste. This is a fun activity that invariably brings a lot of giggles and laughs.

The moistness of the tongue is crucial to tasting. Explore this by drying the tongue with a clean towel or paper towel, and then put some sugar or salt on the tongue and ask the child if they can taste it. The let the child drink some water to moisten their tongue and the saliva to wet the tongue again, and then repeat the experiment.

Smell-Taste Experiment

Smelling the food is important to tasting it. Smell receptors and taste receptors are both chemical receptors which act together to create the flavor of the food that we enjoy. To show this, do an experiment where the child has to pinch their nose tightly so that they cannot smell the food. Put some familiar and favorite food on the tongue and ask them to guess what it is. It is hard to guess just with the tongue, when we cannot smell the food!

The look of the food also influences our opinion about its taste. There is an interesting experiment with jelly beans or gummy bears that you can do with slightly older kids: https://childhood101.com/science-for-kids-jelly-bean-taste-test/

Taste Mixing Experiment

We often taste a mixture of taste types. Some taste types can be combined to form delicious taste, and some taste combinations don't work well. Explore this concept with a lemonade/nimbu sharbat making session. A glass of nice nimbu sharbat has a balance between the sour lemon juice, the pinch of salt and the spoonful of sugar that go into the water. Make a standard nimbu sharbat, and then pour 2-3 spoonful into 3 different cups. Add more sugar into one, more salt into the second cup and more lemon juice into the third cup. Let the child taste them and ask how it tastes!

I hope you will like doing the sense of taste activities with your child. Don't forget to download the Free Printable. You can share the activities you did with your child on our Facebook group - we would love to hear from you!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Five Senses: Sense of Taste Activities for Preschool & Primary School Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The five senses are our windows to know the world. Continuing with the activities for learning the five senses, here are some activities based on the sense of taste.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sensory activities are important for a number of reasons. They stimulate connections in the brain, help to develop language skills, and teach important concepts. Most of all, they are a great way to have fun.

Here's a quick rundown of the benefits of sensory activities for kids, answers to the most frequently asked questions about sensory play, and 30 examples you can recreate at home.
Sensory Play For Kids
Benefits of Sensory Activities for Kids

These are some of the benefits of sensory play for kids.

Sensory play promotes language development: While you're playing a sensory game with your child, you may be talking about hot and cold, hard and soft, light and heavy, and more. Later, when you encourage your child to talk about what they're experiencing, they will have the language to convey their thoughts and feeling .

Sensory play helps build nerve connections in the brain: By stimulating the senses through sensory activities, you are effectively teaching the brain to recognize, understand, and respond to them .

Sensory activities encourage problem-solving: When your child engages in sensory games, they are learning about cause and effect. They will also learn ways to change their actions to achieve the desired result.

Sensory play can help self-regulation: Many sensory activities are designed to help a child slow down, be aware of what their senses are telling them, and respond accordingly .

Sensory games may help with anxiety: Some sensory games involve items that induce calming, for example, lavender. Others encourage children to slow down in an almost meditative way. Both can help calm an anxious child .

Sensory activities build social skills: Even the most basic sensory activity encourages a child to listen to what their body is telling them and share that information with others. This teaches how to take turns speaking, understand non-verbal clues, and other important social skills.

We asked a whole range of caregivers about their favorite sensory activities for kids.

These are the top 30.

Sensory Activities for Toddlers

These sensory activities for toddlers are safe for curious little beings who like to put things in their mouths, noses, or anywhere else playthings are not meant to go.

Ice Ice Baby

Nothing could be more simple than this. Put ice cubes, or irregular pieces of ice, into a Ziploc bag and ensure it's tightly sealed. Place it on a flat surface and let your child enjoy squeezing the bag, moving the ice around, and discovering what happens as the ice melts.

To The Moon Sand And Back

Grab a big bowl, and fill it halfway with flour. Pour in some baby oil, and let your child mix it with their hands. The oil and flour will mix to a slightly clumpy sand texture your child can enjoy building with or playing in.

There are no precise measurements for the oil and flour. If the sand is too sticky, add more flour, and if it isn't clumping, slowly add more baby oil.

Edible "Water Beads"

Boil about 2.5 cups of water and add a cup of tapioca pearls. Cook for five to seven minutes. (You want then to be soft but not quite mushy.) Drain the cooked pearls and cool in ice water. Put the pearls in a Ziploc bag with a few drops of food coloring.

Repeat this process to make up batches of different colors.

We especially enjoy putting these in a big bowl or bin of water and throwing in some pots and pans, ladles, wooden spoons, etc., and letting the kids "cook" up some exciting dishes. I should warn you, they may expect you to eat their finished creations.

Fruit Dip

Simple to set up, the base for this sensory activity is a big bin of dry rice.

Take a couple of lemons, oranges, limes, or any other citrus fruit that are in season. Cut the fruit into halves, slices, and wedges to give a variety of shapes. Drop the fruit into the rice, along with some strawberries.

Kids can taste the fruit, and you can discuss the differences between sweet and sour.

Peek-A-Boo Sensory Board

This DIY sensory board uses the lids from packages of baby wipes to create "doors." Each lid, when closed, conceals a different material.

In this example, samples of carpet and linoleum were used, but you could use anything that offers a range of textures such as faux fur, sandpaper, bubble wrap, or silk.

Blooming Senses

You can recreate this sensory activity for toddlers using playdough. Add food coloring and essential oils to make it a multi-sensory experience.

Give your child a rough ball of dough and a handful of sunflower seeds. Look at a photo of a real sunflower together. Then have your child recreate the bloom by squishing the dough into a rough circle and poking the sunflower seeds into it.

You can practice counting with the seeds and estimating by asking your child how many seeds they think will fit in the dough.

Edible Ocean

This is an entirely edible sensory activity, as long as your child has clean hands to begin with, of course!

Make a large bowl of blue Jello, then cut it into rough cubes. Place the cubes in your sensory bin, and add a generous handful of candy fish. You can also add other candy sea creatures if you can find them.

Encourage your child to squish the Jello through their fingers and enjoy helping the fish swim in the ocean.

You can use the fish for counting practice, or place some cups into the ocean and have your child sort the fish into these cup "caves" according to color.

Frog Pond

A big tub of water is always fun! And this unusual idea gives it a fun twist and helps teach about buoyancy, the concepts of wet and dry, and the behavior of frogs.

Cut out some lily pad shapes from craft foam and give them to your kids, along with some lightweight plastic frogs. Have them "jump" the fogs from lilypad to lily pad, swim, and have fun in the water.

For an additional twist, you can drop ice cubes of different colors into the water.

Fizzy Shapes

A gloriously messy sensory activity, this is best done outside or in the bathtub.

Go around the kitchen with your child and collect some cookies cutters, cake trays, ice cube trays, plastic tubs, lids, etc.

Place the items in your tub. Next, drop a spoonful of baking soda into each, along with a drop or two of food coloring. Finally, give your toddler a bowl of vinegar and an eyedropper, or fill a squeeze bottle with vinegar, and let them loose.,

When the vinegar hits the baking soda, the chemical reaction will cause bubbles to fizz up. This is a good activity for teaching colors and shapes.

Don't Eat This Pasta

Simple, disgusting, and fun, this pasta activity is always a hit.

Cook up some pasta and drop it into a big bowl. Let your child get in there with their fingers, or even better, their toes.

If you cook up a big batch of pasta, you can scoop out small portions after each minute of cooking time, so you have different textures. You can also cook the pasta in food coloring to add an additional twist.

Sensory Activities for Preschoolers

Once your kids are slightly older, consider these fun sensory activities.

Sensory Bubble Foam

Playing with shaving cream is a popular sensory activity, but synthetic fragrances and other chemical ingredients can irritate a child's sensitive skin.

An excellent alternative is to make your own bubble foam.

Add 1/4 cup of sensitive skin or tear-free bubble bath to 1/2 cup of water. Beat the liquid with a mixer, blender, or whisk until it begins to form soft peaks, and you're good to go. You can also add food coloring and essential oils to provide further sensory stimulation.

Under The Sea

Simple sensory games such as this are open-ended and allow your child to experience imaginative play.

Partially fill a sensory bin with water and add a couple of drops of color to make it blue. Give your child a pile of stones, seashells, sand, and plastic sea creatures, and let them explore. You can discuss how the rocks, shells, and sand look and feel different when wet than when dry.

Oatmeal Sensory Bin

Pour oatmeal or cut oats into a sensory bin, add kitchen utensils, bowls, and other safe kitchen items and let your kids explore.

Add a cinnamon stick to make it smell like apple pie. Or add items like pom-poms in different colors and have your child rummage through the oatmeal with tongs, picking up the pom-poms and sorting them according to size and color.

We All Scream For Ice-Cream

Make up some cookie dough that's not too firm, and add a little vanilla extract for that authentic ice cream smell.

Then drop the dough, some ice cream scoops, playdough molds, cookie cutters, etc. into the bin. Add some pom-poms, toy or candy fruits, ice-cream sprinkles, and paper "ice-cream cones" for open-ended sensory play.

Paintsicles

Squeeze some water-soluble finger paints into an ice-cube tray and add a little water. Leave the ice cube trays in the freezer until the ice cubes are firm enough to stand a popsicle stick in. Return the cubes to the freezer until solid.

Take the paint-cubes out of the tray, lay out some paper, and let the kids enjoy.

You can use the ice cube tray as a stand for your child to leave each paintsicle in when they're not using it.

Grassy(ish)

This sensory activity is a little challenging to set up unless you have access to turf or the space to grow some grass.

Instead, you can spread some cress seeds on damp kitchen towels and leave them to grow. It will only take a couple of days until you have cress tall enough to take the place of the grass.

Now you can let the kids play in the cress "jungle" with animals or vehicles.

Herb & Spice Play Dough

Make up a big batch of playdough and separate it into several smaller chunks.

Then add a different herb or spice to each piece and knead it, ensuring it is well worked in before giving it to your little one.

Play with the doughs together, discussing the different smells, and ask your child questions such as "What food does this smell remind you of?" and "Can you guess what this will smell like just from looking at the color?"

When Life Gives You Lemons

Throw some plastic cups, bowls, spoons, and other utensils into a big bin of warm water and add several halved lemons. Let your child explore how the lemons look and feel before, during, and after they squeeze them.

You can also add some baking soda for a fizzy reaction and some other citrus fruits for contrast and variety.

Bug Fossils

This is a three-part sensory play activity for preschoolers.

You'll need a plastic box, playdough or clay, a variety of plastic animals or bugs, and flour.

Roughly roll out some playdough or clay until it's the size of your plastic box. Put the clay into the base of your box and press various plastic bugs, animals, or dinosaurs into it. Next, cover the animals with a layer of flour, pressing down so it's well compacted.

Now let the kids "excavate" their animals using plastic tools, toy vehicles, or their hands. Once they've uncovered the items, have them remove the animals and investigate the fossil impressions left behind - just like a real fossil hunter.

Finally, put the animals in a big bowl of soapy water, and let the kids enjoy scrubbing them clean.

Bunny Bait

Partially fill your sensory bin with water and throw in some scrubbing brushes and cloths.

Add some carrots (complete with the leafy greens), other roots vegetables, and even some lettuce. Encourage your child to wash the carrots and bite both the body of the vegetable and the leaves.

You can also, under close supervision, give your child a plastic knife and let them chop the carrots.

Sensory Activities for Kids

Kids are never too old for sensory activities.

Frozen

Combine larger pieces of ice, ice cubes, and ice shavings in a deep tray with water beads and flour. Let your child explore the different textures and temperatures in the tray.

Adding plastic toys (like Arctic animals or figures from the movie "Frozen") will also give your child the opportunity to enjoy plenty of imaginative play.

Lavender Slime

Slime has made a huge comeback in popularity. It's an excellent base for sensory play, especially if you make different colors and scents or add items such as glitter, beads, etc.

This slime is especially popular because of the addition of lavender. Lavender is naturally soothing and is shown to reduce anxiety, so it makes this slime a form of calming therapy.

Flower Threading

Cut a ring out of some thick cardboard and wrap it in string. Then give your child a variety of flowers and greenery to thread through the strings to create a garland.

Using different colors and a mix of fresh, fake, and dried flowers will provide plenty of textures and fragrances for the perfect sensory play experience.

Thermo-Dynamic Sludge

Mix up two sachets of gelatin and add an extra 1.5 cups of cold water. Add a cup of flour, 3 cups of corn starch, and 3/4 cup of chia seeds. Leave the mix in the fridge overnight to ensure the gelatin sets.

Give the sludge to the kids, and let them explore it, discovering how the consistency changes as they play with it. This one is especially enjoyable as the mixture warms in your hands as you play.

Lavender Cupcakes

Make up some cupcake batter with your child, add some lavender, and bake as usual. Wait until the cupcakes have cooled, and mix up your frosting, also adding lavender and purple coloring.

Lavender is edible, so you can safely enjoy these cupcakes.

Buggy Hand Soap

Not only is this a fun sensory activity, but it also encourages kids to wash their hands. Score!

You'll need some clear, or at least relatively see-through liquid soap, a pump dispenser, a bowl, a funnel, plastic bugs, and beads.

Pour some liquid soap into a bowl. Give your kids the bugs and beads and ask them to describe how they feel, how they move, how squishy they are, etc. Then have them drop the bugs and beads into the soap and mix them around with their hands.

When you're finished, use the funnel to pour the soap back into the bottle, and let the kids poke the beads and bugs in as well.

Now you have a fun bottle of soap that is also a sensory bottle because it's fun to twist and turn the soap bottle and see how the bugs and beads move.

If the mixing part is too much, just undo the lid of a pump dispenser of soap and let the kids poke the bugs and beads in without the hand-mixing step.

Floating Hearts?

Have your kids pour some water into a tall glass or vase, and then let them add some oil. Wait until the oil settles on top, and then give the kiddos some heart-shaped ice cubes. If you don't have heart shapes, that's okay; any ice cubes will do.

Ask the kids what they think the ice will do - float or sink. Let them drop the ice in and discover that it doesn't float as it does in plain water. You can also let them drop other items into the mix, asking the "will it float?" question each time.

Slo-Mo Sensory Bottle

Pour one part clear hair gel and six parts warm water into your sensory bottle. (Any clear bottle or tall jar will work.) Twist and turn the bottle gently to mix the two, then set it aside to cool.

When the mix is cold, add a scoop of glitter and several two-stud Lego bricks, being sure to poke the bricks into the gel. Turn them so any air bubbles will escape. If your bricks move too slowly, add more warm water, and if they move too quickly, add more hair gel.

Now you have a hypnotic, slow-motion sensory bottle that is excellent for calming boisterous behavior or heightened emotions.

Pumpkin Scoop

This is a two-for-one sensory activity, and both parts are pretty messy, so you may want to do this outside.

Sit with a pumpkin (mini pumpkins are best for this), and encourage your kids to get their hands deep into the pumpkin's belly to scoop out the insides. Pour everything they scoop out into a Ziploc bag, and have them spend some time squishing and squeezing.

When the novelty of the pumpkin-guts-squish-bag has worn off, scoop some baking soda and roughly six drops of dish soap into the hollowed-out pumpkin. Pour in a mixture of food coloring and vinegar and enjoy watching the pumpkin volcano erupt.

Sensory Path

The example in this picture is quite elaborate, but you can make a miniature version in your garden or even inside.

Gather six or more shallow trays, or if you wish to use dry materials, you can use cereal boxes cut in half. Into each tray or box, pour a different material. We've used dry pasta, lentils, bubble bath, ice, stones, and other items we found around the house and garden.

Encourage your child to walk along the "stepping stones," and talk about how each texture feels under their feet. You can also do this blindfolded and have your kids guess what they're standing on. If you do, hold their hands to keep them stable.

FAQs About Sensory Activities

Lots of people have similar questions about sensory activities. Here are the answers to the ones we hear most often.

A Feast For The Senses

Many of the things we do on a day-to-day basis are sensory activities; we just don't recognize them as such.

But these fun sensory games and activities will encourage children to take notice of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings of the things they are playing with.

About the Author
Patricia Barnes
Patricia Barnes is a homeschooling mom of 5 who has been featured on Global TV, quoted in Parents magazine, and writes for a variety of websites and publications. Doing her best to keep it together in a life of constant chaos, Patti would describe herself as an eclectic mess maker, lousy crafter, book lover, autism mom, and insomniac.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
30 Sensory Activities (For Kid's Brain Development) - Mom Loves Best

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sensory activities are important for a number of reasons. They stimulate connections in the brain, help to develop language skills, and teach important concepts. Most of all, they are a great way to have fun. Here's a quick rundown of the benefits of sensory activities for kids, answers to the most frequently asked questions about sensory play, and 30 examples you can recreate at home.