Sensory Play Craft Ideas
A great way to enhance learning in younger children is to ensure they have fun and participate in lots of different creative activities wherever and whenever possible. Including plenty of sensory play crafts as part of your regular family time activities is a great way to achieve this and it can be fun for older children and grown ups too! Of course it may get a little messy but that is small price to pay when the house is filled with the sound of laughter.
What is sensory play?
Put simply, sensory play is any activity or process that stimulates one or more of the five senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste. This may be in a very basic or fundamental way but the more children experience them the faster they learn. Some basic examples of things you could do would be as follows:
• Explore touch to feel the difference between fluffy or smooth materials
• Explore smell using a scented ingredient such as soap or certain foods
• Explore sight using different coloured items
What are the benefits of sensory play?
Using different sensory play crafts will help children to gain the confidence to explore and try new things. It is a well-accepted fact that if something is fun children will learn more easily. Their curiosity will naturally lead them to question and experience new things. As confidence grows touching or smelling something unfamiliar is more likely to lead them to ask questions. A great example of this would be using bubble bath and making foam shapes or cutting up a new food and letting them become familiar with it. Sensory play crafts are vital at any age and as a result will help to promote vital nerve connections within the brain. In turn this builds on motor skills and even helps with language development and of course general confidence.
Why is sensory play important
In England the EYFS, also known as the Early Years Foundation Stage, is responsible for ensuring educational settings and childcare providers follow a statutory framework for children aged from birth to five. This ensures that their learning, development and wider care meets set criteria all with the aim of ensuring they develop those vital fundamental skills. At Baker Ross we support this with a range of carefully researched and developed products to help parents and schools achieve this goal. Sensory play for toddlers should be a part of everyday learning and can be easily included into your daily routines.
Did you know? It is believed that the most beneficial time to introduce messy sensory play is between one and three years of age.
What do you need for sensory play crafts
You can use many everyday items from around the home if you are planning some sensory play for toddlers and it is always a good idea to stock up on craft items too ready for whenever the opportunity arises. We have lots of great things you can use from different fabrics, stones and pebbles, feathers, clay and glitter and lots more all offering children the benefit of those sensory experiences. All ideal to use for outdoor treasure hunts or indoor wet afternoon art activities.
Children will love some messy sensory play experiencing the various textures; squishy, smooth, hard, wet, dry and so on. As they become older and have a greater understanding of their surroundings using these items will help to promote conversations where they will start to ask questions more frequently and those familiar words, ‘how’ and ‘why’ will become even more familiar to you!
For lots more sensory play crafts check out the innovative and easy ideas on our Creative Station.
If you need some inspiration why not take a look at our Sensory Play Craft Ideas over at our Creative Station section. There are so many fun ideas to choose from you’ll be spoilt for choice. Have fun and get crafting!
