I've been thinking about ways to enable 'portable' sensory play: using bins of various sizes to enable textural exploration all around the school and in different contexts. For example, having clay indoors and outdoors. Indoors we use a variety of tools and have to be careful of the amount of water we use so as not to flood the floor. Outside, we use found natural materials, like tree cookies, stones, hay and sticks. We can pour as much water as we like. Each context offers different limits and possibilities. The same holds true for water play. Indoors I regularly offer a bin of soapy water to bubble up and scrub the table after bread-making. I add a little paint inviting children to choose the colors in order to engage the eye in process art and some essential oils like peppermint and lemon to bring our noses into the experience. The activity is purposeful, enjoyable and curiosity-provoking, especially when ooblick and shaving cream are involved. "What is this stuff? It's like magic!" said Julia recently over the ooblick bin. Sensory materials invite children to be risk-takers; some children struggle with getting their hands gooey, but are drawn in to give it a try. Others are motivated by the "I wonder what will happen if I do this..." You can see the wheels turning in their heads.
Bread making is a fantastic 'transformational' sensory experience that engages all the senses, as well as small and large muscles, as children touch the dry ingredients, mill the grains, mix the wet ingredients, kneed, pound and pull the dough, 'wait' for it to rise, witness the changes all along the way, and then eat it for lunch and share it with parents and siblings as they head home. Enjoy some photo examples of our many kinds of sensory play:
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