Sensory Play

Children learn through sensory play by being creative with different materials and exploring the world around them through their senses such as their; sight, smell, touch, taste and sound. They learn about different concepts such as floating, sinking, empty and full.

 

Sensory activities can include

 

• Natural resources
• water play
• painting
• musical play
• Picture collages.
• Sand
• Glue
• Play dough
• Jelly
• Flour

These sensory materials which are natural treasures are perfect for personal, social and emotional development. As an adult we can watch a child become deeply involved in sensory play and how we gain an insight into their personality, interest and schemas (repeated patterns of behaviour)

 

Our group decided to look at different aspects of sensory play.

 

Planning the activity - water play

Description

There will be a tray filled with water on the wooden floor. We will have toy fish in the tray of all different shapes, sizes, weights, colours and textures. The children will need to wear aprons to help keep their clothes dry. This activity will be aimed at children who are 2+ and will have 4 children and 1 adult to keep in the ratio and ensure the safety of the child.

 

What the children will do

The children will be exploring this underwater world around them picking up the fish, describing them and talking about the different fish in the water. As a practitioners I will ask open ended questions e.g. Where do you find fish? What does it feel like? Is the water cold? How many fish are there? Why did it sink? I will encourage the children to share and discuss with other children what the fish looks like and what ones they like best.

 

Skills being learnt

Children will be learning many skills in mathematics such as counting, numbers, different concepts such as floating and sinking possibly measurements “providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers” EYFS 2014. Children will learn about the world around them talking about where fish come from and where they live. The different textures of the fish will encourage children to use their sense to describe what the fish feel like and support them to use new vocabulary. Children can use their imagination to describe what their underwater world would look like for their favourite fish “enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials, as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings” EYFS 2014

 

Implementing the activity - musical play

I carried out a musical play activity called musical bingo where children had to listen to the nursery rhymes and when they heard the nursery rhyme that was on their board they would place the same picture on top of the board. Within this sensory play is implemented as children are using their listening sense to hear the nursery rhyme.

 

Within this activity the adults would lead this however when sensory play is implemented in other ways the adult role would be to sit back and allow the children to choose what they wanted to do and let them do things for themselves.

 

Documentation - Natural resources

I carried out a sensory activity within my pre-school. I set up the craft table for Child A to take part in. I set up a bowl full of leaves from the garden to link to sensory play, glue sticks, glitter and paper and also books about the outdoor world.  This activity is for ages 2-3years old.

 

For this activity I had to get the parent of the child I observed to sign a consent form because of Confidential needs to keep the identity of the child safe. The child's face is not seen within these photos but their work on the other hand is shown within this these pictures (Newcastle University, 2014).

 

This is the consent form

 

These pictures were taken before the activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In conclusion we found that sensory play has a huge impact on children and they way they learn. Every sensory experience a baby or child will have will be a unique, new and exciting way of learning and implementing those tricky subjects into a child's routine such as mathematics, literacy and science.

Sensory play is extremely important to children as it encourages communication during activities thus helping their language skills and their social development. The word messy can have negative connotations however it is an important part of a child’s cognitive development.  

 

References

EYFS, 2014. Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage Setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. [pdf] EYFS. Available at: http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/eyfs-statutory-framework/ . [Accessed 22nd December 2014]

 

Newcastle University, 2014. Working with Young Children and Adults. [online] [22nd December 2014]

Available at: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/res/research/ethics_governance/ethics/toolkit/consent/children.htm

 

 

 

Student ID's

Lucy Conway - 1301657

Faye Hemley - 1313556

Abbie Bryant - 1305936

Rebecca Clarke - 1311195

Rachel Balogun - 1303754