Discovering Our World With Sensory Play

Sight

  • Experiment with light around your home: play by candlelight, play flashlight tag, make shadow puppets and wear sunglasses.
  • Explore with colors: Add food coloring to bath water, paint each other’s faces, or tie-dye clothes or other fabrics.
  • Test the sense of sight by: playing catch with a balloon, completing mazes or dot-to-dot puzzles, tracing your body or hands, playing “I Spy,” peek-a-boo or a variation of hide-and-seek.

Hearing

  • Engage your child’s musical side: play or listen to an instrument or sing songs.
  • Play different listening games: sit very quietly and try to guess the sounds you hear, make a chart of things you hear outside, talk about different animal sounds you’ve heard, play musical chairs.
  • Experiment with volume: play with the stereo dial to investigate loud and soft sounds.

Smell

  • Utilize your kitchen: cook with strong-smelling scents, i.e., garlic, ginger, cocoa, lemon, vinegar, vanilla, mint, lavender; match scents while blindfolded (in opaque containers).
  • Make use of the great outdoors: go on a “smelly walk” (wet grass, fertilizer, bakery), plant flowers.
  • Read scratch-and-sniff books.

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