The Sensory Adventures

27/07/2025

LOVELY LAVENDER 🪻
A few weeks ago we had a session where everything was purple and scented with lavender. We had shimmering lavender water and floral rice to explore ~ I always find anything with lavender is immediately calming for the children..and adults too!
How do your little ones respond to the scent of lavender!?

13/11/2024

BUILD A BONFIRE 🔥
Used these sticks and twigs to create a bonfire with the babies last week. Then stuck some pots with PVA around with a mixture of yellow, red and orange materials for them to stick on.
Some of them were intrigued by the glue and how sticky it was, some just loved crinkling and touching the contrasting textures of materials. Either way everyone was able to get involved 🥰

05/11/2024

LENTIL TREE & GRAIN 🌳
Children used a variety of dry seasonal lentils to scoop and fill a cardboard tree I created with a glue gun and toilet rolls!
Such a simple way to practice so many skills:
🍂 HAND EYE COORDINATION
🍂 PRECISION
🍂 PROBLEM SOLVING

27/10/2024

PUMPKIN SLIME 🎃👌🏻
Made taste safe slime using psyllium husks, really impressed with how easy it was to do! Just mix with boiling water and food colouring and then allow to cool.
Children were able to explore at their own pace with no expectation and I was surprised at how many actually did get involved as often children can be a little reluctant to touch wet, slimy textures!
Children developed their:
🟠 Understanding of space, shape and measure
🟢 Hand muscles for pre writing skills
🟣 Descriptive language 'slimy' 'wet' 'sticky' 'like worms'
⚫ Positional language 'on' 'under' 'in'

20/10/2024

PUMPKIN WASH KITCHEN 🎃🧽
O actually asked to do this as soon as we got home from pumpkin picking , apparently she's still not a massive fan of wet sensory textures like mud so she was desperate to make her 'baby' pumpkins pristine. We gave them the soapy water and left them to it for 20 mins, they found sponges, clothes and sticks to clean the pumpkins off!
Not a glamorous post but a real life example of the kind of things we do at home now we're a family of four, with two working parents ☺️

12/10/2024

WOOL THREADING PUMPKINS 🎃
A quick & easy craft for this time of year. Cut a pumpkin shapes out of cardboard, use scissors to snip all around the edge then use orange wool or string to thread round the pumpkin. My girls then used their to add a bit of orange and green colour.
O who is 5 and a half loved this so much she went on to make them for her family too 🧡

02/10/2024

SUNFLOWER PAINTING 🌻🖌️
We got arty and used sunflowers to create large scale art in groups. I chose Autumn colours of paint and covered the whole table in brown paper so children could work in small groups to create pieces of art.
Children could choose to make marks:
🖌️ using a range of tools
🌻 using the sunflowers to print
✋🏽 Using their hands .the opportunities were endless!

21/09/2024

POPCORN & POMPOMS 🍿🎪
As part of circus week I created this really simple popcorn snack themed tray for scooping, filling and pouring. The children were drawn to it and there were so many opportunities to extend learning, we learned about:
🍿 QUANTITY
🍿 CAPACITY
🍿COLOURS
Amongst much more!
*Popcorn can be a chozing hazard ~ please consider which age groups will access activities and use substitutes where appropriate*

11/09/2024

08/09/2024

ALL ABOUT ME 👤👍🏻
September will always be the new year for the teacher in me, so it always feels like a natural time to explore what makes children unique and individual. These are some of the set ups done this week to explore this idea!
🧍🏿‍♂️PSED & UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD
🧍🏽‍♀️MATHS & LITERACY
🧍🏼‍♂️COMMUNICATION