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Sensory Play

Why do children play with sand and water in preschool? Sensory play stimulates a child’s senses and facilitate exploration and naturally allow children to use scientific processes while they play, create and learn through investigation and exploration. Sensory play doesn’t have to be just sand or water – it is any activities that stimulate the child’s sense of touch, taste, smell, sight or hearing. The benefits of sensory play extend to motor skills, social skills, language development, cognitive skills as well as problem-solving.

IDEAS FOR PRESCHOOL SENSORY PLAY

Recommended Supplies for Sensory Play

Here’s a list of some of my favorite sensory bin materials:

Sensory Activities for Preschoolers

Healthy Teeth Lessons

Learning about staying healthy is part of learning about ourselves. Children can begin to care…

Tadpole Sensory Bin

We’re starting a fun spring theme called Pond Life from Experience Preschool. We’re going to…

Pokey Like a Hedgehog

This month is all about Winter in the Woods with Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother…

Button Towers

Threading is a skill that’s beneficial for children in many ways. Threading or beading develops…

Play Dough Factory

Along with all the more common community helpers we’ve been learning about, we also talked…

Play Dough Hair Styles

This month we’ve been exploring all types of jobs through Experience Early Learning’s (formerly Mother…

Nature Play Mud Pies

My kids loved making their nature play mud pies! Mud was the topic of lesson…

Desert Small World Play

This month we’re learning about the desert. It’s not always easy to make places like…

Winter Ice

One of our awesome days of Experience Preschool Curriculum lessons focusing on Sights and Sounds…

The Sound of Drums

This December our preschool theme is Sights and Sounds (Cozy Winter Senses – 2021) from…

Gardening Sensory Bin

Everyone learns best by doing so I made a gardening sensory bin for my preschoolers…

Pink Bubble Gum Slime

Loving this fun Pink Bubble Gum Slime of slime version – the texture and scent…

Dinosaur Sensory Bins

Creating sensory bins is one of the most fun parts of planning my environment. Each…

DIY Sand Play Dough

Sand and play dough are staples in childhood but combining the two is a real…

Straws & Play Dough

Straws and play dough are nothing new but they sure are fun! We tried something…

Hang It Out To Dry

We had the most fun with laundry day during our Bubbles, Boats and Floats theme…

Soapy Bubbles Water Play

This month we’ve been learning about water through play with the Mother Goose Time’s Bubbles,…

Nature Play Dough

All through July we’ve been enjoying nature activities along with our Nature Detectives theme. One…

Snowflake Play Dough

Snowflake dough is super soft, white and lovely to play with! Not cold like real…

Alphabet Ice Painting

We’ve had some very cold days already this winter. Last week temps with wind chills…

Ocean Sand Sensory Bin

This sensory bin doesn’t coordinate with our current theme, but I was inspired to make…

Preschool Activity Trays

This post contains Discount Supply affiliate links. My group has really enjoyed the new activity…

Scented Kool-Aid Paint

We’re learning about bees and butterflies this month. We’ve learned that both use their sense…

Mini Volcanoes

Throughout our dinosaur theme, I think the volcanoes captured the boy’s {I currently have all…

Play Dough Monsters

I received this great “Rainy Day Survival Kit” set of craft supplies free, from CraftProjectIdeas.com…

Flyswatter Bubbles

Bubbles are a childhood necessity. Everyone loves bubbles, lots of bubbles and that’s what happens…

Rainbow Ice Cube Painting

This was something new for us, Rainbow Ice Cube Painting.  I froze LIQUID WATERCOLORS (filled the…

Ponds and Muck

Yesterday we made a simple pond in our water table with sticks, cholla wood (logs),…