Sensory activities are a FUN and engaging way to have a child play while exploring their senses; touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing.
That is EXACTLY what a sensory activity is … an activity that involves anything using one or all of our 5 senses.
As a parent, teacher, or caretaker, you can get super creative with the type of sensory activities you can do with your kiddo. The sky’s the limit with what you can create!
BUT where do you begin? What are the benefits?
What are EASY and fun sensory activities you can do to enhance your child’s 5 senses?
We are going to explore some fun sensory activities for kids that can challenge their 5 senses and hopefully answer your questions that come to mind.
These activities are easy, engaging, inexpensive, and even a little messy.
Plus, we’ll dive into the benefits of why sensory activities are a go-to for many parents and what age you should begin sensory play.
Most importantly, how it can help your kiddo develop their senses while enhancing their developmental skills.
Now let’s dive in. 🙂
Touch Sensory Activity: Dry Pasta Sensory Bin
What I LOVE about this activity is it’s a fun hands on activity your child can enjoy while incorporating it into a learning game if you wanted too.
You can get creative with items already in your kitchen such as plastic cups, spoons, or measuring cups.
You can teach your kiddo measurements or numbers!
Have fun counting the pasta, measuring it out, or grouping the pasta together by certain shapes or colors (depending on the type of dry pasta you buy or if you get a variety of pasta shapes).
As you can see, you can tailor this activity to however you choose. 🙂
This is also a GREAT activity to help children who have movement challenges or motor delays in their arms, hands, and fingers.
==> Click here for one of my TOP recommended tools to use if your child has mobility issues in their hands and arms <==
My nephew, who has cerebral palsy, has a BLAST scooping up the dry pasta in a cup and dumping it back in the bin. It helps him develop his fine motor skills in his hands and arms. He doesn’t even realize it either because he has such a great time doing it!
Activity: Sensory Bin Dry Pasta
Items needed:
- Plastic bin (suggested either a 20 quart or 30 quart bin) ==> Click here for the best current pricing <==
- Dry pasta of your choice
- You may already have these in the kitchen; measuring cups, spoons, or plastic cups
Your child will be enhancing and developing their fine motor skills by working their hands, arms, and finger muscles.
Fun tip: You can incorporate colorful pasta (to have your child learn a few of their colors) and also use a blanket for your child to sit on while playing with the bin of pasta. So when the little pasta pieces spill out over the bin onto the blanket it makes for a quick and easy clean up!
Activity and Image by Hands On As We Grow
Taste Sensory Activity: No-Mess Nutrition Sensory Bin
I came across this sensory activity and it immediately caught my attention!
What an AMAZING way to introduce or reintroduce healthy foods to our kiddos. You can put all sorts of colorful fruits and vegetables into the bin to let your little one go wildly healthy. 🙂
This activity pretty much stimulates all senses but most importantly it encourages learning about yummy nutritious treats.
Activity: No-Mess Nutrition Sensory Bin
Items needed:
Feel free to introduce your child to one or the other (either fruits or vegetables) you don’t have to do them altogether in the same bin. Completely up to you!
- Plastic bin
- An assortment of fake wooden fruits ==> Click here for the best current pricing <==
- An assortment of fake wooden vegetables ==> Click here for the best current pricing <==
Your child will be enhancing and developing their fine motor skills by working their hands, arms, and finger muscles. They’ll also be learning healthy food options, shapes, and colors.
Fun Tip: You can always do a REAL fruits and vegetables nutrition bin or just start off with one food group, vegetables or fruit. It will be more messy but it’s such an amazing way to inspire your child to try out and taste nutritious treats!
Activity and Image by The Chaos and The Clutter
Sensory Smell Activity: Scratch-N-Sniff Stickers
This activity takes me back to when I was little.
I can remember having a ball scratching and sniffing the grape and strawberry cartoon stickers. For whatever reason I remember those two EXACT smells.
Activity: Scratch-N-Sniff Stickers
Items needed:
- Scratch-n-sniff stickers with 17 different scents => Click here for the best current pricing <=
- Construction paper or plain white paper
Your child will be enhancing and developing their fine motor skills by working their muscles in their arms all the way down to the tips of their fingers. They’ll also be heightening their sense of smell while learning 17 different sticker scents (grape, lemon, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, orange, apple, mango, pineapple, avocado, banana, watermelon, peach, gardenia, vanilla, lavender, and cola)!
Fun Tip: You can dive into sticker FUN with your kiddo by creating engaging activities such as a ‘matching’ game, making an ‘I Spy’ book, or work on body awareness by asking them where a body part is (such as their knee) and see if your child can place a sticker there. 🙂
Sight Sensory Activity: Beach Ball Word and Number Game
Your child can enjoy this activity indoors, outdoors, or on vacation! Plus, it’s super simple to create for a few bucks which is a steal in my book.
You will take a plastic beach ball and a sharpie marker to write with (a beach ball is suggested because it’s easier to write numbers or words in between the lines of segmented).
Of course, tailor this activity to what suits your child best.
Do they need to learn to count to 10 or maybe they are a little older and are learning more advanced vocabulary?
You can write whatever numbers or words you’d like on the ball to create the perfect game for them.
Activity: Beach Ball Word and Number Game
Items needed:
- Plastic Beach Ball => Click here for the best current pricing <=
- Sharpie Marker
Your child will be enhancing and developing their gross motor functions while improving their math and language skills.
Fun Tip: Toss the ball back and forth and when you catch or hold the ball, whatever word or number your finger lands on, you say that word. It’s nice to throw in a few words or numbers your child may already recognize to move the game along at a faster pace to inspire their confidence.
Activity and Image by Carrots are Orange
Hearing Sensory Activity: Sounds Sensory Jars
Do you have any empty jars with lids or small containers tucked away in your home?
If so, pull those bad boys out and turn a dusty item into an excellent hearing sensory activity for your little one!
If you don’t have empty jars or small containers on hand, no worries at all. They are super easy and inexpensive to find.
The goal of the ‘Sounds Sensory Jar” activity is to involve your child in putting different objects into the jar and allow them to discover what kind of sound it makes after they shake it.
What’s GREAT about this sensory activity is it can encompass ALL 5 senses; touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing (depending on what you put into the jar).
Items needed:
- Plastic jars with lids => Click here for the best current pricing <=
- Your choice! Any objects lying around in your home or kitchen. Here are some suggested items kids enjoy; marbles, rice, beans, popcorn, coins, sand, glitter, gum balls, gems, buttons, cereal.
Your child will be enhancing and developing their fine motor functions, cognitive thinking, shape and color recognition plus their shapes too!
Fun Tip: With the suggested plastic jars with lids (mentioned above), it comes with a pen, spatula, and labels. You can turn this engaging activity into an educational experience too in a few ways:
- Label the items on the jar so your child learns the objects and words.
- Or turn it into an engaging math game by counting or guessing how many items are in the jar.
- The spatula is a perfect size for kids to play with to twirl, stir, or have fun with the objects. Plus, it can be used as an inclusive tool to help whoever is whipping up a yummy treat in your kitchen!
What Age is Best for Sensory Play?
Earlier the better. 🙂
A baby is ready for sensory play early on because you can stimulate their senses with daily activities.
As early as a few months old you can start introducing your child to the creative world of sensory fun OR anytime they begin opening their hand from a fist to reach for things.
What are the Benefits of Sensory Play?
A child explore’s their world through play!
That’s one of their ‘love’ languages when it comes to enjoyment, learning, and growing as a child.
When we create a joyful environment for our kids to have the freedom to play, the more we can encourage their curiosity and creativity through sensory exploration.
Personally, sensory play really helped my son’s speech develop early on with hands on activities.
The ‘touch’ sensory activities were a huge hit for him (and still is). It encouraged him to want to talk, point, listen, and socially interact.
Here are the 7 most common ways sensory play benefits a child:
- Encourages problem solving
- Supports language development
- Develops gross motor and fine motor skills
- Develops knowledge
- Enhances cognitive thinking
- Improves memory
- Learning differences
- Understanding cause and effect
==> Click here for an ENGAGING activity recommended by therapists that will stimulate your child’s motor skills <==
Final Thoughts
Stimulating our child’s senses is a playful way to hold their attention while incorporating educational activities and enhancing their developmental skills.
Sensory play benefits our child in so many unique ways! It’s a wonderful way to explore and tailor creative activities based upon our child’s individual needs.
Let’s be honest, as parents when our child is entertained, growing, and learning that’s the ULTIMATE bonus am I right? 🙂
Hopefully, the suggested activities added inspiration to your research efforts in finding a GREAT sensory experience for your child.
If there are other sensory activities you would recommend, questions you may have, or anything you’d like to add that I did not cover in this post, please feel free to comment below.
If you found value in this post, please share the love to hopefully help another parent explore a fun sensory activity for their kiddo.
I really do strive to make the content I create as helpful as possible for you…as a fellow parent looking out for their most precious gift.
Thank you for stopping by today!
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Hello,
I love your article. I have a very active six-year-old who is a kinesthetic learner and I am always looking for sensory activities to engage him.
Ok, I like this measurement or numbers. Now you have me challenged in a great way because I will be trying this tomorrow with my son. I don’t think I will want to use pasta for this but I do have some colored odd-shaped marbles that I had both for him to learn to count some time back. I think I will get them out again for addition and subtraction. He will like this.
Ok, I find this scratch and sniff activity amusing yet interesting, I never heard of it but I think both of my boys will enjoy this. We are going to give that one a try this weekend after I visit the market. It will be fun and educational.
Thank you very much for all these great ideas.
Cheers,
Candy Benn
Hey Candy! I love your idea about using marbles in substitution of the pasta. The sky is the limit with the different activity combos you can create to suit your child’s needs! Thanks for sharing and glad the information was helpful to you. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing us an interesting and informative article. The main theme of this article is 5 Engaging Sensory Ideas kids. It is really laudable that you have illustrated this topic so well in your article. I have learned a lot by reading your article and gained a lot of cognition about it. Of the points mentioned in your article, I like Sensory Smell Activity. I bought scratch-N-Sniff Stickers for my baby to understand his sensory activity. And it will increase his sensory activity by playing this tool.
Finally, I enjoyed reading your article and so I’d like to share your article in my Facebook group if you allow me.
Thank you for the feedack and sharing!
Wow, this information couldn’t have come at the right time for me. I have a toddler and was already running out of ideas on how to utilize all his massive energies. I love the fact that these activities are not only fun, but will also help in the development of the child. I’m actually going to try the dry pasta sensory bin activity as the items are readily available. Thanks a lot for sharing
Wonderful Martin! Thanks so much for sharing. Glad you found an activity that your child will enjoy.
Hello, thank you for this helpful post. i am now able to do something good and fun with my kids. aside from the fact that stimulating our child’s senses is a playful way to hold their attention while incorporating educational activities and enhancing their developmental skills, the reaction they give with challenges in life also is affected.
Thanks for sharing Lucas! I’m so glad to hear the post was helpful to you and your kids.
As a parent, it’s our responsibility to know what state our kids are and what we can do to influence this state positively. It’s always good to engage kids with activities or things that’ll help the develop and Learn more about their environment. This article will help me and other parents to know about these sensory activities.
Glad you found the post helpful! Thank you for sharing.
Hello there! This is an amazing review you have got here. I am sure this information here will be of great help to any parent who come across it as it is to me. I am sure my daughter will jump for joy when I place an order for this “No-Mess Nutrition Sensory Bin” for her as she likes staying with me in the kitchen while I am cooking or making juice.
Thanks for sharing this with me!
Thanks for the feedback Joy! Hope your daughter enjoys the no-mess nutrition sensory bin. 🙂
Well I love that you are teaching parents and caregivers how to incorporate learning into fun activities. I also like that you talk about bins that will be ideal for the pasta game. I also noticed and clicked on the link you provided for the bins. I think that’s genius because i hate when an article mentions something you need but doesn’t provide a website or a link to purchase that item. Great info!
Thanks for sharing Melanie! Glad the post was helpful to you. 🙂