When it comes to fine motor skills, parents often worry about their children lagging behind. But there are plenty of easy and fun ways to encourage fine motor development while stimulating the main five senses; hearing, seeing, touch, taste, and smell! Here are 5 fun sensory activities that are sure to inspire some productive playtime.
Touch Sensory Activity – Dry Pasta Sensory Bin
Let’s make a sensory bin of dry pasta.
The best part? You most likely have some of these items on hand.
So while you’re busy in the kitchen, your kiddo will be too!
What You’ll Need
- Plastic cups
- Spoons
- Measuring cups
- Dry pasta
- Plastic bin (20 or 30-quart bin)
Touch Sensory Activity
This at-home touch sensory activity is a great bonding opportunity for both you and your child. You may incorporate it into a learning game to teach your child measurements and numbers too.
Get creative to tailor this activity however you choose. Have fun counting the pasta, measuring it out, or grouping the pasta together by certain shapes or colors.
Incorporate colorful pasta to teach your child colors. Have your child sit on a blanket while playing for an easy and quick clean-up!
Final Verdict
A wonderful fine motor activity for a child to strengthen grasping skills.
Activity and Image by Hands On As We Grow
Taste Sensory Activity – No-Mess Nutrition Sensory Bin
I recently came across this sensory activity and immediately knew I had to share it with you!
What You’ll Need
- Plastic bin
- An assortment of fake fruits
- An assortment of fake vegetables
Taste Sensory Activity
This taste sensory activity is a smart way to introduce or reintroduce healthy foods to your kiddo. This activity pretty much stimulates all senses but most importantly it encourages your child to learn about yummy nutritious treats.
Put all sorts of colorful fruits and veggies into the bin to let your little one explore nutritious treats. Feel free to introduce your child to either fruits or veggies, you don’t have to do them all together. Completely up to you! Then, have some of these items on hand to let your kiddo taste test during their next meal.
You can always do REAL fruit and vegetable nutrition bin or just start off with one food group. It’s definitely messier but such an amazing way to inspire your child to try out nutritious treats!
Final Verdict
An easy hands-on activity to enhance fine motor development while teaching about healthy food options, shapes, and colors.
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 remember having a blast scratching and sniffing grape and strawberry cartoon stickers. For whatever reason, I remember those two smells.
What You’ll Need
- Scratch-n-sniff stickers with an assortment of scents
- Construction paper or plain white paper
We recommend these stickers because of the variety of scents included (17 to be exact!) such as grape, lemon, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, orange, apple, mango, pineapple, avocado, banana, watermelon, peach, gardenia, vanilla, lavender, and cola!
Sensory Smell Activity
Let’s dive into a sticker extravaganza!
Get creative with this and have fun creating different sticker activities with your kiddo to encourage pinching and fine motor development. Some things you can do:
- Play a “matching game”
- Make an “I spy” sticker book
- Work on body awareness
Ask your child, “Where is your knee?” and see if they can place a sticker there. Repeat this for their feet, tummy, hands, etc.
Final Verdict
An entertaining activity to heighten your sense of smell and improve fine motor skills.
Sight Sensory Activity – Beach Ball Word and Number Game
Play this sight sensory activity indoors, outdoors, or on vacation! This word and number game is super simple to create with just a few bucks.
What You’ll Need
- Plastic Beach Ball
- Sharpie Marker
Sight Sensory Activity
Tailor this activity to what suits your child best! Do they need to learn how to count to 10 or understand a new vocabulary word?
Take your plastic beach ball and sharpie to write with. Then, write whatever numbers or words you’d like on the ball to create the perfect game for them. It’s really that easy.
A beach ball is suggested because it’s easier to write numbers or words between the segmented lines.
How To Play…
Toss the ball back and forth. When you catch it, whatever word or number your finger lands on, say that word or count that number. It’s nice to throw in a couple of words or numbers your child may already recognize to inspire their confidence.
Final Verdict
A wonderful activity to enhance and develop gross motor functions while improving math and language skills.
Activity and Image by Carrots are Orange
Hearing Sensory Activity – Sounds Sensory Jars
Do you have an empty jar or small container tucked away at home?
If so, pull them out to create an excellent hearing-sensory activity for your little one!
If you don’t have empty jars or small containers on hand, no worries. They are inexpensive and quick to find.
What You’ll Need
- Plastic jars with lids
- Items to add to your jars
Objects lying around your home or kitchen will do to add to your jar. Gather things like marbles, rice, beans, popcorn, coins, sand, glitter, gumballs, gems, buttons, or cereal.
Hearing Sensory Activity
The goal of the “Sounds Sensory Jar” is to inspire your child to place objects into the jar and discover what kind of sound it makes when they shake it.
This activity can encompass ALL 5 senses depending on what you put into the jar.
Kick this activity up a notch with these plastic jars with lids to turn it into an educational experience. This set comes with a pen, spatula, and labels.
Here are a few activities to try out:
- Label the items on the jar to teach objects and words.
- 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!
Final Verdict
A hands-on activity to boost fine motor functions, cognitive thinking, and shape and color recognition.
Questions and Answers
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 explores their world through play! That’s one of their ‘love’ languages when it comes to enjoyment, learning, and growing as a child. Sensory play helps with:
- Problem-solving
- Language development
- Gross motor skills
- Knowledge
- Cognitive thinking
- Memory
- Learning differences
- Cause and effect
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.
►► Here is an engaging activity recommended by therapists to stimulate motor development◄◄
Final Thoughts
These five sensory activities are just a few examples of how easy and fun it is to encourage fine motor development while also stimulating the main five senses. And the best part is, they can all be done with items you most likely have around the house!
These activities are not only fun, but they also promote learning and creativity. So if you’re looking for some productive playtime inspiration, try one (or all!) of these activities to promote learning and creativity.
Thank You
We want to wrap up by extending our gratitude to thank you for stopping by today!
What fun sensory activities do you love? We are curious! Let us know in the comments below. ♥
Was this information helpful? If so, you’d make our day by sharing it! 🙂
About The Author
Lindsey is a mom of two little miracles, MoMo twin girls, Lily Mae and Lua, plus one amazing older bro, Cody.
She is the founder of Twin Mom Blog Nerd, Content Creator/Co-Founder of the blog Intensive Therapy for Kids, and Co-Founder of The LENN Foundation 501(c)(3) charity that helps children with cerebral palsy (like her sweet nephew, Lenny) receive grants for intensive therapies to thrive. ♥
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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. 🙂