Sensory Activities with Natural Materials
{Guest Post} Welcome, Rebekah of the Golden Gleam!
The fantastic part about the following list (aside from how much fun your kids will have with these materials…) is that the items are all free or in some cases, create a product that your family will eat in the end! A lot of people have a problem with using food for sensory play. They think it is wasteful, and it doesn’t teach children to respect the food that should be nourishing our bodies rather than being thrown in the trash after play.
No Waste Sensory Materials
In Your Backyard
- mud
- sprinklers
- grass clippings
- cut flowers
- dried leaves
Weather
- rain
- snow
In Nature
- bodies of water
- sand
- rocks
- dirt
- puddles
At Home
- a bath
- vegetable peels
- kneading bread
- preparing foodused coffee grounds
- ice
At the Park
- mulch
- gravel
- pool
- fountains
But she had rich sensory experiences because nature’s classroom is abundant with material for her to dig her hands into and explore. If children spend a lot of time playing in an environment filled with natural materials, the need for food or synthetic material as sensory play material is not necessary.
Rebekah learned about sensory play by mothering her daughter who likes to touch everything. She writes about lighting up kids through art, play, learning, and a lot of love at The Golden Gleam.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I love doing sensory activities with food too but I usually wait until the child is 3 or 4 years old before we used food for sensory activities. Up to that age I was trying to teach them to keep their hands out of their plate and to eat with utensils so I didn’t want to confuse them by giving them food to play in. I love getting messy with the kids. It’s so much fun.
I would like to know of sensory activities for 7 to 9 year old little boys. I am a grandmother that does a lot with my 2 grandsons but it seems like most things are for toddlers. Where can I get ideas for that age group? I find things on Pinterest that I do with them but I’m not sure if they are considered to be sensory activities. If what I find doesn’t work so well, we try something else. I take a lot of notes on Pinterest! We made the objects with rice in a bottle. Too easy for the oldest and he got bored with it. We are going to try the glitter bottles.
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