[Steffanie Cole]

We’ll keep it exciting with fun activities like touching different
textures and trying new foods. And we’ll make sure every sense gets
attention, whether it’s by playing with colorful stuff or listening to
cool music.

[Trainer]

Steffanie, your ideas are fantastic! Incorporating various textures, foods, colors, and music will indeed provide rich sensory experiences for the children. Great job!

[Sheila Tanchoco]

I would continue to introduce different manipulatives or items that the children are able to interact with or experiment with. This doesn’t specifically mean get a new toy, but prepare or plan different things or activities that can help keep the children’s interests bright!

To support the emphasis of different senses, there could be activities that can present numerous ones like having a picnic, different tastes and smells, or having a garden, interacting with colors and textures!

[Trainer]

Sheila’s ideas of introducing various manipulatives and activities to engage children’s senses and creating opportunities for taste, smell, and texture exploration are excellent for keeping the sensory space exciting and full of learning.

[carrie]

I like to change up my sensory table to learn explore and understand the theme of the classroom for that week or two. Spring growing theme I added clean dirt, tiny play rakes, shovels, watering cans, fake flowers of different sizes and varieties, fake worms and mini planter containers. Children were able to use all their senses to explore flowers all while playing and creating!

[Shannon]

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Fun activities and materials I would introduce to keep things engaging for sensory would be different textured fabric materials, different colored materials, outdoor materials such as leaves, grass, pine cones, we would do different taste testing of fruits and vegetables as well as a fun smell type activity where we would have different spices in smell jars so we could explore the different scents.

[Danielle]

I would use things like soil, sand paper, rocks, wood rounds,cotton balls.

[Yolanda lee]

We can have a sensory wall with different texture for children to feel and touch. Also a sensory with sand and rocks with diggers and construction trucks for more sensory play.

[Terry]

We have been learning about dinosaurs. We read a book about paleontologists. In our sensory table we had sand, wooden dino bones ( that can make a 3d dino puzzle), small paint brushes and plastic bins to collect our findings. The kiddos are having a blast.

[Trainer]

Terry, your sensory space sounds amazing! It’s great to see how you’ve integrated learning about dinosaurs into the sensory experience, creating an engaging and educational environment for the children. Well done!

[Shalesa]

Having a color-themed sensory table would be a blast! Setting up the colors with items like Yellow corn to dig in, white tissue paper to crinkle and make “snowballs”, and even a green turf grass center to “mow” the law or hide items to find in the grass like clay ladybugs. Setting up a blind box bin to stick your hand in and guess an item by touch could inspire lots of laughs and creative responses.

[gretchen Bucsko]

I would keep my sensory table fresh by changing it with the seasons/holidays and with the science units we are studying. Adding sharks and ocean creatures during ocean week or desert animals in sand work great.

[Trainer]

Great idea, Gretchen! Connecting sensory experiences to seasonal changes and science units is an excellent way to keep the space engaging and educational. Well done!

[Morgan]

I would use seasonal items that could add to the sensory exploration. In the fall/winter maybe we have some pinecones to inspect. In the spring, we could have seeds in a large bin and some cards to identify which is which. In the summer we could have sand and seashells. I like the idea of pulling inspiration from nature for the sensory play.

[Katrina]

We learn a lot about dinosaurs in December so I would definitely set a a dino dig for part of the month and then male fake snow and have a winter dino play table for the rest of the month.

At the end of each month, the toys that we used will be put into a bin with soapy water to get everything clean for next time- which makes another sensory bin!

[Erika Buchholz]

A sensory bin with lots of open ended objects. I am a big fan of objects found in nature, especially during seasons like the Fall and Spring.

[Mandy]

in our sensory center we would change it out every month.

we would have cleaning the animals one week and filling the pet food for like a pet store another.

have glitter in a bin the kids can play with it

[Carol Stoothoff]

A sensory bin filled with beans and trucks is always a favorite activity. I would change the bin often, using water, snow or mud. Simple tools like funnels and cups are great, too.

Food prep or a game of guessing different scents in a bottle to change things up. Music and songs like “headed and shoulders” increase listening skills.

[Trainer]

“Wonderful ideas, Carol! Rotating sensory bin themes and incorporating music and scent games ensure a dynamic, engaging sensory space that sparks curiosity and joy.”

[Haley Darrell]

I would include a variety of textures, fun sights, smells, auditory options, and items they can taste. I woulds try my best to include objects that are relevant to the interests of the kids and the season in which they are in at the time. Including items and sensory objects from multiple cultures would be ideal to increase the interests of students from around the world.