Sensory Play and Activities

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Welcome to another post on 12 Months of Montessori Series! For May, we’re exploring Montessori sensorial activities and I am sharing with you fun activities that led to discoveries using their senses.

My initial plan for this was for a nature exploration outdoors since we all know that nature provides the BEST sensory experience. But because mother nature wasn’t in the mood (rained throughout the week!), I decided to do most of our sensory activities at the backyard and indoors.

Montessori emphasized that children learns with their senses. It is important that they use their senses to explore the world they live in. Stimulating these senses will send signals to the child’s brain that will help to strengthen the neural pathways which are important for all types of learning.

In a Montessori classroom, there are a lot of sensorial materials that are used to help the child develop discrimination, order and broaden and refine their senses. But just because we don’t own any of these materials, that doesn’t mean we can’t do sensorial at home. In fact, I prefer giving my kids the REAL experience when it comes to sensory.

Without much further ado, here are Mavi and Vito…

Sense of touch. We started off with ice and water play. This was the time when we got Mr Sun. I immediately took out the materials and let the boys play together. This activity introduced the concept of warm and cold to Vito.

Sense of hearing. We explored the rhythm bells I got earlier this year. Oh boy, it was really something new to him and he loves shaking it to produce sound. Here, I introduced Vito the loudness and softness sound.

Sense of touch and smell. We went crazy over Crazy Soap!! Thanks to Stimulating with Rachel who suggested this brand to us. I wanted to use kid-friendly soap as I used shaving cream before which gives a strong scent. The Crazy Soap has gentle smell that the kids love, and the foam is just amazing! You can shape it and it bounces! This activity introduces Vito to vocabularies like “good smell”, “soft”, “bouncy” and “squishy”.

Sense of sight. Activity we did in the backyard where we enjoyed the abundance of dandelions and blowing the seeds! We also planted garden pinwheels around the yard so Vito and Mavi can enjoy watching it turn (it can be relaxing!). My Vito was so amazed by the wheels!