Young children learn best when they’re involved in hands-on activities. Sensory play is one such way to get started! It encourages them to explore the world through their senses, fostering creativity, curiosity, and problem-solving skills. With a few simple DIY activities, you can create rich learning experiences that are both enjoyable and educational.
Today, we’ll explore everything you need to know about sensory play: what it is, why it matters, its benefits, and some fun DIY ideas to try at home.
Sensory play involves activities that stimulate a child’s senses, like touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste. It’s an important part of their development as it helps build nerve connections and brain pathways that support cognitive growth, fine and gross motor skills, and emotional regulation. This, in turn, enhances focus, communication, and the ability to make sense of the world around them.
From kitchen shelves to crafty items, simple household materials can turn into wonderful tools for sensory exploration. Here are some ideas:
Sensory experiences create powerful learning opportunities for young minds. The following DIY ideas make sensory exploration simple, inclusive, and full of developmental benefits:
Fill containers with water and let children pour, scoop, and watch objects float or sink. You can introduce temperature differences using warm and cool water to make it a fun preschool science activity that explores cause and effect.
Blowing bubbles strengthens oral-motor skills, focus, and hand-eye coordination. Experiment with bubble wands of different sizes to explore air pressure and visual tracking.
Use zip-lock bags or trays filled with slime, dough, or water beads. This tactile activity builds fine motor skills and sensory awareness. Children sensitive to touch can use tools like brushes or spoons.
Create boards using sandpaper, felt, foil, or fabric swatches. Children can touch, match, and explore textures, making it a perfect activity for calming sensory breaks.
Allow children to scoop, pour, or draw shapes in mud or flour. This messy play enhances motor control, creativity, and sensory integration. Scooping and shaping in flour or mud can be
extended into simple preschool craft activities, where the child creates patterns, shapes, or mini art pieces as part of sensory exploration.
Fill bottles with rice, lentils, or beans to make homemade instruments. Children can explore rhythm, patterns, and auditory recognition while having fun.
Fill jars with varying water levels and gently tap to create different tones. This activity encourages hand-eye coordination while introducing pitch variations.
Dye rice or water with food-safe colours and let children sort, scoop, or mix them. It improves colour recognition, fine motor skills, and concentration.
Watching glitter swirl or liquids move can calm overstimulation, encourage mindfulness, and teach patience.
Fill clear bottles with beads, sequins, or buttons. Shaking or rolling the bottles provides a soothing visual and auditory sensory experience.
Small cloth bags filled with cinnamon, clove, or mint stimulate memory and descriptive skills through scent recognition.
Enhance playdough with vanilla, cocoa, or essential oils for added olfactory stimulation, keeping unscented versions for sensitive children.
Materials like cereal, pasta, or mashed fruit allow safe exploration of taste and texture, ideal for toddlers.
Freeze small toys or coloured water in ice cubes. Children can observe melting, texture, and cause-and-effect relationships.
Want to make sensory learning even easier?
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Below are some things to consider for creating a safe and stress-free sensory play experience for your child:
Sensory play is a wonderful way to nurture curiosity, creativity, and cognitive development in children. By creating simple DIY activities with everyday materials, you can offer enriching, safe, and inclusive experiences that children will love.
This post is in collaboration with KLAY Preschool & Daycare - India’s leading chain of preschools and daycare centres supporting over 60,000 families across more than 160 locations, offering playgroup, nursery and kindergarten programmes rooted in early-childhood development. KLAY offers programs for children from 6 months to 10 years old, focusing on a safe, nurturing, and play-based learning environment. It provides a variety of services including preschool, after- school care, and full- or half-day daycare, with a curriculum inspired by Montessori and Reggio Emilia principles.
Visit their website here: klay.co.in
