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Sensory Tray Ideas


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Posted

Hello

 

I just wanted some new ideas for my class of SEN reception children, anything special for sensory, corn flour, cuturd, oats, pasta etc go down well but any ideas would be gratefully recieved

Posted

We also use jelly, spaghetti in water, peat, bark, compost

Posted

In the nursery where i work we built sensory herb beds in the garden...this has been fantastic as we can cut large sprigs of rosemary, lavender, thyme etc of the plants and put them in sensory trays/ water for the children to experience....

 

hope this helps...

Ps.......LUX soap flakes are always good but can be tricky to get hold of.

 

lou :o

Posted (edited)

I'm sure you're already using some of these, but just in case:

 

Rice (cooked and dry)

Wet sand

Dry sand

Shaving foam

Soapy water

Cooked spaghetti

Small beads (really nice to put your hands in a tray filled with these, even I love it!)

Styofoam packaging (either beads of it or those things that look like number 3s. Also pieces that they can rip up like the cups or plates if you can get hold of them)

Rice krispies

Ordinary flour

Ice cubes in water (although this would have to be supervised to make sure they don't leave their fingers in too long depending their sensory development)

Leaves (dry ones or fresh)

Grass clippings (these smell nice too)

Shredded tissue paper or ordinary paper (you can get this from the school shredding machine!)

Mashed potato

Water with glitter or other shiny things.

Sequins

Buttons

 

By cornflour I assume you mean the cornflour/water mix that makes the delightful gloop! My children love squeezing it tightly to make it go hard and then watching as it goes back to being runny when they open their hands. I put food dye and flavouring in mine so we have green peppermint gloop or red vanilla gloop. I also use plasticine with flavouring as well to make it smell interesting.

 

Also read somewhere on here about clean mud. I'm sure it was grated Dove soap, toilet paper and a bit of warm water to melt the soap. Not tried it yet, but I think the idea is that it makes a creamy mixture which gets better the more its played with.

Edited by Guest
Posted

Hi, we had a brilliant sensory morning yesterday. The children had couscous, which goes rubbery when it cools down, icing sugar mixture and gloop. They went round the table feeling the differences and at the end of the morning they had made "sandwiches" mixing it all together! Brilliant. We had been on a refresher messy play session to awaken what gets forgotten. WE have this great foam too which we get from tts, you sculp it. Also you can get beaded playdough which is great and today we used "snow" which dries back to powder to reuse. Ideas given were to make "soup" mixing different pulses like lentils, couscous, peas etc. Good luck!

  • 2 months later...
Posted
washing up liquid and sand makes sand foam which is brilliant to play with

 

 

I've never tried this before..........sounds brilliant. Can you tell me what proportions to use or do you just squirt a load of washing up liquid into a load of sand? Thanks. :o

Posted

damp sawdust is good needs to be damp so as not to inhale the dust particles .herbal tea bags in the water tray smell good and the water changes colour they break up if you leave them in it just adds to the texture but you can take them out if you just want the liquid. icing sugar with pipettes to drop water in gradually to change the consistency we have also added peppermint essence very sticky!

Posted
Hello

 

I just wanted some new ideas for my class of SEN reception children, anything special for sensory, corn flour, cuturd, oats, pasta etc go down well but any ideas would be gratefully recieved

 

 

 

have you tried jelly cubes and flour, rice pudding, ice cubes with different things frozen inside, snow!!!!!!!!!!!,

  • 3 months later...
Posted

Rip the insides of nappies and soak them through! Real different texture. You can add dye to make different colours too!

Posted
hope this helps...

Ps.......LUX soap flakes are always good but can be tricky to get hold of.

 

lou :o

 

Tesco now sell 'Granny's Soap flakes - they work very well - I have been up to my knees (OK not quite) in them this morning! xD

 

 

Rip the insides of nappies and soak them through! Real different texture. You can add dye to make different colours too!

 

Hi vsin and welcome to the forum! :(

 

The nappy thing sounds great - I shall be giving that a go! :(

Posted (edited)

I have a fabric bag full of decorative glass beads the children love to explore. They hold the bag, put their hands inside and swish the beads around and take them out to hold.

 

I also have lengths of different sorts of chain from B&Q. Bath plug chain and chains with different sized links. They feel lovely in your hands. Could you smile sweetly and ask your local B&Q for some free samples?

Edited by Upsy Daisy
Posted

BABY RICE - WITH COLOURS especially good if you have ones that like to eat everything-you can even paint with it

toothpaste works well but is quite sticky to wash off(as i found out after it had been put all over my face!!)

Posted
washing up liquid and sand makes sand foam which is brilliant to play with

This sounds fab, tell us more, like how to make it?????? PLease :o

Posted

Loving the ideas here but a bit confused how you are allowed to let children play with small beads (swallowing risk) Toilet roll (hygiene reasons) and when we used icing sugar it made an icing sugar dust cloud so we wet it and it made the floor so ridiculousy dangerous we had to risk assess that it wasn't viable! When we had baked beans some parents complained that it was teaching them to play with food and were not happy so we don't have this anymore either.

we really struggle for ideas for our sensory tray but find shaving foam with cars to drive through it is popular.

Posted
Loving the ideas here but a bit confused how you are allowed to let children play with small beads (swallowing risk) Toilet roll (hygiene reasons)

 

I supervise their play closely as you would with any other heuristic play. I feel that it is important that children get to experience all sorts of textures and objects - not just those which are considered safe for them to experience without supervision. I may be at an advantage over group settings in this as a never have more than 3 small children at a time.

 

As far as toilet rolls go - I would imagine that there are far more germs on their own shoes than they would pick up from a toilet roll tube :o

Posted
Loving the ideas here but a bit confused how you are allowed to let children play with small beads (swallowing risk) Toilet roll (hygiene reasons)

 

I supervise their play closely as you would with any other heuristic play. I feel that it is important that children get to experience all sorts of textures and objects - not just those which are considered safe for them to experience without supervision. I may be at an advantage over group settings in this as a never have more than 3 small children at a time.

 

As far as toilet rolls go - I would imagine that there are far more germs on their own shoes than they would pick up from a toilet roll tube :o

Posted

I thought I'd seen something that toilet rolls were OK to use - unless they looked dirty? Someone once put a link to a Health and Safety website with information on including toilet rolls and egg boxes.

Posted

it's an urban myth that they cannot play with toilet rolls and egg boxes............

 

these are fab ideas, just what I need for my planning for littlies, would never in a million years have thought about nappies........is it a bit like the old cellulose paste that we had to mix up ourselves???.thankyou for all the lovely ideas!

  • 1 month later...
Posted

WOW!! Can't wait to try some of these ideas!

 

If you are worried about the children swallowing small things/ getting too messy etc. you could use discovery bottles. Not as good as letting them play with the actual stuff but an alternative that doesn't need as much supervision. I've had them in my investigation area for the last term and they are very popular. :o

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