Topic

Touch and feel

What Stimulates: Awe and wonder, curiosity, mindfulness, questioning

Preparation and materials:

  • Large shallow tray or bowl
  • sand or earth
  • Small plastic cups, recycled yogurt pots or small containers
  • To harvest

OR

  • Large shallow tray or bowl half filled with water
  • Small buckets or recyclable plastic cups
  • Sieve
  • To harvest

Recommended ages:

3 to 5 years

5 to 8 years

Why is this activity important?

Playing with objects and toys that stimulate a child's touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing allows children to explore, discover and be curious about the world around them. This activity helps children to develop their imagination, exploring what is possible and what is not, and gives them the opportunity to solve problems. Toys and activities that use the senses are especially good at calming and de-stressing children, so they are a great way to develop self-regulation (a skill linked to emotional intelligence, which involves managing emotions and behaviors).

How to make:

FOR AGES 3 TO 5 YEARS:

Take the box or tray and place it on the floor. As this activity can get messy, you can put newspapers under the tray to keep the floor clean, or it can be done outside or directly in a sandy or dirt spot in a park, square or garden, for example.

On the tray, place sand or earth, the cups and small objects from the container. Invite your child to play! If your tray is too big, some children may like to sit inside it to feel the sand or soil on their skin. Some questions to guide the play:

  • How does the sand/soil feel in your fingers?
  • What does the sand/soil smell/look like?
  • Can you fill the cup to the top with sand/earth?

Allow your child to play for as long as they want and have fun playing with them. Let them be exposed to the different feelings in their senses. When you're done playing, encourage your child to clean up with you. You can ask them: What did you like about playing together today?


FOR AGES 5-8 YEARS:

1. Take the box or tray and place it on the floor and fill it with water. This shouldn't be too deep for safety reasons, so a large, shallow tray is preferred for this activity. As this activity involves getting wet, it may be best conducted outdoors.

2. When your tray is full of water, find objects around the house that allow your child to pour, measure and move the water. Place them inside the tray. Invite your child to play!

3. Allow them to feel the water on their fingers, see it pour, maybe even get wet and feel the water on their skin. You can even add some ice cubes and ask your child to see how they feel compared to water! You can ask your child:

  • How does the water feel on your fingers/toes/lips?
  • What does the water taste/smell/sound like?
  • What can we do with water?
  • Why is water so important to us? Where can we find water in nature?

Allow your child to play for as long as they want and have fun playing with them. When you're done playing, encourage your child to clean up with you. Reflect afterwards by asking your child: Why is water so important to us? Why is water important for our planet?

Tips on how to do this activity in a group

Depending on the size of the group, you can break it up into smaller groups and have different trays available for the kids to play with. Or perform outdoors where there is sand or earth, such as in a square, park or garden, for example.

Activity: Touch and Feel

Touch brings together a collection of objects that allow children to explore using their senses in an open way. Also known as sensory play or sensory boxes, touching and feeling creates a child's sense of admiration for different elements; how they feel/appear, how objects interact and the noises they make. While it builds their sense of exploration and investigation, it allows them to freely play with whatever ideas they have. Playing water, measuring cups of sand allows the child to creatively explore the materials in front of them and the ways in which the different materials interact with each other.

Touching and feeling stimulates the development of imagination in a relaxed environment, as the child can feel/smell/see/hear the surrounding materials. They learn to explore with their senses at their own pace, generating an awareness of objects around them. Through the development of sensory awareness, the child learns to handle different objects with respect and care, grounding them in their environment.

Children with differences in the functioning of their body

Some children have sensory sensitivities, which means their senses can be easily overwhelmed. This makes playing with some materials an experience that can be overwhelming for a child. If this is the case, use very few objects in a small box to begin with. For example, you can have 3 different colored ribbons in a plastic container, then add more or a few rubber balls.

Tip

Follow the topic Playing with water, paint and sand, and enjoy playing together. At e-Toys and Play you have these and many other play tips!

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