Sensory play with rice and fine motor tools

Sensory Play

Sensory Play

What is sensory play?

Sensory play is an activity that involves one or more of the senses. The activity might focus on one of the five main senses: sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. Or it might focus on one of the lesser known senses such as vestibular (which helps us with movement and balance) or proprioception (which helps with the awareness of our body parts and how we move them). 

Benefits of sensory play

Sensory play has so many benefits. It is amazing because it:

  • Gives children the opportunity to discover, create and learn 
  • Helps to build nerve connections in the brain and enables children to embed new information
  • Exposes children to new vocabulary
  • Helps children develop problem solving skills
  • Improves fine and gross motor skills

How does Play Make Sense teach phonics through sensory play?

Through simple, meaningful and engaging activities. Each of our activities involves one, or more, of the senses. The activities are simple to set up, but meaningful and engaging for children, meaning you can sit back and relax while your children play and learn. 

Phase 1 Phonics Activity Cards
Shakers

Phase 1 Phonics Activity

This activity explores the sense of sound. Children learn how to make different sounds loudly, quietly, slowly and quickly.

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Phase 2 Phonics Activity Cards
o is for orange

Phase 2 Phonics Activity 
This activity explores the sense of smell. Children learn about the letter o, the sound it makes and how to read and write words containing that letter.

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Phase 3 Phonics Activity Cards
j is for jelly

Phase 3 Phonics Activity

This activity explores the sense of touch. Children learn about the letter j, the sound it makes and how to read and write words containing that letter.

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Phase 4 Phonics Activity Cards
Scavenger hunt

Phase 4 Phonics Activity Cards

This activity explores the sense of sight. Children learn to read words with adjacent consonants as they hunt for objects to match the descriptions.

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Phase 5 Phonics Activity Cards
Bubble pop

Phase 5 Phonics Activity

This activity explores the sense of proprioception. Children learn about alternative graphemes as they match the colour and pop the bubble wrap.

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Phase 6 Phonics Activity Cards
Out of this world

Phase 6 Phonics Activity

This activity explores the sense of touch. Children learn about the past and present tense as they explore this moon small world.

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