Lessons and materials
Sensory Areas Journeys: By Boat
This multi-sensory activity uses tactile, auditory, and visual elements, as well as literacy and numeracy, to help children with visual impairments to integrate skills across all areas of the curriculum.
Here I share another sensory curriculum session plan full of ideas to support the theme of Journeys: By Boat. These ideas incorporate tactile, visual, and auditory activities, as well as suggestions for reinforcing literacy and numeracy skills.
Tactile
- Feel range of toy boats, feel cloth used for sails.
- Make imaginary boat with broom sticks for oars.
- Pretend to row the boat – sing “Row row row the boat.”
- Simulate the rocking motion of a boat.
- Play with boats on water tank, include use of battery-operated boat if possible, listen to the splish, splosh of the water.
- Play racing the boats across the water.
- Fan to create wind on face, if on a boat.
- Dress up in sailing wear, cagoule, wellington boots, peaked cap, souwester, stripy t-shirts, binoculars.
- Weather on boat – rainy, sunny, windy – simulate with fan, bellows, air pump on voile, streamers, balloons for wind. Hairdryer for warm air. Torch light shining on sunny yellow, fluorescent fabric.
- Simulate rain – watering can on tin tray, simulate wind with fan.
- Simulate thunder by banging drums or clapping cymbals.
Visual
(some of these ideas would also be used in the tactile section also)
- Use Wellington boots to make blue/green textured paint footprints to represent the sea.
- Make large boat shape to add to the sea, children to add bright coloured/textured sails to the boat.
Sound
- Listen to a ferry siren, horn
Literacy
Row, row, row the boat.
The big ship sailed on the Ali, Ali O
Numeracy
- Larger, smaller, thin, wider, (shapes of boats)
- Feel shape of sail – triangles, feel corners, feel straight edges.
- Count boats on water.
- Line boats up by size biggest to smallest.
There are more shared ideas at www.positiveeye.co.uk