These theme-based sensory activities are designed to help children who are blind or visually impaired to develop literacy, numeracy, tactile, auditory, and visual skills through fun hands-on learning. For more ideas of other theme-based activities, see my other posts.
Tactile
- Kitten – Cat/ Puppy – Dog – feel fluffy toys, or if possible real pets
- Baby – child
- Time line of child from baby – child, use objects to represent each year of child, add photographs
- Sew cress and watch it grow.
- Grow flowers, vegetables etc.
- Feel shape of cheese before grated, grate – taste – melt – taste and feel again.
- Feel shape of potato – feel peelings, feel cold mashed potato
- Feel shape of slice of bread, smell, taste, toast, smell and taste again.
- Feel shape of chocolate, smell, taste, melt, smell, taste
- Blow balloon up, let it go.
- Blow airbed up, feel shape before blown up, lie and roll on bed. Do the same with blow up toys.
- Make pop corn, feel before cooked, cook, listen to pop corn popping, feel and taste cooked pop corn.
- Cover in chocolate and place in cake moulds to change shape.
Visual
(some of these ideas would also be used in the tactile section also)
- Watch butter melt on toast.
- Watch chocolate melt
- Use contrasting container for butter and chocolate to be melted in.
Sound
- Sound of balloon being let down.
- Pop corn popping.
Taste
- Taste cheese, chocolate, bread, toast, spaghetti, mashed cooked potato, pop corn
Smell
- Smell cheese, chocolate, bread, toast, potato –cooked, pop corn.
Literacy
- Language – big, small, soft, hard
Five Fat Peas
A counting finger play especially useful in the spring and summer.
Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed
(children hold hand in a fist)
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest.
(put thumb and fingers up one by one)
They grew and grew
(raise hand in the air very slowly)
And did not stop,
Until one day
The pod went POP!
(children clap hands together)
Numeracy
- Feel shape of potatoes, chocolate, cheese, balloon
There are more shared ideas at www.positiveeye.co.uk
