Touch
o Wrap babies in different
textured materials
o Explore warm / cold surfaces
o Explore rough / smooth
materials
o Make feely boxes (smooth shells,
cold metal, hard pebbles, soft
velvet etc)
o Explore wet / dry materials
o Toys that move e.g. mobiles,
wind chimes, activity centres,
vibrating toys such as sensory
balls
o Feel growing leaves on the trees
Vision
o Black & white mobiles
o Filling / emptying different sized
containers
o Musical washing line
Sensory Play
Ideas
o Wind chimes
0 – 8 months
o Exploring shapes e.g. cones,
o CD mobiles
o Sound / colour bottles
spheres , cubes, cylinders (watch
how they move on the floor e.g.
roll, turn, spin)
o bubbles
Hearing
o Animal / natural sound cd’s
 Mirrors
o Musical instruments
Smell
o Scented candles
o Sound bottles(rice, pulses)
o Aromatherapy oils
o Rattles
o Explore vegetable peelings
o Socks with bells attached
o Scented water / gloop
o Outdoor wind chimes
o Massage oils (apricot, lavender , camomile)
o Singing sessions
Touch
Vision
o Treasure basket collections e.g.
shells, stones, fabrics, chains,
ribbons, keys, fur, large beads,
wood, metal
o Textures balls e.g. kosch, spiky
o Books with touch buttons / feely
books
o Cooked ( coloured/scented)
Sensory Play
Ideas
8 – 18 months
o Fruit / vegetable (whole or frozen
spaghetti
o Wet / dry (coloured / scented)
sand
o Coloured / scented gloop & slime
o Painting (sponges, finger, hands,
body, feet, stick etc.)
o Torches
slices)
o Coloured materials
o Float leaves in water
o Freeze leaves, flowers in ice cubes
Smell
o Explore flowers / plants outside
o Massage oils
o Scented water
o Herb bags (fresh herbs wrapped in
material)
o Scented bean bags
o Fruit / vegetables
o Make mobiles from natural
Taste
o Cooking activities
e.g. bread, soup,
porridge
o Snack time foods
e.g. fruit, cucumber,
peppers, tomatoes
etc allows textures
to also be explored
materials e.g. leaves and twigs
o Set leaves in jelly to explore
Hearing
o Different music cd’s
o Musical instruments
o Homemade sound games
o Exploring natural sounds
e.g. bird song, waves
crashing
Touch
Vision
o Torches with coloured acetate on
o Spray bottles with different
coloured paint in
Sensory Play Ideas
18 – 24 months
o Mark making outdoors / indoors
using ketchup bottles , drinks
o Build dens using different coloured
o Outside make cd mobiles to hang
from the fence / trees
o Bubbles
Hearing
o Sound lotto games
o Singing sessions
o Animal sound tapes
o Outdoor walks
o Share stories
o Explore pot pouri
o Herbal tea bags in water
o Herb bags
o Scented glue / paint for making pictures
o Add spices to dough
o Windmills
o Thread scrunches onto cardboard
tubes
o Use colanders, sieves in the water
tray
o Hide leaves in gloop, slime and soil
o Scented water , dough, gloop
o Flower petals in water
o Ribbon sticks made from different
textured materials to wave
o Use sticks to mark make in mud,
sand, soil, clay
Smell
o Cooking activities
o Tough spot filled with grass, leaves,
twigs, pebbles, sand, and cones.
Explore them with feet, hands and
bodies.
o Textured dough (oats, sand, rice)
bottles with holes in the top
materials
o Textures balls / bean bags
Taste
o Cooking activities e.g. gingerbread
biscuits, bread
o Offer different foods at snack times
o Explore water melons / pumpkins
Vision
o Add coloured wool to sand,
spaghetti, gloop
Sensory Play Ideas
24 – 36 months
familiar sounds e.g. telephone,
o Explore natural materials that are
Touch
rough, smooth, lumpy, prickly etc
o Natural collections e.g. leaves,
flowers, bark, cones, feathers
o Ribbon sticks to make patterns
o Explore weaving materials onto
garden trellis / netting
o Make ball run using ball pool balls
and guttering
o Watch dandelion seeds float in the
air when blown
e.g. curry, lavender, rosemary, thyme
o Cooking activities
o Move and dance to natural sounds
o Singing sessions
print onto
o Explore dried pulses, cooked
spaghetti, vegetable peeling
o Explore frozen slices of fruit / ice
cubes
Smell
o Explore planting
pebbles, beads, wrapped string,
o Grow herbs, sensory plants in the garden
hover, door bell
o Textured paper to draw, paint,
o Make concrete tiles and set
Taste
pebbles, sand, rice, seeds
o Make a sound lotto games from
wood, metal, spiky, shiny
flour
o Make sound boxes filled with
o Go on sound walks
o Heuristic play collections e.g.
o Mark making in soil, sand, gloop,
Hearing
shells into it to feel
o Explore water melons / pumpkins
o Make mud pies
o Herbs / spices in ice cubes
o Scented bags filled with herbs,
spices
Hearing
Vision
o Threading / weaving with
different materials
o Make mobiles to hand in the
garden
Sensory Play Ideas
36 + months
o Make kazoos from paper and
combs
o Go on a blindfold walk and talk
about things heard
o Bubble chasing outside
o Move and dance to natural sounds
o Make kaleidoscopes
o Play sound lotto games
o Draw patterns with cardboard
combs in paint, sand, soil
o Make frozen mobiles using
yoghurt pots filled with natural
materials and put a loop on hang
and watch it melt
Smell
o Add spices, flavourings to flour,
gloop, water, sand, dough
o Make perfume using rose petals
and water
o Make smelly bean bags
Touch
o Collect textured paper to paint,
draw, collage on
o Natural treasure collections to
explore e.g. cones, leaves, pebbles,
feathers
o Take bark, pebble rubbings
o Explore water melons and
pumpkins
o Make liquid mud pictures
o Explore scented candles
o Plastic bottles (cover the top with
thin fabric) and fill with spices,
Taste
aromatherapy oils and use in a
smell circle time session
o Make soup, porridge, gingerbread
and link to stories e.g. little red
hen, gingerbread man, enormous
turnip.
o Explore different fruits / breads at
snack times
Sensory descriptive words
Wide
Narrow
Plain
Patterned
Stripes
Spirals
Checks
Wavy
Spotty
Sweet
Sticky
Damp
Fresh
Fruity
Musty
Spicy
Spiral
Prickly
Ridged
Tickly
Bumpy