Whether it be muddy, gloopy, or messy, we LOVE sensory play at our long daycare centres.
Sensory play is a fundamental part of early childhood development and at our childcare centres, we embrace the mess and magic of sensory trays to create hands-on, engaging experiences for children of all ages.
From the squish of jelly to the crunch of leaves, sensory trays offer children the opportunity to explore textures, sounds, smells, and even tastes in a safe and fun environment.
In this week's blog, we are showcasing how these engaging provocations can support brain development, fine motor skills, and creativity in young children while encouraging holistic development.
The Benefits of Sensory Trays:
- Brain Development: Sensory input helps build nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, enhancing memory, reasoning, and problem-solving skills.
- Fine Motor Skills: Scooping, pouring, pinching, and grasping all help children strengthen the muscles in their hands and fingers.
- Language Growth: Descriptive words fly around the room as children talk about what they feel, see, and smell.
- Emotional Regulation: Sensory play can be calming and therapeutic, helping children self-regulate and manage big emotions.
- Imaginative Play: With each new tray setup, children create stories, pretend scenarios, and explore their creativity.
At our Children First Early Education centres, our Educators use sensory trays to reflect seasonal themes, cultural learning, and educational topics. Here are just a few we’ve loved recently:
Children First Early Education Athelstone:
In the Kindergarten Classroom, children were able to practice their mathematical thinking and basic ideas of measurement by using the technique: big, bigger, biggest. The Early Childhood Teacher set this experience up as a dinosaur and fossil sensory experience to further build on the children's interests in the dinosaur world.
Children First Early Education Lightsview:
The Junior Kindy Classroom explored a hands-on sensory activity that focused on the development of their fine-motor skills. Using small tongs and scissors, children transferred and cut colourful noodles and pasta, allowing their hand-eye coordination and control to strengthen.
Children First Early Education Lindisfarne:
At Children First Early Education Lindisfarne, sensory play is an integral part of their daily curriculum across all classrooms and age groups. For the older children, Educators set up a bug-themed sensory activity. This was an experience that allowed the children to practice counting while finding as many bugs around their made-up habitats.
Children First Early Education Evanston Park:
Toddler children experienced a messy-sensory play set-up by their Educators using coloured rice and spoons. Children were encouraged to scoop and mix the rice while exploring how the textures felt in their hands.
Children First Early Education Fairfield:
To build on the children's interests around dinosaurs, Educators, with the help of local business Messy Monsterz, created a dedicated dinosaur exploration zone by setting up an age-appropriate sensory experience by burying dinosaur resources. The children were able to use paint brushes to dust away the sand and magnifying glasses, revealing the buried fossils.
Sensory play isn’t just fun, it’s foundational. Our Educators love designing trays that are not only exciting for children, but meaningful too. Whether it's a celebration of culture, a holiday event, or an everyday exploration of science and nature, there’s always something new to discover with a sensory tray.
Interested in trying your own tray setup at home? Here are some simple sensory tray ideas to try:
- Ocean Adventure: Blue jelly, shells, toy sea creatures, and seaweed (green spaghetti).
- Construction Site: Crushed Weet-Bix or Coco Pops as “dirt,” trucks, pebbles, and cones.
- Rainbow Rice Art: Layered colourful rice with scoops, funnels, and paintbrushes for mixing and creating.
- Fruit Exploration Tray: Citrus slices, spoons, and bowls of water for squishing and squeezing.
Stay up to date with our centres on Facebook to see what sensory play trays they create next!
- Children First Cranbrook
- Children First Fairfield
- Children First Gaythorne
- Children First Underwood
- Children First Walkervale
- Children First Mernda
- Children First Mitcham
- Children First Evanston Park
- Children First Salisbury Downs
- Children First Athelstone
- Children First Angle Vale
- Children First Ingle Farm
- Children First Lightsview
- Children First Lindisfarne
- Children First South Hobart
Children First Berserker is opening soon, follow them on Facebook to receive regular updates on their progress.
