Activities to carry out in your Sensory Room

Inspiration on activities for your Sensory Room

Thinking of activities to offer in your sensory room can be quite easy.  A sensory room is a room designed to develop children’s senses, this is achieved through lighting, music, and objects. A sensory room can also be used to help children with limited communication skills.

Here are a few ideas of sensory activities/experiences

Have you ever thought of using a light box?, these can be effective in creating different images and contrasts using a range of objects such as natural materials eg leaves , flowers. There are many different types of light boxes, free standing ones or ones you can place on a table.

Objects to use on light box

• Use natural materials such as leaves, twigs, flowers
• Coloured translucent plastic- different shapes
• Objects that will be create a pattern
• Coloured see through wooden blocks
• Feathers

Other activities to carry out in your sensory room.

• Drape pieces of fabric and shine torches through the materials, these is great for children’s problem solving as they will be discovering which material the torch shines through.
• Place coloured plastic over the lens of a torch to give different coloured effects.
• Fill a paddling pool with soft balls – this is an easy and simple way of creating a ball pit
• Use bubbles in your sensory room, try adding a different scent to the bubbles and see if the children can guess the smell
• Have mirrors on the wall low down for children to use, for small babies soft wooden mirrors to hold are also effective.
• Different sized textured balls
• Use a projector to project different images on the walls and ceiling.
• Offer children a collection of treasure baskets containing natural and shiny objects
• Use a collection of musical instruments to play alongside a variety of music.
• Retell a story using music and props
• Textured story books
• Place a fish bubble machine in one of the corners of the room to create that calm soothing atmosphere.

These are just a few ideas, there are many resources you can purchase to enhance the room and provide other learning opportunities.