Choosing which sensory toys or educational resources are most appropriate for your class is an integral part of developing their minds and bodies. While most children enjoy all of the following, some may find one more applicable than others.
Spices are a great way to introduce your students to different flavors. By having them create their own recipes and then teaching them to taste and measure ingredients before putting anything together, they are creating some food safety skills.
Balsawood chips are a great way to teach students about space exploration. They can be made into a microscope, space rover, or even a *tea set*.
Carpets are an excellent way to learn about shape recognition and how things look from different angles. Students can even make their own or have a professional make them for them!
parachute training is another great way to teach students about being in the air.
Contents:
Tactile tools
Treaty Treaty Treaty Treaty Treaty Treaty Treaty are important sensory skills that every child should have. They can help make the classroom more exciting, challenging, and cohesive.
As children learn these skills through play and experience, they can gain a sense of power and control. When working with children, practitioners can help develop these skills through toys and activities.
Some of the most commonly used toys for developing tactile skills are Velcro®, playdough® doughnuts, finger painting sets, and cooperative games like Scrabble or checkers. These can be combined with instruction on how to use them or simple experiments to test their effects.
Another great way to introduce new things to children is through table top scenarios. For example, let them start out playing with the same materials they see in their everyday life but change up the placement or effect of those materials. Or give them a new toy to play with using their hands, feet, or whatever other body parts they have.
Olfactory tools
Olfactory tools are introduced to students through the smell of perfume, cologne, and other smells that invoke feelings of pleasure. By providing students with odor-based classroom tools, you create a distracting but also educational environment.
Many of these tools are available in retail stores, so you can have fun teaching students about fragrance by having them compete in a fragrant contest. You can also introduce them to new materials by smelling them before you give them to them.
Some of these tools include a blankodor card, scented chalkboards, and sprayable olfactory reminders. All of these items help teach students how sensing odors can help them understand new materials and ideas, as well as how to use contextual clues to understand what smells they are dealing with.
Reduce the chance that something goes missing by having odor-based classroom tools.
Sound tools
Sound is a completly underused and underappreciated element of the classroom. There are so many ways to use sound in classroomcraft, and only a few ways to incorporate sound in instruction.
Many ways to use sound in the classroom. One of the most basic ways to incorporate sounds into class is through audios and videos. Through community projects and school produced materials, you can access new sounds and create multimodal classrooms.
Through Instagram hashtags like #soundlessclassrooms and #noisefreeclasses, you can find way to address this issue both locally and globally. Many schools have fundraisers where you can donate money for speakers or auctions of used equipment.
Locally, The Good Schools Group has launched their Sound Free Campaign which asks central/local authorities to assess schools for whether or not they meet national criteria for a ‘quiet’ school.
Movement tools
Very little literature about movement tools remains, so this section is devoted to giving you plenty of resources. There are many print and electronic publications featuring ideas for moving your classroom, locations to move your classroom, and tools to help implement the changes in your class.
Many of these publications have annual subscription fees that are offset by their sales. This helps keep the quality control high and also encourages students to buy the materials because they see others using them and enjoy them.
It is very important that students have access to these materials as it helps learn how to use what muscles they need to move their bodies.
Self-regulation tools
Self-regulation tools are activities that students can do at their own pace to maintain composure or an appropriate level of excitement or calm. These include things such as watching funny videos, reading funny articles, and practicing breathing during stressful situations.
Many students struggle with self-regulation and control when engaged in mature activities such as watching television, reading novels, and engaging in other behaviors that are stimulating but not educational.
These behaviors can be done at their own pace so there is not a need for rushed or forced control. Many times this type of control is referred to as self-control.
Students who struggle with self-control may not always realize it, but they are having to work hard to keep up with the times.
Visual Tools
Neither of these two types of sensory tools are particularly mainstream, so you’ll have to look a bit outside the box to find them.
Trading visual images for tactile experiences is a very specific way of using a tool. If you want your students to learn about the weather, then teach your students about the weather with materials such as winter coats or spring hats.
By introducing students to tools through diverse experiences, they are more likely to internalize and use them. By having students make or receive appropriate feedback with tools, you are both helping your class learn and spending time together as a community.
Many schools design computer-based lessons with the use of tools. In these computer-based lessons, students can make and receive appropriate responses via computers or mobile devices.
Graph paper
Graph paper is a fun way to introduce your students to new concepts. Graph paper can be used for projects, forms, and tests.
Graph paper works by categorizing lines into smaller blocks. These blocks can be rearranged to create other things, such as graphs, charts, and forms.
By organizing lines on graph paper into smaller blocks, students are able to more easily scan information and understand what it means.
They can also use the format of graph paper as a way to organize information. For example, phonemic analysis is easier when reading is in terms of words rather than numbers of letters.
Because students are familiar with graph paper formats, they are able to gauge how much information they need on a piece of material and cut down on unnecessary pages.
Crayons or markers with heavy paper
Pen and paper covertly added to the classroomenvironment to create sensory districts. This can be done in many ways, but the most effective way is to start immediately.
Many ways to organize a classroom is to have a color zone, a district zone, an arts zone, and a sport or games area. These areas should be separated by something safe like bookcases or stored under teacher’s seats.
Creating districts is also an effective way to teach students different concepts. For instance, students who spend time in the color zone will learn what colors mean and how to use them effectively in projects.
By using different colors for projects and using different density of material for projects, students are able to learn how much they know about specific areas of knowledge.