Mar 30 2008
Sensory Development Games
Sorting Fruit and Vegetables by Taste, Touch, Smell and Sound
AGE 2 TO 3 YEARS
At this age a child responds to everything with his senses. Daily he is learning new things, gradually building up knowledge and vocabulary. All the different ways you can think of to help him learn about fruit and vegetables you usually eat in the family will add to this knowledge.
What you need
A collection of fruit, say, apple, orange, banana, strawberry, grape, etc.
A collection of vegetables, say, sprouts, carrot, broccoli, cabbage, potato, leek, spinach, etc.
How to play
Line up one each of the above fruits vegetables.
2. Let your child pick up each one, feel it, smell it, perhaps shake it to see if it makes a noise and describe it.
3. Then suggest he closes his eyes and, one by one, you put the fruit or the vegetable in his hand and ask him to tell you all about it. You can ask questions like: “Is it smooth?”, “What does it smell like?”, “Do you like it?”, “What is it?”.
4. With fruit you can cut a piece out of each one and ask him to taste it and then tell you what it is. Children love this game.
Herb Smell Jars
AGE 3 TO 4 YEARS
This activity draws attention to different smells of herbs either grown in the garden, in pots on the kitchen window sill or purchased in the supermarket. It increases your child’s vocabulary and gives him new knowledge.
What you need
Save old herb jars until you have eight. Then either pick the herbs you have grown, or use the ones you have bought.
Make up four pairs of smell jars with, say, oregano, tarragon, rosemary and mint. Do not label the jars.
Alternatively smell jars can be bought commercially.
How to play
With his eyes closed, ask your child to smell the jars and pair them.
Then he can name them.
3. Later he could perhaps match the smells to either the real growing plants or a picture of them.
4. Discuss what the herbs are used for and let him experience the difference in taste when they are added to certain food.
Frutty
AGE 4 TO 5 YEARS
This game helps your child become familiar with a variety of different fruit and also helps language development and visual perception. It is a good game to play after handling the real fruit and identifying them through the senses.
What you need
48 small cards, 24 with pictures of whole fruits and 24 of sliced fruit
The fruit are apricot, carambola, kiwi, mango, peach, pomegranate, apple, cherry, lemon, orange, pear, red berry, avocado, grape, lychee, papaya, pineapple, strawberry, banana, grapefruit, mandarin, passion fruit, plum and watermelon.
How to play
For 2 to 4 players
Give each child one or two lotto boards.
2. Place the fruit cards upside down in the middle of the table.
In turn, each child picks up a fruit card and tries to match it to a picture on his or her large lotto board.
The game ends when one of the children has filled up his lotto board.
5. A variation to the game can be played using sliced fruit as well as whole fruit.
Legumo
AGE 4 TO 5 YEARS
As with Frutty this game helps your child become familiar with more vegetables and develops language and visual perception.
What you need
48 small cards with pictures of vegetables, 24 with whole vegetables and 24 with sliced vegetables
The vegetables are artichoke, aubergine, beetroot, celery, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, pepper, cucumber, fennel, garlic, lettuce, leek, onion, paprika, potato, pumpkin, radish, rhubarb, savoy cabbage, beans, corn, tomato, squash.
How to play
For 2 to 4 players
Play as for Frutty (above), including the variation in step 5.
Listening Walk Tape
AGE 5 TO 6 YEARS
Apart from the obvious reason of making a walk in the country or park more interesting, you can help your child to become more aware of the world around him and teach him new things.
What you need
If you have a tape recorder you can make a recording and take it home for a follow up discussion, but if you don’t have one you can go on a ‘listening walk’ just the same.
How to play
1. On your walk you can either decide not to talk at all and just listen to everything you hear and try and recall it later, or you can stop regularly, sit down and wait and listen.
2. Then ask your child what sounds tie has heard and ask him to tell you what he thinks the noises might be. In woodland, or by the seashore, this kind of walk can be very rewarding and fun.
3. Later he can listen to the tape and tell you what he remembers about the walk.
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