We dove into a fun sensory tub experience this morning that consisted of a tub full of shaving cream and frozen cubes of paint. We took the tub outside, so as the cubes melted and the kids swirled them around, they colored the shaving cream. There were a lot of opportunities for exploration in this activity, and it was fun to hear the kids talk about how it felt (squishy, soft, cold when they found a paint cube), and how it looked, what colors they were finding, and so on.
If you are interested in learning more about why we do sensory activities (besides just FUN!) there are a couple of great articles explaining the benefits of sensory activities for children by Amanda Morgan of NotJustCute, and Angie Dorrell of Early Childhood News. Basically, children are designed to receive and process information from all around them by using all of their senses. From before they can verbalize any of their thoughts, they are gathering information at an amazing pace by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting things around them. So, the more opportunities we give children to experience new sensory information, the more opportunities they have to learn. In this way, sensory play promotes cognitive development, and also aides in things like language development (as we talk about what they are experiencing), social and emotional development, physical development, and creative development.
We had a lot of fun getting messy and we were learning a lot, too! :)
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