Five senses activity Focus children: toddlers aged between two and above Learning aims For toddlers to use their sensory capabilities to explore by playing with the items on the discovery table (Outcome 3.2) (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2009). For toddlers to develop their sense of agency by being open to new discoveries (Outcome 1.2) (DEEWR, 2009). Materials (Teachers need to ensure that the materials they provide have been checked, so that children are not exposed to allergy or choking hazards.) Picture book: My Five Senses (Aliki, 2015). A discovery table Sight: mini flashlight, science sensory bottles, kaleidoscope Smell: cloves, vanilla cloud dough, peppermint Taste: salt, lemon, honey Sound: …show more content…
When the toddles gain some understanding of the five senses, the teacher can set up the discovery table and encourage them to explore. Toddlers can play with any item on the discovery table freely. The teacher can ask some questions to toddlers to engage them in verbal communication. For instance, the teacher can say “You are using the kaleidoscope. Can you tell me what can you see?”. When toddlers have difficulty in exploring the items, the teacher can use non-verbal language and physical movements to provide prompts to toddlers or do modelling to show them how to play with it. Furthermore, the teacher can tell toddlers that we can use more than one sense to explore the …show more content…
Mark had prior experience playing with the Textile box. He was familiar with sponges as he explored with them by using his senses and play with them by multiple ways including squeezing, poking and throwing. According to the play theory, children can engage in researching, solving problems and exploration the through playing (Campbell et al., 2015). They can also learn some new skills and refine the skills they mastered (Campbell et al., 2015). This activity allows Mark to understand that sponge can soak up water, so he learned he can play with the sponge by absorbing the water and squeezing them