Inexpensive Classroom Sensory Integration Activities
Sensory integration training is essential for young children, as well as for those with disabilities. Multiple classroom activities are inexpensive to put together and still allow for important sensory integration lessons. Use Play-Doh, potato sacks, beach balls, sand and water, among other tools, to engage your students' senses.
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Play-Doh Recipes
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There are many varieties of Play-Doh, such as Gak, glop, funny foam and clay. Play-Doh is easy to make and allows students to play around with messy substances and feel textured as well as non-textured substances. One activity makes play clay from baking soda, cornstarch, warm water, food coloring and clear nail polish. Students mix baking soda and cornstarch into a pot, add water and stir until smooth over heat, and then boil and stir until there is a consistency similar to mashed potatoes. Supervise young students at all times around a hot stove. Students can then pour the substance onto a board to cool, and knead it once cooled. They can add food coloring to the clay and blend, or even paint the dry clay with paints and clear nail polish.
Heavy Work Activities
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Students who have issues with staying on task and yet are constantly in motion, such as a leg bouncer, may benefit from heavy work activities to occupy their energies. Heavy work activities such as potato sack races are ideal for a large group of kids. Your school might even have potato sacks on hand for relay races. Have kids get into potato sacks and hop across a carpeted classroom to a finish line or to another relay member. The winners get a prize or ribbon.
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Sand and Water
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To practice tactile input, sand and water activities use sandboxes, rice, water and other textured substances. One idea is to build a sand castle with water, sand, and sand castle tools like buckets, shovels and molding shapes like stars, animals and hearts. Scholastic has some additional ideas for sand and water, such as bringing a heavy-duty sealable sandwich bag filled with water and passing it around to students to fill. Another idea is to show a see-through plastic jug or container, large bag of sand and a bag of rocks. Students see the container fill with rocks, but then might be surprised to see how sand still can fit into the container, as well.
Movement Experiences
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Address issues with vestibular movement, such as proprioceptive disorders, with movement activities around the classroom. These might involve a playground, but you can also use indoor play equipment such as mini trampolines, riding toys and plastic seesaws. Use therapy balls in pairs, by having children throw to one another, catch and then throw back, or bounce the balls around indoor tracks. In a group, have students gather in a small circle, and then take a beach ball and start to roll it around within the circle. Students can push the ball with feet or hands to one another.
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References
- Palaestra: Activity Ideas for Students with Severe, Profound, Multiple, Disabilities
- Sensory Processing Disorder: Play Doh Recipes
- Sensory Processing Disorder: Heavy Work Activities
- Scholastic: Sand and Water Activities
- Sensory Processing Disorder: Beach Sand Toys
- Sensory Processing Disorder: Sensory Integration Activities
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Polka Dot/Getty Images
