Five Days of Play – August 2021
Welcome to five days of play!
We are really excited to be bringing you five days of play!
Starting on Wednesday 25th of August we are running five days of play, where we give you five different play ideas that you can do at home with your little one! We’ll be posting the activities here and also sending them by email.
Do please make sure that you’ve registered for emails by visiting our registration form and
please add us to your safe senders list so that you receive the emails in your inbox – hello@thesensorysessions.com!
Introduction to five days of play!
Join our Facebook group
You are really welcome to join our pop up Facebook group for 5 days of play. In there we’ll be sharing information, answering questions and arranging a little play along session too
Safety first
Please keep your little one in eye sight and arms reach whenever you are playing, always supervise them and never leave them unattended with a toy.
Please be completely baby led, play when your little one is calm and alert and end the activity when your little one has had enough, watch for signals.
Day one - books and babies
Books are an amazing way to have a conversation with our babies that feels authentic and spending some one on one time with them. Lots of research indicates that babies who are exposed to books from a younger age have better communication skills, vocabularies and better listening skills so it is amazing for baby brains!
Today we are making reading a story an event! We are adding toys alongside the story to increase the sensory input that our baby’s have exposure to.
Choose a book that you are able to compliment some toys alongside, even if it is just a toy that matches the colour of the cover! Choose 4-5 toys, we are aiming to increase our little one’s concentration span so you don’t need to include all of the toys, just a few would be amazing. Think about the textures you are adding and try to increase the textures that they have exposure to during your session, bonus points if your book includes textures!
Talk your little one through what they are looking at, try and add in a song or some music that matches the theme so you can shake a toy during your play session too. A simple 8 – 10 minute play session done in this way has so many benefits for baby brains and sensory development.
Your baby is developing so many skills including –their sense of touch and their brains ability to process textures, they are working on their visual development and controlling those tiny muscles in the back of their eyes, they are working on their co-ordination, their balance, using both sides of their body, their motor planning skills, their ability to screen input as they listen to your voice, increasing their attention span, their perception and spatial skills, adjusting their body and they are listening to your voice so using lots of their auditory processing skills too.
Do it at a time that your little one is calm and alert and please don’t be concerned if they only manage a page or two the first time you to it, try again the next day, repetition is amazing for baby brain development! Have lots of fun reading to your little one.<We’ve got a little play pack for you on reading to your baby and suggestions on how to extend your play sessions which you are welcome to download from our website too.
Click the image below to open the play pack
Day two - tracking skills
Today we are going to be tracking visually and tracking some noises too. Lorna explains all in the video and we have a contrast card printable for you too!
Click the image below to download your visual development printable with your contrast cards.
Day three - adding textures to play
Today we are putting together a texture basket, box, bag and popping in 5 toys that feel and touch different. Bonus points if your little one would need to hold them differently.
Our photos are of texture tubs that we’ve created for lots of babies to use at once, please pop your five items in a much smaller area! Try not to be tempted to add in lots of toys, we really want our little ones to focus on a small selection of toys helping them practice skills, extend play and build up concentration.
For our youngest babies in lying or tummy time we are letting them touch each toy. Popping them in side lying naturally brings their hands together enabling both hands to engage with the toy.
For our sitters we are looking to put the toys in front of them and encouraging them to engage with the toys using both hands to bring them out of the box and do lots of holding and touching.
For our movers it is all about getting them moving alongside engaging with the textures.
Each area of their brain is used too as they use their frontal lobe for their motor functions, their parietal lobe for their touch and sensory input, occipital lobe for their vision, cerebellum for their co-ordination and temporal for their memory & auditory processing.
So much benefit from one little activity, once you are finished, put them back in their bag, box or basket and repeat it over the coming days, repetition is amazing for baby brain development!
Day four - single colour play
Single colour play is amazing for our babies, great for helping their visual development as they see the whole toy in the same focus rather than parts of it pin sharp. It is amazing for hand to eye co-ordination, their sense of touch if we include different textures, motor planning, their posture and working two sides of their body together.
Each area of their brain is used too as they use their frontal lobe for their motor functions, their parietal lobe for their touch and sensory input, occipital lobe for their vision, cerebellum for their co-ordination and temporal for their memory & auditory processing.
So much benefit from one little activity, repeat it often!
You will need
– two texture fabrics for lying out on your playspace, give them lots of opportunities to feel and touch a few different textures at the same time
– four or five toys of similar colours
Lie your toys out in your playspace in an arc and let your little ones engage with them.
For our tiny babies take the opportunity to show them the toy, let them feel and touch and do some toy rotation.
For our tummy timers, pop the toys around them and totally distract them to give them lots of opportunities to feel and touch and build up their tummy time.
For our sitters pop the toys around them in an arc and encourage them to reach and grab for them helping their balance, co-ordination and motor control, please keep them safe while they are stretching forward and doing lots of work on their dynamic balance.
For our little ones who are on the move, encourage rolling, stretching and crawling to the toys by moving them further away.
Day five - animal themed play spaces and activities
Today is all about animals and we have some zoo themed play spaces and activities for you to try too!
Animals is a great theme to end our week of play ideas as we can incorporate lots of our activities from this week with textures, some contrast play, tracking, some single colour toys and a book.
Lots of animal plush toys are naturally high contrast so they make a great starting point, accompany with a book, a single colour toy and something you can do some tracking with.
Set out a time when your little one is calm and alert, not tired or unsettled. We’ve put together a little play pattern to get you started and have a play list for you too. Do each activity for a couple of minutes (the length of a nursery rhyme) and give your little one a break between each activity to ensure that they are not overstimulated.
you will need
– animal plush toy
– music instrument
– single colour toy
– book
1. start with introducing them to the animal plush toy for a couple of minutes, explain to them what they are having a look at, let them feel and touch and do some tracking with the toy.
2. tracking activity with your single coloured toy, take your single colour toy and do your tracking activities from day two
3. introduce your music toy and do your noisy tracking activities, helping your little one work out where the noise is coming from, feel and touch the toy and do some shaking with your support. Talk your little one through what they are listening to and at the end of the track let them compare the texture of the music toy to their animal plush toy
4. change your little one’s position to help with their motor skills and do some tummy time with your little one. Introduce your book and talk your little one through not just the story but the pictures on the page too. For our little ones who are competently crawling, this is a great opportunity to do an activity in standing with your little one.
5. calming cuddle and rest time, please don’t be tempted to keep going, give your little one a rest and a chance to process everything they have learnt.
Be really baby led, you can split these activities up if your little one is giving you indications that they are tired or hungry.
Do let us know if you need any guidance on our play pattern and safety first always – please keep your little one in eye sight and arms reach at all times and never leave them unsupervised with a toy.
Zoo themed playlist – click for playlist
Bonus - putting together a play session
Will be updated on Friday!
Sensory classes and training!