During one of our visits to the farm, children had a chance to stimulate their senses at 🌽 a corn-kingdom.
So, we were inspired to reproduce a corn sensory play at home, but on a smaller scale. I also added a language twist by mixing in alphabet letter-buttons and offering Adrian a picker-plucker and tongs to retrieve the letters, spell his name and sort the letters by color.
What you will need:
- a tray (buy here),
- filler (we are using 🌽 dried corn); you can also use rice, dried legumes, dried pasta, etc;
- Alphabet letter -buttons (found at a local craft store),
- a picker- plucker (buy here),
- tongs (buy here),
- tractor toys; Adrian also added PlanToys construction set (buy here).
Sensory play is extremely important for children since manipulation of different textures and fillers triggers sensory stimulation, which strengthens neuron-connectivity and spurs neuroplasticity (the production of new connections between neurons and new neurons themselves), which in turn increases brain's agility. Also, the cleanup is minimal since everything is contained in a tray, tub, tin, box, or any other container.
Using this picker- plucker with just one hand requires finger strength and precision.
Letters kept "escaping" but Adrian was determined to get them all.
Plucking Alphabet letters.
Tonging letters is another great fine-motor exercise.
Adrian had to pluck and tong all the letters from the corn.
After all the letters were retrieved, Adrian spelled his name and sorted letters by color.
As a result of this sensory invitation to play:
- Adrian stimulated tactile sense of touch by feeling the texture of the corn;
- he also exercised fine-motor skills by incorporating practical life activity such as plucking (see the post here) and tonging the letters (more on tonging here);
- the visual sense of sight was also stimulated through a Language work of having to find and spell his name;
- lastly, the sensorial activity of color sorting and matching added another stimulus,
- and most importantly, it was fun since Adrian loves the farm and tractors!
This sensorial invitation to play was a true learning through play experience!
For more on Sensorial bins, read here a post "Valentine's inspired Love ❤️️ Sensory Bin", and here our "Christmas-inspired Shredded Paper Sensory Bin with a Math twist."
And a perfect book to read during the sensorial exploration of our "corn kingdom" is "Tractors" book (buy here ).
Adrian has been fascinated with the farm and 🚜 tractors! This book, with its transparent overlay pages, bright illustrations, and captivating simple text demonstrates just why these powerful machines continue to create such an excitement!
A sneak peek into the tractor's cabin.
Explore these amazing machines in action: plowing, sowing, harvesting and more!
Bright and inviting illustrations about harvesting inspire small world play. 
What is your favorite farm-related book?
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