Sensory Play

Sensory play is an activity that Kukai Kindergarten uses to stimulate student’s sense of touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing. Stimulating the senses helps students develop thinking, language, social-emotional, and physical skills.

Sensory play also relates to the Brain-based learning approach. Brain-based learning refers to teaching methods that are based on scientific research about how the brain learns. Brain cells develop and work best when they are stimulated by sensations and sensory stimulation is essential for building nerve connections in the brain’s pathways. Repeated sensory stimulation will make brain cells or neurons wire and form a strong biological foundation.

According to studies and research on brain development, children and even adults learn best when they are engaged in their senses. Our memories are often associated with our senses such as a certain smell or a childhood song. When your nostrils and eardrums are stimulated with those familiar smells or sounds, your brain triggers a memory.

Kukai Kindergarten uses Sensory activities according to the theme that the students are studying such as Water, Animals Around Us and Sound. Sensory play opens the door for play and experimental learning, allowing kids to explore and experience the world and have fun. Though sensory play, students investigate and naturally use scientific processes while they play, create and discover new sensations. When students are allowed to use multiple senses to accomplish a task, they will learn more from the experience and retain more information.

Why Sensory Play is Beneficial:

1. Sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain’s pathways.
2. Sensory play supports language development by encouraging students to describe the sensations that they are feeling such as hard, soft, cold and wet.
3. It supports cognitive growth, fine and gross motor skills coordination such as scooping, clipping, clamping and gripping using tools.
4. It naturally enhances problem solving skills.
5. Sensory play supports social interaction.
6. Sensory play helps develop and enhance memory.
7. Sensory play helps develop trust and understanding of certain texture and senses.
8. Students become more creative simply by playing.