Learning with our senses

7/25/2025

"We learn best when we use several different senses--hearing, seeing, and, perhaps especially, being able to feel with our hands."
--Barbara Oakley

Children use their senses to explore and try to make sense of the world around them. They do this by touching, tasting, smelling, seeing, moving and hearing.

We love to provide opportunities for children to actively use their senses as they explore their world. ‘Sensory play’ is crucial to brain development – it helps to build nerve connections in the brain’s pathways.

This leads to a child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks and supports cognitive growth, language development, gross motor skills, social interaction and problem solving skills.

Mystery Bag!

We reached into a bag of soil for treasures and tried to guess what the items were before revealing them.

Then we made nature impressions into homemade salt dough scented with clove and cinnamon oil!

Rose Garden

We created rose stamps from the bottom part of a bunch of celery while being immersed in the cooling and uplifting effects of a rose water spritz!

Turns out the tops of celery make great paintbrushes!

Edible Paints

Made with beets, turmeric, and chocolate

Sculpting, Color Mixing, and Printing with Soap Foam!

Gardening and Cooking with Our Senses

Growing food and medicine in our garden and then preparing it together is an incredible sensory experience!

We love to incorporate learning math skills like fractions and multiplication into cooking class.

The freshness of our own mint, parsley, and edible monarda flowers with cucumbers and tomatoes the kids helped plant, then dressed with simple olive oil and Ume plum vinegar, all put together with their loving hands! Yum!

Strawberry Watermelon Salad

Using a strawberry huller and slicer takes a lot of focus and hand strength!

Watermelon is a great first food to practice knife skills with

Using tongs encourages the development of hand strength, dexterity, and control, which are essential for tasks like writing, drawing, and using scissors. Tong activities can enhance concentration, problem-solving skills, and even early math concepts like one-to-one correspondence.

Garnishing with fresh mint from the garden for contrast and beauty.

More Cooking!

Washing dishes, it's more fun when we do it together!

Tape Resist Art + Literacy

Toddlers can enjoy making shapes while the older kids work on creating their name!

Using natural beeswax crayons with their lovely scent of honey and rich colors enriches the sensory experience of this project!

How do plants drink water and receive nutrients?
What's your hypothesis?

This celery and food coloring experiment is a simple yet powerful hands-on activity that offers a variety of learning benefits:

Understanding capillary action and plant biology

Visualizing water transport

Learning that plants have tiny tubes that act like straws, drawing water up the stalk

Developing scientific skills like creating a hypothesis, observation skills, experimentation and collecting data

We counted out drops and combined colors to make new colors

After 2 hours in the water and food coloring we could see the xylem (tiny tubes) carrying the water up the celery. This is how our capillaries in our body work too! We are related to plants!!

After 24 hours the tops of the celery were drenched in color!

The Sensuous Beauty of Flowers

Maria Montessori stated that ”When you help a child understand it’s sensory and aesthetic sensibilities you prepare their moral awareness!"

We love the wonderful Montessori “Flower Arranging Activity “. It teaches children how to create beauty in their space, while also developing fine motor skills , independence, and concentration.

Care of Environment activities are a type of practical life activity that encourage children to care for their classrooms, homes and outdoors.

Flower Collage

Trust + Sand Art

Working first with the glue, kids have to exercise awareness of where and how they've made marks on the page in their creating. This helps the little ones with object permanence, and supports memory and spatial awareness.