Outdoor Sensory Play
What makes outdoor sensory play so special for your young Munchkins is that it doesn’t require special bins, tables, or tools to be fun and engaging. It’s accessible to all, no matter where you live, or what season it is. Engaging outdoors sensory play can happen at a park, in a backyard, along a nature trail, on a beach or in a puddle. It can happen all year round!
A quick word about sensory play safety outdoors: There are many wonderful sensory play opportunities outdoors and it’s important to give young children the freedom to play and explore and even take risks. However, it’s also important to scan your environment for hazardous items or situations that cause serious harm to your Munchkin. If you spot something that can cause serious harm take action by removing the danger or removing your child from the danger.
This activity develops dynamic balance, coordination, and rhythm required for activities at older ages such as running, skipping, hopping, and dancing.
Here’s a list of some outdoor sensory play activities:
Walk barefoot on grass: Walking, skipping, and running barefoot on grass, sand, mud, or pebbles is a unique sensory experience that helps develop a child’s sense of touch as well as their balance and movement. Safety tip: Watch out for honeybees if there’s flowering clover in the grass. Also watch out for glass or other sharp objects.
Roll down a grassy slope: Rolling down a grass hill is a great way for developing your Munchkin’s balance and movement. It also stimulates their sense of smell and touch. Safety tip: Watch out for glass or other sharp objects.
Play with water: Water play is a classic sensory activity. Splashing, stomping, scooping, pouring, and funneling engages all the senses. Water play outside can be fun and messy and can happen around natural bodies of water like lakes, creeks, ponds, and puddles and also in sprinklers, pools, buckets, or water tables. Safety tip: Always supervise ALL children near water.
Make mud pies: Some kids don’t like exploring sticky, squishing, slimy sensations but most can be convinced with activities like making mud pies and mud cakes. Quick tip: If you have a garden, set up a simple mud kitchen for mud play.
Dig for worms: What’s under the soil? Digging in the dirt and holding slimy/wiggly worms develops a child’s sense of touch, sight, movement, and balance. Quick tip: Worms come out after rainfalls and can be found along sideways and roads. This is a great option for holding a worm if you don’t have access to dirt for digging in.
Make a sensory bin from nature items: Invite your young Munchkin to make their own sensory bin by collecting things like shells, pinecones, rocks, sticks, and leaves to bring indoors. Look for items with different shapes and textures. Place the items in a bin or basket for your child to explore. This activity will help your child develop their sense of touch and sight.
Jump into a pile of leaves: Raking, collecting, tossing, and jumping in piles of leaves is a classic sensory play activity that engages all the senses. Quick tip: Young children enjoy imitating their caregivers. If you can find a child-sized rake, they’re likely to help you make a big leaf pile but keep an eye out for, hard objects, glass or other sharp objects.
Dig in sand: Sand can be fine or coarse, dry or wet. It’s great for shoveling, scooping, dumping, moving, shaping, and sculpting, which develop a child’s sense of touch, sight, balance, and movement. You can find it on beaches, in parks or backyards (a sand box). Quick tip: Make a mini sandbox outside using a shallow bin and bag of sand.
Play with sticks: A stick can be so many things: a wand, a sword, a shovel, or even a fishing pole. Picking up, gathering, and playing with sticks engages the imagination and the senses. Quick tip: Challenge your young child to find different types of sticks (short, long, skinny, wide, lumpy, smooth etc.)
Go on a noise scavenger hunt: To help kids develop your Munchkins sense of hearing, make a game of trying to identify sounds outside: wind blowing, leaves rustling, birds chirping, squirrel chattering, airplane flying, cars honking. How many sounds can you hear?
Finger paint with mud: Finger painting with mud engages multiple senses and it’s fun too. Encourage your child to paint things like rocks, driveway, a wood board, or newspaper.
Spin in circles: Young children love to spin! Why? It’s because it helps develop their balance and movement senses. Spinning can take place in gardens and parks, and most playgrounds have spinning equipment.
Play in the rain: Get your wellies on! Rainy-day play is a multi-sensory experience. Rain has unique smells, sights, sounds, and touches. It also makes the ground more slippery and creates puddles to explore and play in. Quick tip: Young children enjoy playing in the rain especially when properly dressed for the weather in rain gear.
Search for smells: Developing your Munchki’n’s sense of smell also develops their sense of taste and their vocabulary. No matter what the season there are plenty of unique smells outdoors. Encourage your child to smell flowers, leaves, evergreen needles, grass, mud, pinecones, and rocks.
So Skip around your garden, run along a beach or jump through a park. Most importantly, have fun together!
