- 5 - 15 mins
- Fine motor, sensory awareness, language development
- Messy!
- Easy
- Requires preparation
Sensory Jelly is a wonderfully tasty sensory experience. Easy to prepare and safe for little people to explore through their senses. Let your child explore naturally- there’s no right or wrong way for this experience, let them feel, smell and perhaps even taste the jelly. The activity is versatile, you can add any play objects of interest to make it appealing for your little one and then watch as your child engages happily in this magically messy fun area of play! Affordable and fun for most ages that can tolerate icky-stickiness!
What you will need
- Jelly
- Bowl
- Spoon
- Baking tray
- Water
- Figurines of your choice
Activity steps
Setup
- Make jelly as per instructions on the packet but leave out the final step- don’t put it in the fridge.
- Pour ready made jelly into your tray and add your figurines into the jelly.
- Put your tray of jelly into the fridge and wait for it to set as per jelly directions.
- Once set, offer the tray to your child, and allow them to dig and hunt around for the figurines, engaging in a wonderfully tasty sensory experience. Please note: This does get messy and might be best outside!
Things you can ask your child:
- What does it feel like?
- Does it feel… icky, sticky, ooey, gooey, nice?
- What does it smell like?
- What does it look like?
- What does it taste like?
- Can you rescue the figurines from the jelly?
Learning Outcomes
- Sensory- Young children make meaning and learn through their senses. The children will engage with their sense of touch as they explore the jelly’s texture; they will be able to use sense of sight to see what it looks like, their sense of smell to discover what does it smell like and perhaps even engage their sense of taste too!
- Fine motor- Children will build up their fine motor skills whilst manipulating the jelly and hunting around to rescue the play figurines.
- Language- Sensory play offers many opportunities to build upon a child’s vocabulary. By asking open ended questions and offering new words children are able to learn lots of descriptive words about what the jelly, looks likes, feels likes, smells and tastes like.
Reference sites
We would like to acknowledge these amazing sites that have inspired us to create this activity. Thank you!