Resource

Sensory Areas: Holiday on the Farm

This activity helps children who are blind or visually impaired to develop sensory skills across the curriculum with these ideas for hands-on learning

By Gwyn McCormack

Many skills can be taught through theme-based learning. These multi-sensory activities focus on visiting a farm, where all of the senses can be engaged to help students with visual impairments to develop basic concepts. Since many of these concepts are difficult for a child who is blind to grasp without direct experience, a trip to a real farm is an ideal way to help to deepen their understanding of tractors, various farm animals, and other things that many children do not encounter in their daily lives.   Visits to a farm are a perfect way to spend the summer holidays!

Tactile

  • Seaside holiday – as for journeys
  • Holiday on a farm
  • Model of Farm, soft animal toys, feel fur, feel feathers, leather
  • Make collages of animals using textures
  • Make balloon animal shapes
  • Make animal shaped biscuits
  • Play with toy tractor
  • Feel straw, grass
  • Feel texture of cheese – grated, feel texture of cream (squirty cream)
  • Make milk shake, custard
  • Make mud pies, or consistency similar to mud pie, e.g. playdoh, plasticine or cornflour mixed with water, but quite thick consistency
  • Use cutters to make shapes in playdoh

Visual

(some of these ideas would be used in the tactile section also)

  • Make big sheep shape, add balls of cotton wool to make fluffy sheep. 
  • Make large farmhouse and add 2D bricks made in different textures, children to each stick a brick to the house. 
cotton ball sheep

Sound

  • Listen to animal noises, tractor noise
different types of dairy
 

Taste

  • Taste cheese,  milk, cream, butter, eggs (cooked)
 

Smell

  • Smell biscuits, smell animal foods, smell straw,
  • Milk – milk shake, butter, cream, cheese
  • Smell grass. 
the naughty sheep book cover

Literacy

  • Usborne book – The Naughty Sheep, The Runaway Tractor. 
  • Sing ‘Old Macdonald had a farm…..’
sensory areas: holiday on the farm collage

There are more shared ideas at www.positiveeye.co.uk