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Daisy Lugo

Professor Denise Sidney

ECE 232

13 March 2020

Sensory Experience

Class average age (in months)

• The average age in the classroom is 36 months.

Primary Objective:

• The primary objective is for students to identify the textures of a variety of objects that

are rough, soft, bumpy, cold, or squishy by using their hands to feel and compare.

Secondary Objective(s)

• The secondary objective is for students to experience a variety of objects through their

sense of touch as well as object manipulation and hand eye coordination.

Experience description:

• In this activity the toddlers will use the playdough and the popsicle sticks with sensory

items attached to them. The toddlers will have the opportunity to squeeze the playdough

and feel it in their hands as well as use the popsicle sticks to feel the different sensory

items that are attached. The toddlers will also use the popsicle sticks with the sensory
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items and press them into the playdough to see the different shapes and designs that the

items leave printed in the playdough.

Materials

• Playdough

• Popsicle sticks

• Sensory items (ex. Pipe cleaners, wooden shapes, other items with textured surfaces)

Scaffolding (child’s prior knowledge to build on):

• The toddler’s prior knowledge before this activity is that they already were familiar with

the playdough and how it feels in their hands as well as how to manipulate it to form

different shapes and objects. The popsicles sticks with the sensory items were used to

build on the child’s knowledge of learning through their sense of touch. As a variety of

textures and items were introduced to them, they were able to feel and compare the

textures. As well as see how the different textures looked like when pressed into the

playdough.

Plan for carrying out experience (what caregiver will do):

• To begin the experience the playdough, and popsicle sticks will be laid out on the table in

this case there were three seats for the activity so there was one playdough set in front of

each seat. The popsicle sticks were placed in the middle of the table where it is easily

accessible to each toddler. The toddlers will then be made aware that there is an activity

on the table for them to participate in. Once three toddlers arrive to the table, they will
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have the opportunity to play with the playdough as well as with the popsicle sticks. The

toddlers will be shown that they can press the sensory items into the playdough to make a

shape. As well as they will be shown the different textures of the different sensory items

for example, “This pipe cleaner is soft or the fish has bumpy scales”. As the toddler are

exploring the activity the caregiver can engage with them by asking them questions about

the objects and what they are doing. As well as engage in a conversation with the toddler

as they describe what they are seeing or what they did with the popsicle sticks and the

playdough.

Outcome (was activity of interest to children – why/why not, Was outcome what was

expected, Did something happen that wasn’t expected, What might be changed/added to

make experience more interesting to children, or other):

• Overall, I would have to say that the outcome of the activity was successful as the

toddlers were engaged and participated in the activity for a long time. The activity was of

interest to the children because most of them knew about the playdough as most of them

have previously experienced it before in the classroom and were excited to play with it.

The toddlers showed a lot of interest in the popsicle sticks as it was something new to

them and they were intrigued with squishing the sensory item into the playdough then

pulling it up to see what was left behind. The outcome was mostly what I expected, the

toddlers were consistently engaged as they would try one popsicle stick but then they

would see another sensory item and they would reach for that one to see what it would do

in the playdough. Other toddlers were also just engaged with the playdough itself, for

example one toddler made different sizes of rolled playdough and was excited to show
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me what he had created. Another toddler was interested in rolling the dough into ball

shapes and seeing if they would bounce on the table. For the most part that was

something that I didn’t immediately expect at first. However, I realized that all toddlers

are different and the popsicles sticks didn’t attract their interest as much. Something that I

could have changed was that I noticed some of the toddlers were trying to mix the

different playdough colors that I set out. For example, one toddler mixed the green and

the pink playdough and was interested in seeing what would happen to the color. Another

thing that I would change would be to add the sensory item on both sides of the stick.

Because at first the toddlers were unaware of which side to press into the playdough and

most of them would place the stick on the opposite side only printing the stick into the

playdough.

Assessment

A. How do I determine the success of this activity?

• I determined the success of the activity by seeing if the toddlers understood the idea that

there was different textures to each of the sensory items as well as with the playdough. I

also determined the success by seeing if the toddlers were able to press the sensory items

into the playdough and recognize that an outline was left behind.

B. Did children change knowledge based on this experience? (Do I see this new

knowledge being displayed in other areas, when not being prompted by caregiver,

etc.)
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• Based in this experience I think that the toddlers did change knowledge because after the

activity I noticed that some of the toddlers became interested in the touch and feel books

in the classroom and outside which ties into the sensory activity of feeling different

textures. I also noticed that after the activity was over one specific toddler went over to a

light table in the classroom where there is a bag of orange slime and he became engaged

with pressing and rolling toy cars over the bag.

Next step (Were children not ready for this experience and activity/expectation be lowered,

Does experience need to be repeated for further exploration, Should another aspect of

experience be explored by children, or other – be specific):

• After creating and trying out this sensory activity I believe that the toddlers were ready

for this experience and enjoyed it because it included something that they were familiar

with which was the playdough. It also included something new for them which was the

sensory popsicle sticks. As far as the next step, I think that the experience can be repeated

for further exploration as I noticed the toddlers were exploring different ways to use both

the popsicle sticks and the playdough. For example, I noticed a toddler who was using the

opposite end of the popsicle stick to poke the playdough. I also noticed that some toddlers

were interested in mixing the colors as mentioned before. I think that it could be a form

of furthering the exploration because they would be using their hands to knead the

playdough to get it to change colors which can tie into the sensory part of the activity.
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