Sensory Activity with Fruit!

Age-appropriate: 3 – 4 years (BBK – Pre-school group)
Early Years Foundation Stage: Understanding the world and expressive arts and design
Skills trained: cognitive development, being imaginative, working memory

We like to tell you something about sensory activities, with fruits! Sensory activities are a great way for kids to use their senses, to find out what they like and don’t like, and to get the stimulation they need. All children have developing senses that need regular stimulation. And since it’s the beginning of spring, the Big Ben Kids Pre-school group did a fruit-themed sensory activity.

In the Pre-school group we talked about fruits, we started by naming all the fruit that was on the table. We viewed pictures, tasted all the fruits, compared the fruits in size and tested how they behave under the pressure of the hammer. This sensory craft helped children understand more about the texture of different fruits.

Please find below some more ideas for sensory activities that can be done with fruit:

Sight

1. Take fruits (berries, grapes, oranges, plums…) of different colors and make a rainbow! Get your child to sort the fruits by color.
2. Paint with fruit purees. Pop fruits like cherries, blueberries, kiwis, bananas… in the blender, and use them as paint ! It’s great for little ones too because even if they get some in their mouth it’s just fruit.
3. Do you know Arcimboldo? He was an Italian painter who painted very intricate portraits using fruits and vegetables. Show your kid some of his works and try to make your own: make a face with fruit
4. Put a few small fruits in a glass or a bottle of sparkling water. Watch as they go up and down on their own!

Touch

1. With their eyes closed, hand your child different fruits and have them guess what they are just by touching them
2. Mash up a banana, using a fork, a big spoon or little hands. You can make banana bread with it afterwards, or an easy banana ice-cream by putting it in the freezer.

Taste

1. Have a blind tasting game: let your child guess what fruit it is just by tasting it.
2. Try to mix different fruits together in your mouth. What goes well together ? What is not good at all?