I’m so excited to share my Valentine’s Day sensory lesson with you today! If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen me talk about the different sensory lessons that we do in our classroom. My students love these sessions.. And since we’ve been doing these on a weekly basis, the progress with my students has been huge!
When I share some snippets into these lessons, I get a bunch of questions asking me more about the lesson, how it’s run, the layout etc. And so I thought I would share some of our Valentine’s Day sensory lesson here in this blog post today.
Lesson Overview
Here is a simplified overview of our sensory lesson..
1. Hello Song
‘Say Hello, Hello, Say Hello, Hello, Hello (insert name here and wave), Hello (another name and wave etc – go around the whole group).
2. Scented Hello
Spray a freshener smell (we put a little bit of scent into a water bottle and fill with water too) then spray it above the pupils so that they can smell the scent, then say hello.
3. Look in the Mirror
Hand out small mirrors to everyone and play a song about looking in the mirror or body. Encourage students to make faces into the mirrors, recognise different features on their face.
4. Use Your Nose
Put some smells into small pots, hand them around the students one by one to smell. We usually theme these – for Valentine’s Day we used a chocolate cake scented yankee candle (not lit), flower scent. We use a ‘nose’ song from youtube.
5. Use Your Mouth
Tasting session – encourage students to their own individual abilities, some may only smell, some may touch, some may lick, some may put it in their mouth for a certain amount of time then spit it out, some may eat it, just go with the students and help them to steadily progress. For Valentine’s Day we had heart shaped crackers, heart shaped sweets and slices of cheese cut into hearts. We use a ‘taste’ song from youtube.
6. Messy Play
Put something messy into a tray and hand it around the students. We use a ‘doodle’ song from youtube. For Valentine’s Day we mixed it up a bit and put water, red glitter and red hearts into the tray. Sometimes we use foam, dry sand, wet sand etc.
7. Wash and Dry Your Hands
The hands will be dirty after messy play so now it’s time to wash and dry your hands, we have a tune which we sing along to – “wash those dirty hands, wash those dirty hands, wash them, wash them, wash them, wash them, wash those dirty hands” for drying just replace wash for dry and dirty for clean. A tray of water is passed around the students with some fun hand soap, they wash their hands, then they dry them with a towel.
8. Hokey Kokey
For this we all go and stand in a clear area of the room, with the hokey pokey song playing. All the staff and students take part in this, it’s a great way to get students to recognise left/right and different parts of their bodies.
9. “I Feel Good!”
You know the song “i feel good, du du du du du du” that’s the one we have a bit of a sing and dance to. Staff blow bubbles for the students to dance with too – they love this bit!
10. Finale
We have a soft glistening song played in the background, a big, glittery star is passed around the children and they each get complimented for something great they did through the session – good sitting, good tasting, good smelling, good dancing etc.
More Sensory Lesson Plans
If you would love access to the PowerPoint that I use for these lessons, along with lesson plans to theme the lesson for different themes/holidays/events, then check out my VIP membership here. You’ll get access to hundreds of resources including lesson plans and a PowerPoint for this whole session to run weekly.
P.S. Have you signed up for a 3 day free trial of my VIP membership yet? If not, click here to do it now and go and get access to a huge range of resources, templates, crafts and more for free.
Nikki
More Valentine’s Activities
- 40+ Free Valentine’s Labels
- Free Dinosaur Valentine’s Card
- Who Stole Mrs Potato’s Heart? Interactive Crime Scene
