Play in the EYFS Contents - Practical Pre-School Books

Introducing sensory play
understand snow by actually feeling it themselves. No
amount of stories and pictures will convey its essence or
replace the magic of encountering snow first hand.
Activity
Imagine describing snow, ice, or couscous to a visitor
from another world for whom words have limited
meaning. See how difficult it is to do, how many different
words you need to use and how far the visitor is from
understanding the sensation of touching these first-hand.
Tapping into this amazing connectivity, richness and
immediacy of thought is key to bringing a curriculum to
life. As we shall discover in chapter five, the senses can
help make learning relevant and real. The draft framework
of the revised EYFS highlights the need for explorative
play, active learning and critical thinking, recognising the
importance of “igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm
for learning, and for building their capacity to learn and to
thrive” (Department for Education, July 2011, p.5). Crowe
recognises that “without meaning words are useless ...
words are connectors ... children’s senses cry out to be used
first to provide the experiences that they will later need in
order to connect. Children must feel their world, listen to it,
see it, taste it, smell it, ‘know’ it...That takes time and a great
deal of silent investigation in peace and privacy” (Brenda
Crowe, 1983, p.39). We return to focussed investigations in
chapter three, as children explore unusual natural objects
with sand and water.
Different parts of the brain are associated with different
functions and are broadly responsible for processing
different sensory information from the eyes, ears etc. But
as we shall discover in chapter two this does not happen
in isolation. The brain integrates all of the different pieces
of information in order to make sense of the world.
Experiments have shown just how powerful the different
senses are in ultimately decoding experiences. For example,
Activity
Try the experiment opposite yourself by adding food
colour or flavourings to drinks to see if it changes other
people’s perceptions of taste. Always check allergies first.
Sensory Play 5