In the classrooms at Living Montessori, children often enjoy the sensorial area, where they explore their five senses. Set up this multi-sensory activity for your child or allow them to take part in the set-up process, to help develop their sensory perception!

Benefits:

Develops sensory perception, fine motor skills, enhances memory, calms, and develops olfactory (smelling) sense. Multi-sensory (smell and touch) activities also help to stimulate the brain, allowing each sensory system to become more developed and higher functioning.

Materials:

Homemade or unscented playdough (will be listed in instructions), essential oils (I used Orange, Lavender, and Vanilla but it is a bonus if you can use common scents found in the Winter like peppermint, rosemary, and cinnamon!), paper and printer (or some very handy drawing skills) to show a picture that represents the smell.

Instructions:

1. Roll out balls of unscented or homemade playdough (Look at the Note after the instructions to find a recipe for a 5-minute homemade playdough recipe).
2. Add a few drops of one essential oil scent to one or a few balls of playdough. Continue to add one scent to each new playdough ball.
3. Print out photos of what the smell represents ex. a photo of an orange for orange smell. If you do not have access to a printer, try drawing a picture or turn it into a guessing game, where your child simply states what they smell.
4. Set out the now, scented playdough balls and have the pictures laid out. Allow your child to sniff and match as they play with their dough!

Note:

Homemade Playdough Recipe (I used this one from Handmade Farmhouse)
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup of water
2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
½ cup of salt
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Food coloring (Optional)

Pour all ingredients into a pot, mix, then turn heat to medium. Continuously stir until the ingredients form a playdough consistency, remove from heat, and begin to knead the dough! (Source: Handmade Farmhouse, 5-Minute Homemade Playdough, 2020)

The process of making playdough can seem tricky. When making playdough, sometimes the measurements do not always work out the way we want. If the playdough is too runny, add more flour. If it is too crumbly, add more water. When the activity is over, place the playdough into sealed tight containers or zip lock bags to keep them soft!

Age/Difficulty Variations:

• For younger children (Ages infant-3 years), try using only a few scents 2-3 maximum and only 3 balls of playdough! Try matching the color to the scent (orange scent to an orange color playdough ball).
• For older children (Ages 4-Elementary), try including more scents, more playdough balls, or increase the difficulty level by using a color that does not match the scent (ex. orange scent to a green color playdough ball).

Let us know if you try this activity! Tag us in pictures on Instagram and Facebook. We hope you enjoyed our day 10 activity out of the 15 Days of Winter Break Activities series!
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