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We’re trucking along on day four of 5 Days of Multi-Sensory Activities for Teaching Reading! You may also be interested in the topics of the other bloggers at iHomeschool Network. If you’re just joining me, you may have missed the first three days. We covered the sense of touch, sound, and sight on days 1, 2, and 3. Please click HERE or on the image above to view those posts. Today, we’re combining a bit and posting Tasty and “Smelly” Activities together.
20+ Tasty and “Smelly” Activities
1. Learn your name {or sight words} with chocolate pudding {Learn to Play At Home}
2. Eat your sight words {School Time Snippets}
3. Our grocery store has started carrying cheese crackers with Scrabble letters on them. We use them to spell names, sight words, and phonics patterns. Then we eat them!
4. Learning the Alphabet Sensory Style {Growing a Jeweled Rose}
5. Spell words with pretzels. The bigger ones are easier to break apart and they’re great because they have curvy and straight parts; perfect for building any letter!
6. We like to use Cheez Whiz to spell words on crackers. It is required that the words are read {or letters identified} before they are eaten. You can also have your child spell various words, one letter on each cracker. I will say that ALuv {age 7.5} is the only one who can handle this activity without assistance, but the younger ones still enjoy it!
7. When reading about a particular subject, find food that goes along with theme and eat it together {Crystal’s Tiny Treasures}
8. Using scented candles to feel and smell words. Make sure that mama {or dad} is the only one preparing this activity with the lit candles! {Laughing Kids Learn}
9. Find food that starts with particular letters of the alphabet you’re working. For example: p is for pineapple, pumpkins, pepperoni pizza, or pancakes
10. Use smelly markers {Many Little Blessings}
11. Spell words with scented playdough {Growing a Jeweled Rose}
12. Add scented bubble bath to the bubble bath letter pit {Bath Activities for Kids}
13. Write words in whip cream or chocolate pudding- Smear some on a cookie sheet and spell away. Be sure to lick fingers afterwards!
14. Use glue to make letters or create words and sprinkle on dry jello mix for a yummy smell.
15. Smash your sight words. I LOVE this one as it incorporates all of the senses, especially if you put pudding or whip cream under the sight words! The words could be replaced with word family words or words that share a common pattern. The pumpkins can also be traded out for other themes. So many adaptations! {School Time Snippets}
16. Candy Comprehension- This one works particularly well for those kids who struggle with thinking about what they’re reading. Ask them to read a section of text, then suck on a chocolate candy {or another kind of candy that melts quickly}. While the candy is melting, they should take that time to think about what they just read before moving on to read more.
17. Make a scratch and sniff book with stickers- This terrific idea came from a FB reader. She says, “I let them pick a few colors of construction paper that I cut down into smaller pieces. I staple them together to make a spine, but if you don’t like staples with kids, you can poke some holes and lace the pages together with yarn or ribbon (and you may want to use something a little sturdier like cardstock that can withstand the tugging at the strings when pages are turned). I ordered a unit of scratch-n-sniff stickers from a website called www.everythingsmells.com.”
18. Get outside! Reading {and writing} outside uses so many of our senses!
19. Go on a field trip. Smell the goats. Taste the honey from the hive. Field trips have an added bonus: They make learning tangible, which increases reading comprehension because it builds prior knowledge.
20. Cooking together incorporates ALL of the senses and is great for integrating reading. We did a writing/reading lesson this year using popcorn and the five senses.
21. Planning learning around units and themes helps to integrate all kinds of learning about the same topic. This creates a natural atmosphere for multi-sensory learning.
What other tasty and “smelly” activities have you used to teach your child to read? I’d love to hear them!
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~Becky
So creative!!
I’ve used drink-mix colored rice to practice letters with my little one in a shallow box. We had fun making the smelly, colorful rice as well as playing in the rice (letters as well as other sensory play). We’ve also used shaving cream for letter practice. You get scent, if not taste and you can use either a tray or you can play in the bath. I like the idea of the bath wall, because you get more gross-motor involvement to incorporate a large kinesthetic memory of the letter shapes for writing on the vertical surface instead of the small motor movements of horizontal writing. Getting large is great for sensorimotor learning.
Amazing ideas to indulge kids in such creative activities.