Our children are natural explorers from the time they are born, with most “explored” items ending up in their hands and mouths. Toddlers and young children are forever being admonished “Don’t touch that!”, yet it is primarily by touch, along with taste, smell, hearing, and seeing, that our very young children learn about their world.

        So what can you provide at home to encourage “touching,” learning opportunities? Besides the old standbys, such as blocks (children learn from the texture of the blocks and learn from the activity of stacking them up), play dough (they use their hands to feel the consistency as they shape it), and a basin full of bubbles (let them pretend to wash plastic dishes—they will feel the bubbles on their hands and maybe even their nose!), there are many other imaginative and creative ways to allow children to learn by using their sense of touch.

1. “Touching” Boxes

Collect some shoe boxes of various sizes, with lids.

Cut out a child-sized hand-hole in each shoe box lid. Fill the box with various touchable items, such as:

• something soft (fake fur fabric, velvet, or a very soft stuffed animal)
• something rough (sandpaper, wood bark, pine cones)
• something squishy (a zip-lock bag filled with corn syrup is a good choice)
• something smooth (glazed tile, smooth stone, satin)
• something crumbly (crushed cereal, rice, or uncooked noodles)
• something cold (zip-lock bags filled with ice shavings or snow)

        After filling each box, fasten the shoe box lid on securely. Tell the children: “Today we are going to touch a lot of different things. What do your hands and fingers tell you about each of these things? Can you guess what it is just by feeling it?” Encourage verbal expression, descriptive words, comparison, and contrast of textures, and together, talk about the different ways things feel. Just for fun, ask each child to guess what the “mystery item” is and write down the answers to compare later when the boxes are opened!

2. Hands, Fingers, Feet, and Toes

        What preschool child hasn’t done finger painting? How about finger painting with pudding?! Children can smell the pudding, touch the pudding, and even eat the pudding! And then there is...foot painting. Warning: this is a very messy activity, but the sensory learning that goes on when children paint their foot, feel the paint going in between their toes, and then make a footprint (on a large roll of paper that has been firmly taped to the floor), makes it worth the cleanup. It is a novel way to experience painting by using their sense of touch in a unique way. You can also add things to the paint to enhance the tactile learning: sand, coffee grounds, corn meal, Epsom salt, oatmeal, etc. Ask the children to describe how the paint mixed with oatmeal feels on their feet.

3. Make a Texture Book

        Collect a variety of different-textured materials such as aluminum foil, sandpaper, dried leaves, scraps of different fabrics, cotton balls, and pine cones. You’ll also need large sheets of construction paper, crayons, scissors, glue, or a stapler.

        With a small group of children, have each child feel the objects and talk about what they notice. (You can even use the items from the Touching Boxes for this activity).

        As the children begin to feel and find items that are similar in texture, help them group or pile the like-textured items together. Ask: “How is this one the same as the others in this pile?” The children can mix the items up and sort them all over again. When the items are piled into groups of like textures, use these to make a page of the Texture Book by making a collage of “soft” items, for example. When the book is completed, look at the pages together and ask the children to give you descriptive words and phrases that describe each page and texture.

        Yes, children learn volumes from using their sense of touch. Instead of hearing “Don’t touch that!” they will hear “Please touch this!” Incorporate sensory play ideas into your curriculum and lesson plans. Don’t be afraid to experiment, to be creative and imaginative in your use of “touching” materials, for you will then be helping your preschooler to be “in touch” with learning!

Laura Larissa Scott is a Treasure Valley mother of three and a freelance writer.