A collage stimulates children's touch and is a great way to use old craft supplies. Collect a large bucket of different items. Pipe cleaners, fuzzy balls, sandpaper scraps, buttons or feathers and other items can all be utilized. Other textures such as paint or glitter can also be added.
Place different strong-smelling items in small plastic jars. Place the items in a circle and let each child smell them. Ask the children if they can associate the smells with other things they know. Possible smells include vanilla flavoring, cinnamon, citrus fruits, garlic or cut grass. Children may associate cinnamon with Thanksgiving or cut grass with playing outside.
Use cream cheese Play-Doh to explore cross sensing taste and touch. Combine a softened package of cream cheese, one-half cup of dry milk and one tablespoon of honey in a large bowl. Let the children take turns mixing the bowl. When the mixture is combined, each child can use a small amount to create a sculpture on a cracker. Decorate the sculpture with raisins or dried fruit and eat.
Set up a large tub; inside, place a bucket of water and small jars of primary color paints and empty styrofoam egg cartons. Let the children take turns mixing primary colors in the egg cartons to produce secondary colors. This is a great color and visual activity. Before mixing, ask the children to guess what primary color combinations will produce what secondary colors.