We’re thrilled to have some more amazing planning ideas from Victoria in Rhyming Multisensory Stories. Check out her Mash store here!
Sensory ideas, inspiration, and teaching activities to celebrate the month of October. Includes: Black History Month, Colombus Day, Diwali, Halloween, Pablo Picasso, World Space Week, Trafalgar Day and more!
Dates at a Glance
- Oct 1st- 31st Black History Month
- Oct 4th-10th World Space Week
- Oct 6th National Badger Day Oct 7th Lost in the Dark Peal
- Oct 10th World Porridge Day
- Oct 10th-16th National Braille Week
- Oct 10th Colombus Day
- Oct 15th Charlotte’s Web Published
- Oct 16th World Food Day
- Oct 18th Inventions: The Toaster
- Oct 25th Pablo Picasso Day
- Oct 24th Diwali
- Oct 31st Halloween
- Oct 1st – Oct 31st Black History Month
National Badger Day 6th October
Listen to the sound of badgers
Badgers make many noises depending on how they feel including: barking, chittering, growling, hissing, purring, snarling, sniffing, snorting and yelping.
- Record badger sounds and play to your students via your interactive whiteboard/Talking Tile/BIGmack/Dictaphone/iPad or similar device. Follow the link to a library of badger sounds including eating, grooming, playing, scratching, sniffling https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=badger&resultSize=20
Tip!
There are over 16,000 BBC Sound Effects made available by the BBC in WAV format to download for use under the terms of the RemArc Licence. The Sound Effects are BBC copyright, but they may be used for personal, educational or research purposes, as detailed in the license.
Extend Learning
- Can the student(s) guess what the badger is doing according to the nosie they are making? e.g. eating, sniffing
- Can the student(s) match any sounds the badger is making to emotions? (Annoyed, anxious, calm, confused, content, excited, relaxed, hurt, sad?)
- Discuss the noises we make when we express emotion (crying when sad, laughing when happy etc)
Earthworms make up the majority of the badger’s diet. You can supplement their food in the winter.
- If you are lucky enough to have a badger visit, here are some of the foods they enjoy: Fresh or dried fruit (apples, pears, plums), dried dog food, (unsalted sugar-free) peanut butter, mealworms.
- Don’t forget to leave a bowl of fresh, clean water
- Place a little sand around their eating area to see if you can spot any badger tracks.
October 10th
World Porridge Day
Launched in 2009 as a fundraising campaign to raise money to prevent children in poorer countries having hunger hinder their education.
Activity Idea
Make and flavour porridge
- Explore a range of toppings: Banana, blueberries, chocolate chips, cinnamon, honey, maple syrup, nutmeg, raisins, raspberries
Taste Different Types of Porridge
- Rice, barley, wheat, buckwheat, semolina, corn, polenta, sorghum, quinoa.
- Can the students show a preference for a porridge type or topping?
- Can the student(s) communicate a rejection if they do not like a smell of taste?
Enrichment Activity
Visit the local shop. Can the students find the porridge?
Purchase porridge then donate it to your local foodbank.
https://mash.ie/goldilocks-and-the-three-bears
Suggested Resource
Join Goldilocks on her adventures with this fully resourced multisensory story: https://mash.ie/goldilocks-and-the-three-bears
Table of Contents
- Story Props/Resources Checklist
- How to Tell a Multisensory Story
- Goldilocks & The Three Bears Fully Resourced, Step-by-Step Multisensory Story
- Developing Comprehension & Understanding
- Goldilocks Storyboard
- Themed Listening Game
- Themed Sensory Bag
- Hard and Soft Themed Sensory Bin
- Oat Bear Art
- Raised Bear Salt Picture
- The Three Bears Kitchen – Oat Milk Recipe
- The Three Bears Bathroom – Oatmeal Facemask & Oat Bath
- Teddy Bears Picnic
- Let’s Explore…Bears!
- Make a Bear Habitat
- Bear Hugs
October 4th-10th
World Space Week
Galaxy Art
Galaxy Glitter Picture
You will need:
- A sheet of black card
- PVA glue/glue stick
- Glitter (assorted colours)
Activity
1. Take a sheet of black card.
2. Apply glue using a glue stick or PVA.
3. Scatter different coloured glitters onto the card (you may wish to place a sheet of newspaper under the card)
4. Tip the excess glitter paper/card.
5. Leave to dry.
Tip!
Carefully place the glitter into a small handheld colander/sieve then shake over the picture.
Constellation Art
You will need
- Black card
- Star stickers (or ask students to cut and stick stars from a printout)
- White chalk
Activity
1. Randomly stick or draw stars onto the black card
2. Can the student(s) use the white chalk to draw lines to connect the stars to form constellations?
Extend Learning
- Can the student copy any well know constellations? Aries (the ram), Draco (the dragon,) Gemini (the twins), Leo (the lion), Libra (the scales), The Plough? Provide pictures for them to copy or display on your interactive whiteboard.
Alternative Activity
Thread battery led string lights around the pegs of a peg board, then switch on (dim the lights in the room.)
Suggested Resource
‘Journey into Space – A Multisensory Exploration of the Solar System’
Get ready to ‘Blast-off!’ as our rocket take us on a multisensory exploration of the solar system with this multisensory story ‘Journey into Space’. Table of Contents
- Buckle Up! Story Prop Checklist
- How to Tell a Multisensory Story
- Journey Into Space – A Multisensory Story
- Developing Comprehension & Understanding
- Story Map
- Space Sounds (Listening Game)
- How to Make a Space Themed Sensory Bag
- How to Make a Space Themed Sensory Bin
- Space Relaxation – A Guided Relaxation Space Adventure!
- Create an Astronaut Role Play Area
- Galaxy Art
- The Space Lab
- Space Design & Technology
‘Journey into Space’ Training Video
This is not my favourite video as I had just come out of hospital when I filmed it, but it is packed with ideas! Re-filming is on my ‘to-do’ list:)
October 10th
World Mental Health Day
- Start the day with a ‘feelings’ check-in.
- How is everyone feeling today?
- Some students might find it hard to express their feelings verbally, so offer the use of an ’emotions board’ or ’emotion cards’ so students can point to or choose a card to indicate whether they feel happy, sad, anxious, tired, bored or excited.
Extend Learning
Discuss how we can change our feelings e.g., if someone is feeling sad how can you make them happy? (Offer them a favourite activity, show them something funny to make them laugh…YouTube cat clips never fail!) if someone is worried can you talk about their worries?
October 10th-16th
National Braille Week
You will need
- Printed out braille cells
- Play-Doh or plasticine
Activity
Using a ball of plasticine and a braille cell, demonstrate the letters of the alphabet (or show an image on your interactive whiteboard)
Can the students roll their balls of plasticine and place onto the correct dot(s)
Extend Learning
Can the students spell their name in braille?
October 10th
Columbus Day
Explore New Foods
Christopher Colombus bought many exotic foods back from his travels including the pineapple.
Present the pineapple for sensory exploration.
- Can the student(s) use their hands to feel the spherical shape?
- Can the student(s) feel the weight of the pineapple?
- Can the student(s) carefully touch the tough, spiky skin?
- Can the students carefully touch the sword-like leaves?
Model the language bristly, hard, prickly, spiky.
Try pineapple in different forms: Fresh pineapple, dried pineapple, tinned pineapple, pineapple jam, pineapple jelly, pineapple juice, pineapple smoothie, pineapple yogurt.
Non-Food Activity
- Explore pineapple and vanilla scented hand and body lotions and lip balms.
- Print using pineapples.
- Paint using pineapple juice and pulp.
*Be allergy aware
Extend Learning
Christopher Colombus also introduced vanilla, allspice, and cocoa.
- Taste these foods/spices and/or foods containing them.
- Introduce the vocabulary ‘sweet’ and ‘spicy’ Can the students place the foods in the correct category?
Grow a pineapple!
1. Carefully slice the top (crown) off a pineapple.
2. Remove the bottom leaves.
3. Leave to the crown to dry.
4. Fill a pot with soil/compost.
4. Place the crown of the pineapple onto the soil and gently press down.
5. Do not overwater and pop on a sunny spot.
October 15th
Charlotte’s Web
On this date, the book Charlotte’s Web by US author E B White was published
Pick out elements of the story and make them sensory.
Here are a couple of examples
‘Wilbur the Pig grows too large!’
You will need
- Pink balloons
- A balloon pump/foot pump/bicycle pump
- Model inflating the balloon using the balloon pump/bicycle pump
- Can the students take turns inflating the balloon using the balloon pump/bicycle pump as it is passed around the group?
- Can the students inflate their balloons using their breath?
Charlotte and the Fly
Charlotte traps and wraps a fly in her web to teach Wilbur how to consume prey.
You will need
- Three pipe cleaners
- Cotton wool pleat
- Hairspray
- Glitter
- Place the pipe cleaners in a star shape (one vertically, one horizontally, one diagonally) Secure by twisting together in the centre.
- Gently pull, stretch and roll the fibres of the cotton wool using your fingers and thumbs.
- Weave the cotton wool around the pipe cleaner star to create a web
- Spritz with hair spray
- Sprinkle a little glitter onto the web to represent the prey.
October 16th
World Food Day
Explore Foods
- Present a wide range of different tastes and textures for the individual to explore at their own pace enabling them to explore likes and dislikes.
- Initial explorations could be through touch and smell, the next step to present a tiny touch to the lips progressing onto a morsel or a drop in the mouth, an egg spoon building up to a full bite.
- Play blindfold tasting games.
- Explore aromatic, bitter, bland, buttery, caramel, carbonated, chalky, charcoal, charred, cheesy, chewy, chocolatey, cinnamon, citrus, citrusy, clove-like, coarse, creamy, crispy, crumbly, crunchy, delicate, earthy, effervescent, eggy, fibrous, fiery, fishy, fizzy, flaky, floral, floury, foamy, fresh, frosty, fruity, garlicky, gingery, grainy, granular, grapey, gritty, herbal ,honeyed, icy, juicy, lemony, light, limey, malty, metallic, milky, minty, moist, mushy, musty, oily, oniony, peppery, pickled, plummy, powdery, pungent, quenching, refreshing, ,rich, ripe, rubbery, salty, sandy, savoury, seasoned, sharp, slimy, smoky, smooth, soggy, sour, sparkling, spiced, spicy, spongy, squidgy, squishy, starchy, sweet, syrup, tangy, tart, tender, toasty, toothsome, vanilla, velvety, vinegary, zesty, zingy
- Can the student(s) make a rejection if they do not like a food?
18th October
The Electric Toaster is Patented
- Promote independence and fine motor skills making toast. (Option to use a switch to operate)
- Explore different toppings: jam, chocolate spread, cheese spread, butter, honey.
Extend Learning
- Can the student(s) cut their toast in half?
- Can the student(s) cut their toast into quarters?
- Explore halves and quarters using squares of toast and triangles of toast.
25th October
Birthdate of Pablo Picasso
Spanish born artist Pablo Picasso was well known co-founding cubism (fragmenting objects). During his life he painted over 20,000 paintings!
Picasso was famous for painting distorted faces
Re-create Picasso Artwork
1. Take and print the photos of student’s headshots.
2. Cut the photographs in half. Can the students create images using two different students’ pictures? (See image 1)
2. Look through magazines and tear out pages with faces. Cut the faces into rectangular strips featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth. (See image 2)
Can the students select strips and make random faces?
3. Can students place two images together, one side profile and one looking into the camera? (See image 3)
1. 2. 3.
Alternative Activity
- Can the students manipulate and place the pieces of a Mr Potato Head?
21st October
Trafalgar Day
In 1805, a fleet of 27 British ships, under the command Lord Horatio Nelson of Vice Admiral defeated French and Spanish ships at Trafalgar, (South-West Spain)
19 enemy ships were either captured or sunk and this battle established British domination of the seas for the next 100 years.
Activity
Explore the properties of a variety of materials to see which materials float and which materials sink.
Make your boats from the materials that float.
For the Boat Base: Balsa, Cardboard Box, Cd’s, Corks, Cupcake Cases, Feathers, Margarine Tubs, Match Sticks, Plastic Bottle Tops, Plastic Bottles, Lids Dishes and Plates, Sponges, Straws, Styrofoam, Twigs, Wooden Craft Sticks.
The Sail: Balloons, Card, Feathers, Foam Shapes, Leaves, Material, tissue paper
Experiment: Make egg box and paper boats.
Explore Cause & Effect: Can the sensory explorer direct a fan (battery operated fan/dynamo ‘squeeze’ fan/hand-held fan, paper/silk fan) at the boat sail to move it across the water?
Compete: Hold a boat race. Can the students predict the boat that will win?
Explore: Can you add cargo to your boat?
Test Durability: Add Ice cubes to the water. How well do the boats navigate these obstacles?
Engage in Scientific Investigation: Add salt to the water. Does this enable the boats and materials to float easier?
24th October
Diwali
Celebrate the Festival of Lights
- Make a ‘Diya’ candle holder using clay, playdoh or plasticine.
- Make a Diwali card.
- Engage the senses, explore Indian food and sweets, samosas, pakoras and paneer.
- Explore Indian herbs and spices. Dissect spindle-shaped cardamom pods. Can the students peel open the capsules to reveal the small, black seeds inside? Smell the smokiness of the cardamom and the intense woody, nutty fragrance of cinnamon sticks. Explore the tiny oblong, yellow-brown seeds and taste the bitter sweetness of cumin seeds. Use a pestle and mortar to grind the spices.
- Explore the colours and patterns of a silk sari. Direct torchlight onto the sparkles and sequins to make them glisten. Offer students the opportunity to dress in the sari.
- Using chalk, draw a Rangoli pattern onto a Tuff Tray, provide coloured sand for students to pour onto the patterns.
You may like:
https://mash.ie/a-train-ride-through-india-multisensory-story
Table of Contents:
- How to Tell a Multisensory Story
- A Train Ride Through India (Fully Resourced, Step-by-Step, Multisensory Poem)
- A Train Ride Through India Listening Game
- A Train Ride Through India Sensory Bin
- A Train Ride Through India Sensory Bag
- Sensory Indian Flag
- Train Ride Role Play
- Let’s Explore…Asiatic Lions
- Mehndi
- India Themed Sensory Ideas & Inspiration
Other Indian Festivals
https://mash.ie/holi-a-multisensory-exploration-themed-sensory-extension-activities.html
Celebrate the magic and colour of the festival of Holi with this fully resourced, step-by-step multisensory story.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Prepare to Celebrate (Gathering Story Props)
- How to Tell a Multisensory Story
- Holi Poem
- Holi- A Multisensory Exploration
- Holi Themed Sensory Umbrella
- Holi Themed Sensory Tent
- Holi Themed Sensory Bin
- Holi Themed Sensory Bag
- Holi Themed Listening Game
- Let’s Make…Holi Powder Paint
- Jackson Pollock Themed Art
- Scented Paint
- Paint Bombs & Cinnamon Stick Painting
- Paint Splatter Picture
- Colour Sorting
- Thandai Recipe
- Holi Ideas & Inspiration
31st October
Halloween
Ten Fun Halloween Ideas
1. Use instruments to create a spooky orchestra: a boom whacker, drum, castanets, clackers, guiro, kazoo, triangle.
2. Using felt tips, draw spooky faces on balloons. Watch the faces distort as the balloon deflates over the next few days.
3. Paint a pumpkin.
4. Make a skeleton picture using cotton buds for bones.
5. Explore UV paint. Tip! If you do not have UV paint, crushing a B12 vitamin tablet into acrylic/poster paint will make the paint glow in UV light! (Thank you to Barn Owl’s class at Hebden Green School for that tip!)
6. Practice gross motor skills. Draw a large spider web in chalk outdoors. Randomly place paper spiders in the web. Can the sensory explorer walk along the lines of the web avoiding the spiders?
7. Make a ‘Severed Finger’ snack.
You will need
- Hotdogs (Don’t forget a meat -free alternative)
- Garlic Flake
- Ketchup
i. Using clean fingers halve a hotdog (this will give you an uneven (severed) end as opposed to cutting with a knife)
ii. Slide a garlic flake (fingernail) into one end of the hotdog.
iii. Dip the ‘severed’ end of the hotdog (finger) into ketchup (blood)
iv. Are any students brave enough to taste?
8. Raid the recycling and make broomsticks, hats, and magic wands.
9. Carve a pumpkin and place a tealight inside. Dim the lights in the classroom.
10. Recycle your pumpkin into a plant holder. Fill with compost then plant spring bulbs (crocus and snowdrops) or plant pansies.
You might like
Join our witch on this spooky Halloween night as she concocts a grisly potion!
https://mash.ie/halloween-a-multisensory-adventure
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- How to Tell a Multisensory Story
- The Benefits of Multisensory Storytelling
- Story Props Checklist
- Halloween Full Poem
- Halloween Fully Resourced, Step-by-Step Multisensory Exploration
- Slime Recipe
- Potions
- Barm Brack Bread
- Dracula’s Castle
- Garlic
- Spooky Den
- All Souls Day
- Frozen Monsters
- 8 Ideas with Leftover Pumpkins
- Halloween Guided Adventure
- Mini Halloween Adventure Using Sound Effects
- Halloween Ideas & Inspiration
October 1st – 31st
Black History Month
Teaching Ideas
Re-create a Famous Piece of Black History Artwork
Add a sensory element to the artwork. Cut the shapes of the clothes and hats from felt.
Other Ideas
- Can the students give a talk on their favourite black heroes and heroines?
- Promote racial diversity in the classroom, provide skin toned paints, Play-Doh, crayons, dolls.
Explore the Work of Famous Black Inventors
- Great Inventors: Focus on Garrett Morgan
Garrett Morgan was born the son of two former slaves and is famous for inventing traffic lights.
Role Play Road Safety
- Using chalk and cones (raid the PE cupboard!) create roads, pavements and a roundabout.
- Assign bikes, scooters, go-carts to students assigned as ‘drivers’
- Assign other students the role of pedestrians (regularly swap roles)
- Use chalks to create a pedestrian crossing with traffic lights.
- Draw three circles to represent the traffic lights, red, amber and green and laminate.
- Assign two students to control the traffic using their ‘traffic lights’. Can they work together to ensure the traffic flows!
Create a ‘Black History Month’ Reading Area in your Classroom or Setting
Black History Month Booklist
- ‘As Brave as You – Jason Reynolds
- ‘Brown Boy Joy’ – Dr. Thomishia Booker
- ‘Daddy Calls Me Man’ – Angela Johnson
- ‘Happy to be Nappy’ – Bell Hooks
- ‘Hair Love’ Mathew A.Cherry
- ‘Imani’s Moon’ – Janay Brown-Wood
- ‘Lullaby’ by Langston Hughes
- ‘My Brother Charlie’ – Holly Robinson
Other October Activities
Sensory Autumn walk.
- Find five things to look at
- Four items to touch
- Three sounds
- Two items to smell
- One item to taste (take an item of autumn fruit with you (apples, blackberries) or some toast, hot chocolate or marshmallows.
- Look for leaves, logs, acorns, bark, chestnuts, animal tracks.
Make pumpkin soup.
Collect leaves, sort, categorise by shape and colour then create an Autumn leaf collage picture.
Make an Autumn sensory bin.
Enjoy an October story
- ‘Little Monsters’ David Walliams
- ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Halloween Trick or Treat’ Eric Carle
- ‘Mr Men Little Miss Halloween Party’
- ‘Room on the Broom’ Julia Donaldson & Alex Scheffler
- ‘Funnybones’ Allan Ahlberg & Janet Ahlberg’