Module 3Sensory bags in life
skills teaching
Sensory life skills
Introduction
In the life skills section of CAPS for life orientation there are three study areas:
• beginning knowledge
• personal wellbeing
• social wellbeing
These areas are explored through themes, such as the senses, or food. The sensory
bag can be used to help learners investigate these themes in a fun and creative way.
You can use sensory bags that activate touch and ones that activate smell to help
learners explore topics in the life orientation component of life skills.
You've learned how to use tactile sensory bags in language and mathematics. But touch
is not the only sense you can target using sensory bags. Smell is a sense that is not
often use in teaching. And it is not a sensory learning style on its own. However, smell is
very evocative and can set off important thoughts, ideas and reactions. For instance,
smells can signal danger, a bad smell may warn that food is rotten or smoke may warn
of fire. And smell is linked to memory. When you smell a specific smell, you may
suddenly remember, very vividly, an event or person from the past.
In this module, you will see that tactile activities also strengthen the small muscles
found in hands and fingers. In the sensory bag game the learners use their hands and
fingers to explore the contents of the bag so fine motor skills are exercised.
Learning without seeing
Theory
Sensory bags can help learners explore life orientation topics and develop fine motor
skills.
You already know that sensory learning is learning that involves the senses and that
there are four types of sensory learning:
• auditory
• visual
• tactile
• kinaesthetic
Multisensory learning
Most times, we use more than one sense when we learn. For instance, writing activities
are visual, tactile and kinaesthetic. When a person writes, the eyes guide the hand that
is holding the pen and moving to create symbols. Using more than one sense is called
multisensory learning.
No sight stimulus
Sight is often one of the senses involved in learning (for example reading, watching a
documentary, looking at a teacher, or looking down to write). But when learners play
with sensory bags the sense of sight is absent. They cannot see into the bag!
When one sense (especially a dominant sense like sight) is out of use, the other
available senses are more active and the messages to the brain are stronger.
Touch and fine motor co-ordination
When learners play with sensory bags they usually only use the sense of touch. They
use their fingers and hands to feel what is inside the bag. They handle the hidden object
with their hands and fingers and this exercises the small muscles there. So fine motor
skills are strengthened through this kind of play. Skills which are needed to write, draw,
paint, cut and sew.
Add in the sense of smell
You can also activate other senses when you use sensory bags. Most particularly, you
can introduce items that have a particular smell (pleasant or unpleasant).
Touch, smell, describe
Practitioner guidelines
You can use sensory bags that activate touch and/or smell to help learners explore
topics in the life orientation component of life skills.
Sense of touch
Feely bags (sensory bags that use touch) are an excellent tool for increasing language.
Use them to introduce new vocabulary to learners.
• Place theme-related objects into the bag.
• Let learners feel and guess what they are.
• Ask them to describe the items using descriptive language.
Sense of smell
You can also activate other senses when you use sensory bags. Most particularly, you
can introduce items that have a particular smell (pleasant or unpleasant).
• Place items in the bag that have particular smells, like fruit, soap, leaves etc.
• Get one learner to dip into the bag and offer the item to another learner (who has their
eyes closed). This activity then relies completely on the sense of smell.
• Alternatively, you can let a learner dip into the sensory bag and feel the item, and then
smell it as well.
https://youtu.be/LgClSsmXhJ0
Life orientation through the
senses
Life orientation through the senses
CAPS links
The sensory bag can be used to explore topics in the life orientation curriculum. Use the
bag to introduce new topic-related vocabulary which learners can then use in group and
class discussions.
Grades 1, 2, 3: Life skills - life orientation
Beginning knowledge and personal and social wellbeing
• do routine activities and free play activities indoors and outdoors related to topics
Learning through touch and
smell
Key messages
In this module you've looked at how you can use sensory bags that activate touch
and/or smell to help learners explore topics in the life orientation component of life
skills.
• Sensory bags allow learners to use senses other than sight to learn.
• You can use sensory bags to spark discussions on life orientation topics by placing topic-
related objects in the bag.
• Learners can use their sense of touch to feel objects in the bag.
• They can then describe these objects (developing their vocabulary and speaking skills).
• You can introduce new topic-related vocabulary in this way.
• Handling these objects also strengthens their fine motor skills.
• New vocabulary is used in discussions about the topic.
• You can also place items in the bag that have particular smells.
• This activates another sense (smell) as part of the sensory learning.
• Multisensory learning happens when learners use more than a single sense.
Learning using a sensory bag is fun and creative
