Learning with Sensory Bags

Introduction
In the previous session, you learned that skittles activities can help learners develop
physical, cognitive, social, language, mathematical and life skills.

In this session, you will discover how children can learn using their senses. The session
focuses on the sense of touch. And you will find out how to use sensory bags to teach
knowledge, concepts and skills across learning areas and grades.

Sensory bags

Infants (babies) and young children learn about the world through their senses. The senses
include sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. But older children - and even adults - also use
their senses to learn.

A sensory bag is a bag or box with a hole in it. It is important that the bag or box is not
transparent (see-through). The learner puts his or her hand into the hole, feels what is
inside and guesses what it is.

Learners need to use their hands to feel the object that is hidden inside the sensory bag.
Their hands provide them with information about the item. They are thus developing their
sense of touch and developing the small muscles in the fingers and hands.

What you will learn

In this session you will:

• make sensory bags

• use the sensory bags you have made to teach language, mathematics and life skills
• learn how to adapt the bags to teach different concepts and skills
• provide play-based learning opportunities that develop fine motor skills
Please note: You will receive an email with the template and instructions that you need to
complete the practical part of this session. If you haven't yet added your email address on
your Profile page, you will not receive this important email. Add it now so that you don't
miss the instructions for the next session.
Module 1Sensory bags in
language teaching
Learning through the senses

Introduction
When you use feely bags in language lessons you can make learning new vocabulary
playful and hands-on, and you encourage fine motor development.

Feely bags are very useful when you want to encourage learners to use descriptive
language. Descriptive language is the language we use to describe things, for example
a fluffy cat or sharp knife. Learners need to start building their descriptive vocabulary in
the Foundation Phase so they can write effectively in the higher grades.

Learners will enjoy feely bag activities as these are 'guessing' games. The learner must
feel the object in the bag and work out what the object is by feeling it. There are no right
or wrong answers and a lot of fun and learning occurs while they are trying to guess
what the object is.

The game also develops their fine motor muscles in the hands and fingers, which is
needed for writing.

Different styles of learning

Theory
When you use feely bags in language lessons you make learning playful and hands-
on. In these activities, learners are using their senses (particularly the sense of touch) to
learn.
Learning styles

In previous sessions, you've learned that different activities are best-suited to learners
with different learning styles. Many of the activities that have been covered are suited to
learners who learn well when they touch or handle objects (tactile learning) or who learn
well through movement (kinaesthetic learning). While there are learning styles that don't
focus on the senses (logical learning for example), both of these examples are types of
sensory learning.

Sensory learning

Sensory learning is learning that involves the senses. There are four sensory learning
types that are important for teachers to understand:

• Auditory learning involves the ears. Learning happens through listening.

• Visual learning involves the eyes. Learning happens through seeing.
• Tactile learning involves the skin. Learning happens through touching.
• Kinaesthetic learning involves bodily movement. Learning happens through movement.
Some activities will activate more than one sense. This is called multisensory learning.

Benefits of sensory learning

Sensory learning is the most basic way in which humans learn. Sensory learning begins
before birth and continues into adulthood.

• Sensory learning encourages investigatory, exploratory and discovery skills.

• Learners learn best when they use their senses.
• You can create activities that encourage sensory learning.
• Sensory learning is active and learners retain what they have learned (remember)
through active learning.

Tactile language activities

Practitioner guidelines
When you use feely bags in language lessons you can make learning new vocabulary
playful and hands-on, and you encourage fine motor development.
There are a number of ways that you can use feely bags in your language classes.
 • Phonics: You can teach phonics by placing items in the bag that have the same sound.
For example items that all begin with the letter 'S' (sock, star, stick).
• Vocabulary extension: Learners can practise using descriptive language if you place
interesting items into the bag and ask them to describe what they feel.
• Story-making: You can use feely bags to help learners to create collaborative stories.
Learners will need to feel the items in the bag and identify them and then use the item in
a sentence that forms part of a story that the whole group is creating together.

https://youtu.be/tLs8njHhvug
How to use a feely bag in Grade
2 language lessons

Video summary
In this video, the teacher uses a tactile sensory bag (a “feely” bag) to build learners’
descriptive language.

The teacher has put various items into a pillowcase to create a feely bag. Each learner
gets a turn to put their hand into the bag and feel an item. They need to describe what it
feels like, then say what they think it is. Then they can take it out of the bag to see if
they were correct.

The first learner puts his hand in the bag and feels a “hard” “triangle”. “I think it’s a
stapler.”

The other learners then each get a turn to feel something in the bag. “I’m holding a
scissor! I’m totally sure!”
Language learning through
sensory play

Language learning through sensory

play

CAPS links
Feely bags can be used in language lessons to teach CAPS objectives. Feely bags
encourage sensory learning. Learners can build vocabulary through sensory play.

You can use feely bags in class to help learners achieve the following CAPS objectives:
Grade 1: Language

Listening and speaking (oral)

• participate in discussions, taking turns to speak and respecting others in the group
• describe objects in terms of colour, size, shape and quantity using correct vocabulary
• answer closed and open-ended questions
• participate in discussions, asking and answering questions
• use an ever-increasing vocabulary when speaking

Grade 2: Language

Listening and speaking

• participate in discussions, taking turns to speak and respecting others in the group
• answer closed and open-ended questions and gives reasons for answers
• use an ever-increasing vocabulary when speaking
• answer open-ended questions and justify answer, e.g. "Why do you say that?"

Grade 3: Language

Listening and speaking

• answer questions and gives reasons for the answers
• use language to investigate and explore
• use an ever-increasing vocabulary when speaking
• use language imaginatively

Make learning hands-on and

fun

Key messages
In this module you learned that when you use feely bags in language lessons, you can
make learning new vocabulary playful and hands-on, and you encourage fine motor
development.

• Infants, children and adults all learn through their senses.

• There are four kinds of sensory learning: auditory (ears), visual (eyes), tactile (touch)
and kinaesthetic (movement).
• Sensory learning encourages learners to investigate and explore.
• And learners retain information longer if they learn it through sensory experiences.
• You can use feely bags to encourage sensory learning.
• In the language classroom, you can use feely bags to build learners' descriptive
vocabulary.
• Feely bags can also be used to get learners to create stories.
• The feely bag game encourages learners to use reasoning skills.