Multi-Sensory Learning & A Freebie!

Hi there! I'm Pam from Mrs. P' Specialties and I am super excited to be part of this collaborative blog. I really like that we all come from slightly different backgrounds and settings. Being able to draw from a variety of resources and ideas is so helpful!

Whether you are in a special education classroom like me or a regular education setting, we are faced with teaching to a group of students with different learning styles. This is where the multi-sensory approach to teaching becomes vital. Here are some of the types of lessons I do for our plant unit to meet the learning styles in my classroom.

In addition to the more traditional plant units, we also add in a lot of hands on activities. We explore seeds by talking about the different parts of a seed.

After taking apart the seed and discussing what happens to the seed as it grows, we got up out of our seats to act out the process. We crouched down, opened our arms like the seed coat opening, wiggled our toes as the roots grew and then started to very slowly stand up as the stem and flower grew bigger and bigger. The class loved it and everyone could take you through the steps!

To add a sensory component, I hid parts of our plant posters in the sensory bucket. Students had to find the different parts of the plant posters and reassemble the posters using their knowledge of plants.

Using playdough mats, students had to use different colored playdough to make and tell about the plant parts. 

Click HERE to grab a FREE copy of the playdough mat.

Lastly, we teach pollination using glitter. First, we sprinkle glitter on one large laminated flower. We explain how bees pollinate as they move from flower to flower spreading the pollen that sticks to them. To show them with the glitter, we pretend our hands are bees and pick up a tiny bit of glitter from the first flower. As our hands land on the second flower, a bit of glitter drops. I would love to take credit for this great idea, but I adapted the idea from this pin to better fit my students. 

I hope you have gained some new ways to meet the different learning styles of your students. Thanks for stopping by!