Five Senses Exploration Station

We have a new exploration station!  I placed items that allow Eva to explore four of the five senses in the area- I left out taste because I figured a little furry friend might enjoy that a little too much.  For seeing there are magnifying glasses, a paper towel tube to use as a telescope and a fun color puzzle game.

When we were at Home Depot over the weekend I grabbed a few of the paint sample cards and then cut between the colors.  Eva has to put them in order from darkest to lightest (or vice versa).  I thought this would be a little tricky but Eva breezed right through!

For the hearing area, I have a few musical instruments, Eva's drumming Snoopy toy and some medicine bottles filled with different things- beans, pasta, rice.  For touch there is a bag full of various fabric scraps  for Eva to touch and experience different textures.

Her favorite so far though is the smelling area.  I put cotton balls dipped in extracts in baby food jars.  Eva gets to open and sniff them to see what they smell like.  (It also works on the practical skill of opening jars!)

I made five- peppermint, vanilla, orange, raspberry and garlic.  She knew the garlic right off the bat!  (Eva loves anything with garlic!)  Because it was a little tricky for her to identify the smells without help, I drew pictures to coordinate with the smells on the paper.

This made it much easier for her to match the smells to their source.

To round out the station, I added a Five Senses puzzle I found in the Dollar Spot at Target a few weeks ago.