Sensory Leaf Pile Play

One perfect fall afternoon, I took Taylor to the playground to run around and play.  However, much to my surprise, she wasn’t interested in playing on the playground at all that day, which is rare for her! She kept gravitating toward this pile of leaves in the very corner of the fence. She thought it was hysterical the way the leaves crunched when she sat on them and just couldn’t get enough!

It was clear that all Taylor really wanted to do that day was play in the leaves.  So why deprive her of that? Therefore, I picked her up and we walked toward a much more open field where there were tons of leaf piles to explore.  She was in her glory and it was a wonderful sensory experience.

Suggested Materials:

A big pile of leaves!

Activity:

Find or rake a large pile of leaves.  Encourage your child to play with the leaves in different ways.  They can jump on the pile, examine the different sizes, shapes, and colors of the leaves, crunch them in their hands to hear the sounds they make, and even smell them.  The possibilities are endless.

Optional Adaptations:

If there aren’t any leaves on the ground at this time, you can create piles of other types of object and allow your child to use their senses to explore and play.  Possible ideas for sensory piles could be a large pile of laundry or different types of crumbled up paper.