Sensory Soup Valentine’s Day initiative is a multi-sensory surprise for our school pupils

What is Sensory Soup?

Sensory Soup is an initiative that is passionate about the lives and education of children and young people with complex learning difficulties & disabilities.

This Valentine’s Day, they offered interactive activities celebrating Love and happiness. Hollybank Trust School Teachers handpicked activities that engaged touch, sight and sound senses to enhance the moment and let love shine. The School Hall was transformed into dynamic environment for play, art therapy, and sensory engagement.

It was an opportunity for people with disabilities to experience the magic of Valentine’s Day in a way that is engaging, sensory, and full of heart.

The tactile experiences on offer included:

• A lucky dip filled with materials of different textures and miniature toys that made different amusing sounds for children to engage with
• A Play-Doh zone for children to station themselves at alongside their teachers and support workers whilst making new shapes out of the Play-Doh, feeling the palpable texture of the Play-Doh against their hands and fingertips
• Magic Carpet Technology letting children take a magic carpet ride to new worlds. The Magic Carpet is a plug-and-play solution that transforms any floor into an interactive projection space. It features an ultra-short throw projector delivering vibrant visuals and interactive experiences wherever they’re needed
• Sensory art station equipped with materials for children making their own colour-changing stained-glass windows and artwork from simple materials such as coloured card, tissue paper in an array of hues and coloured translucent plastic. When held up to various lighting, the stained-glass windows created by the children changed colour, capturing the sight sense and offering the children a sensory experience
• Fibre-optic equipment with strands containing glowing light beams for children to interact with
• Calming Valentine’s themed background music to help children relax into the event and explore the different stations, zones and equipment

All the ingredients in this Valentine’s Day activity made for the perfect Sensory Soup, a recipe for peaceful moments of connection and imaginative play to take place during a therapeutic hour.