Sensory Faces

The Basic Idea

Use your finger to draw faces in sand, dry rice, shaving foam, or whatever sensory material you fancy – as long as you can make a mark in it, you can make a face in it!

Over To You, Wee One

Start by “modelling” the face you want to draw and chat through the different features – grumpy eyebrows, big smiley mouths etc – as you mark make. Wee ones might want to model, or draw their own faces alongside you.

Cheeky Bonuses

• Great for exploring mark making in a multisensory, engaging way
• Practicing facial expressions lets wee ones explore feelings and develop vocabulary to understand them

Variations

• Introducing mirrors means children can see their own faces – and even use foam, paint or pens to trace over their own features
• Hide little laminated faces or emojis among the sensory materials to be discovered
• Can we draw the characters from the book? How do we make the cow look sad?

And Remember...

Children need to scribble and explore before they develop the fine motor control to be able to create marks that show what they want to show. The chat and the facial expressions are just as important as any “pictures” they create.