Enjoy a Sensory Story with Busy Things
Sensory stories are a fantastic way to encourage audience participation and inclusivity. They are typically very concise, and harness movement, actions and sensory elements to tell the story rather than words.
Many children love them for their novelty. Others can’t help but get involved when there are actions to perform and verbal responses required. The great thing too is that you can tailor-make the sensory elements so that they appeal directly to your pupils. If the children in your class like big noises, you can go all out with the bangs and crashes; if they are more sensitive to sound, you can focus on other senses.
In this blog, we focus on Busy Things’ Literacy activity “The Chair That Went Wrong” and provide supplementary guidance to help you enrich its sensory elements.
The Chair That Went Wrong
The Chair That Went Wrong is a story from Busy Things, which features our characters, Dog and Cat, and is all about bouncing.
Perfect for use on either a tablet or a whiteboard, it has interactive features built in to put you in control.
You can, for instance, repeat the audio as much as you like, zoom into the drawings and jump to your favourite sections in just a couple of clicks of the mouse.
Sensory story guidance
To help you maximise the sensory impact of the story, we’ve created a short guide, downloadable free below.
Outlining one of the many sensory story variations possible, it includes:
- concise text to replace the text in the story
- sensory prop suggestions
- general instructions
- follow-on colouring-in and story re-enactment props
Summary
We hope you found this blog useful, and enjoy The Chair That Went Wrong, whether you read it in its simple form or enjoy the full multi-sensory experience.
If sensory storytelling is something new to your class, or even something regularly incorporated into your lessons, we’d love to know how you got on with The Chair That Went Wrong. Any insights or comments would be gratefully received below, so let us know your thoughts in the Comments, and tell us which elements did and didn’t work for you.
Loved The Chair That Went Wrong?
If you loved this story, you’re very likely to enjoy its partnering interactive story, entitled One Day a Monster. Find it via the search tool if you have a Busy Things login.
If you don’t have a Busy Things login, why not take a free trial? This will allow you to read One Day a Monster as well as play all of our 1,600+ cross-curricular activities and games for a full 28 days!