We’re doing touch/tactile activities as part of a 5 senses theme, and I wanted to come up with an activity that would really get Calvin relying on his sense of touch. I set out to do this activity where I put the pieces to a puzzle into a sensory bin and have him dig them out and complete the puzzle. It’s a fun twist on both sensory bins and puzzles, and we’ve done it before. And then I got the idea to blindfold him and get him to find the puzzle pieces just by feeling around in the sensory bin!

I used rice, because I already had some rice in a small plastic tub just for such an occasion. And I used his name puzzle so that the activity could double as some name recognition practice.

Calvin has done rice sensory bins many, many times before and he reacted SO differently when he touched the rice with the blindfold on!  I could tell that it made a difference in how he was experiencing it.

He didn’t want to wear the blindfold at first. I had to really talk him into it and give him a minute to get used to the idea. We even played a little peek-a-boo with it to get him giggling. Then, of course, once I got the blindfold on he tried to cheat and peek because he’s clever like that.

When he finally reached for the rice with the blindfold on, not peeking, he touched it with his fingertips and immediately pulled his hand back like he’d touched something hot! He was really hesitant and careful as he went in again and felt around in the rice for a puzzle piece and as soon as he got one he sat up and pulled the blindfold off.

I didn’t try to make him put the letters into the puzzle blindfolded, haha. He took the blindfold off each time he found a piece to put it into the puzzle. Then, I put it back on, gave the bin a shake, and let him feel for another piece.

It was a fun little activity! The blindfold adds an extra twist, and I think it was a great way to really bring out the tactile sensation.

I had a really hard time thinking of a clever name for this, though. Blindfolded Sensory Puzzle Hunt is like, really long and boring-sounding. Even  Blind Puzzle Hunt doesn’t quite feel like it fits… Anybody got a better one??