Welcome to Sensory Play for Babies and Toddlers in Bristol
Looking for sensory play classes in Bristol? Our Sensory Play for Babies and Toddlers runs every Thursday from 11-12pm. We are an inclusive, friendly and supportive group, which offers a range of stimulating activities for infants. The session is for babies and toddlers and aims to encourage support between parents/grandparents and carers. Each session can be booked as a one-off so there’s no need to commit to a term unless you know that you can attend every session. Free trials are available so you can come along and find out what our Sensory Play for Babies and Toddlers in Bristol are all about.
Why is Sensory Play Important for Baby and Toddler Development?
We offer a range of carefully selected heuristic objects, toys and sensory play stations in a beautiful environment, that are all specifically designed to nurture key developmental areas in early childhood through sensory play. Babies and children learn and discover the world through their senses: vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Sensory play enables the brain and senses to work together to create a meaningful world and build connections (synapses) in the brain.
Sensory play supports the development of fine motor skills (coordination of small muscles) and gross motor skills (coordination of large muscles), cognitive abilities (such as problem solving and critical thinking), language development (such as describing objects, creating stories, communicating), physical development (such as coordination, balance, motor skills), social skills (such as adapting to playing with others) and emotional development (such as releasing tension and stress in a relaxing manner, such as through playing with water). Every session finishes with ten minutes of interactive singing – join in with popular action songs, parachute songs and bubble fun!
What happens at a Sensory Play Class?
Explore Heuristic trays, babies can explore everyday objects to develop their sensory awareness, creativity and problem solving skills and learn from the world around them. Tuff trays to encourage mark making, experimentation and to stimulate different senses. These are often linked to the season and reflect the children’s interests as much as possible. Examples include ice play with fruit and vegetables, cereal-based farm, oat mixing and pouring, coloured oobleck, cocoa mud with dinosaurs, jelly play, bath crayons for early mark making, pink foam and bubble pond.
Discover objects of different textures, colours, shapes and noises. These can help to develop critical thinking (e.g. how high can I stack some blocks; how can I fit a shape through a particular hole) and fine motor skills (they encourage grasping, reaching, transferring and manipulating objects to develop those little hand muscles), and that encourage the exploration of textures and objects through touch.
Climb and crawl, we have equipment for developing gross motor skills and baby walkers to support toddlers ‘staying active’ once they’re walking. Our toddler tunnel is great for peek a boo! We also provide resources to support infants with tummy time and sitting up positions.
Active Play in our ball bit and find hidden sensory items such as silk scarves, bean bags and bumpy balls. Our toddler area has building blocks, push and pull toys, shape sorters, cause and effect toys, vehicles, feely box, buggy and baby, imaginative play toys. Our bubble machine will always make an appearance and so will our parachute!
Baby station with black and white resources, sensory blankets, mirrors, puppets, wooden baby gym ark frame and hanging accessories.
Seasonally themed weeks such as hand and foot painting on cards and clay imprints.
….and best of all, save the clearing up for us!
Why Choose Goldfinch for Sensory Play in Bristol?
Bonding
Enjoy quality, focused time with your baby. Forget the washing pile and other endless chores and distractions and relish in gazing at your bundle of joy, interacting/playing/discovering/exploring with them at our different sensory stations. It’s a fun bonding experience with countless developmental benefits!
Routine
Get out of the house and into a nurturing environment with others at the same stage of their parenting journey. Babies and toddlers (and many adults) thrive on routine. Attending a regular class at the same time each week helps to create structure in the day and gives you both something to look forward to. Familiar songs, faces, toys and activities provide a sense of security for the infants who are navigating a world full of new experiences.
Support
Being a parent is the most demanding job in the world. Join us to share your joys and woes with other parents/carers, a reminder that you’re not alone in your parenting journey. Advice, shared experiences and a gentle listening ear can make all the difference to a new parent and we offer that in bundles in our Sensory Play for Babies and Toddlers. Come along and form friendships in the heart of your local community.
Socialising
Babies and toddlers love to be around other children, observing and interacting with their peers. Even the youngest babies can benefit from observing and interacting with other children and adults in a structured environment. The room is usually very calm and full of joy! The group is for the parents to enjoy as well as the infants – we play music that parents like to listen to, encourage plenty of interaction and chatter and we have fun!
Open ended
Whilst we have a set structure for the group, it’s very open-ended just like our art classes. Infants can investigate the different stations at their own speed, in their own way, and can play with whatever catches their interest, for as long as they would like to.
Age appropriate
We have key stations in the room for lying-down babies, sitting up babies and active toddlers.
Babies don’t need to move on from our group as soon as they’re on the move. There are exciting stations and plentiful resources for new-borns up to walking toddlers and so much to discover each week.
Carefully developed activities
We offer a rich and varied range of activities and objects for infants to explore. Every activity station is designed by a qualified teacher with extensive experience of working with children in both an educational and community setting. The teacher oversees the activities, encouraging play and communication and offering support/advice/information when necessary. We try to personalise the group as much as possible. For example, if a toddler has shown a particular interest in one area, then we will often put books/toys out the following week based on this interest. If an infant particularly loves cars, these will be added to the tuff tray. If there’s a favourite song, we will sing it again!
Nurturing environment
We offer a very inviting, enriching, safe and beautiful space that is small enough to feel intimate but also enables large and small movements and provides a great stomping ground for toddlers! We will always be on hand to help and offer support in any way that we can.
Pinkmans Cafe
Much needed caffeine and carbs are also a new parent’s best friend and, luckily, Pinkmans is located downstairs. This has a small soft play area so is perfect to enjoy before or/and after our Sensory Play for Babies and Toddlers Session.
