Episode Four - Magic Bag

Introduction

Magic Bag is a simple and fun activity that encourages tactile discrimination and exploration while emphasizing the use of touch. This is a great activity for getting a sense of those developing tactile skills and can be adjusted depending on your child’s preferences.

This episode can be viewed in the video player above and is also posted on the PRCVI YouTube channel where you will find links to other resources as well as the comments thread for this video.

Linked here is a PDF version of the Magic Bag recipe. 

Key ingredients

  • A bag (fabric or paper) where the contents of the bag cannot be seen.
  • Sets of objects with identical shapes and textures. For example:
    • Large pom-poms (all the same size and shape)
    • Large plastic beads (all the same size and shape)
    • Dried beans
    • Coffee beans

Mixing it together

  • Pick a set of objects that are easy to discriminate – for example, soft pom-poms and hard beads.
  • Add a handful of each object to the bag.

Topping off the recipe

  • Have your child reach into the bag and remove one object.
  • Talk about how the object feels – hard or soft, rough or smooth, and so on.
  • Have your child reach into the bag and find an object that is exactly the same.
  • Have your child reach into the bag and find an object that is different.
  • Try adding more challenging objects to discriminate. For example, a bag with dried red kidney beans and wooden beads.
  • Try adding uneven numbers of objects from each set to discriminate to make the activity more challenging. For example, three buttons in a bag filled with dried red kidney beans.
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