Download this resource here: EIBF-2022-Ready-for-Spaghetti-inclusive-resource-with-images

Summary: 

Michael Rosen’s wonderful poem collection is just waiting for the sensory treatment! Here are a few ideas for props and activities that will help you to turn this book into a sensory adventure for any child, including those with complex additional needs.  

This resource is great for: 

Encouraging you and your child/children to enjoy the sensory qualities of language. 

Showing you how to use these wonderful short poems as a springboard for sensory exploration. 

When you have a few minutes to spare – not long enough for a sensory story but just the right length for a poem… 

When you are in the mood for making a mess! 

The poems 

I have included ideas for a selection of the poems in this collection – but I am sure that lots more ideas will occur to you for these poems and others as you read this book! 

Mirror 

Hold a handheld mirror up for your child as you read the first verse, then take it away for the second. Then repeat! (They might like to hold the mirror for you as well.) 

Here They Come 

Try using the following (or just substitute any shoes, gloves etc. that you have to hand).  

Floppy shoes – use the biggest shoes in the house – or slippers can actually be even better for floppiness. Put the shoes on your hands and clap them together.  

Clippy shoes – any shoes with hard soles. (Children’s plastic dressing up shoes can be good for this.) As above – put these on your hands rather than your feet as it will make a better noise.  

Slappy hands – a large pair of washing-up gloves make a good slap-slap sound.  

An egg – tap anything hard with a spoon or use an egg-shaped shaker if you happen to have one 

Sleep – mime the actions with lots of yawns and maybe a cuddly blanket 

Follow on activity: Gather up some other shoes, gloves etc. and make up your own words and actions (wellies splash, high heel shoes click etc.) 

Silly Old Sun 

This is a nice poem for calming down. Using your finger ‘draw’ a big sun on your child’s back as you read this poem. Draw one sun for each verse of the poem. Alternatively, a good prop for the ‘silly old sun’ is a handwarmer in a little purse or bag. Let your child feel this as you read the poem. (You can buy handwarmers online or in most outdoor shops in the winter months.) 

Raining Flowers 

Let multi-coloured confetti gently fall over your child/children during the first verse. (You could make the confetti yourself from tissue paper.)  

Green confetti would work well for the second verse, or you could let your child handle a bag of peas from the freezer. For the final verse you could use shakers for the sound of rain. (These can just be a Tupperware pot filled with some rice or something similar.) Or simply use your fingertips to make it very gently ‘rain’ on your child’s hands, arms and head. 

Snail 

Using your index and middle finger make an imaginary snail ‘walk’ up your child’s arm as you read this poem.  

Follow on activity: Repeat using other animals with different actions if you like (wriggly snake, gently stomping bear etc.) 

Ready for Spaghetti 

If you really are ready for spaghetti you could have bowls of cold spaghetti for the children to explore as you read and repeat this poem.  

Have a look online for ‘rainbow spaghetti’ if you would like to dye it different colours. Alternatively you could buy some sensory toy spaghetti (look for ‘noodles stretch toy’ or similar) or make some from felt or old newspaper. (Something a bit thicker, more like tagliatelle, works best). 

Bubble 

The perfect accompaniment to a bubble blowing session! Read the poem with lots of repetition and exaggeration. Teach a couple of lines (maybe the first two lines) to the children or the other adults in the room so that you can chant them all together. If you have a large piece of Lycra in your classroom you can make some felt ‘bubbles’ (circles of felt of various sizes) and stretching the Lycra out between you in the group you can bounce these ‘bubbles’ on the Lycra as you read the poem. See if you can bounce every bubble off the Lycra and on to the floor before you get to the last line!  

Caution: Not all of these prop suggestions are toys! The props I suggest should not be used by children unsupervised.