2. Sight - Take the children out for a walk and ask them to look about them. On return to the classroom, see how many things they can remember seeing. Ask them to draw from memory some part of the scene outside.

Play games like ‘I spy’ and ‘Kim’s’ game to improve their observational skills. Set up a table of things to look through. Nowadays there are all sorts of small toys available which let you see strange images - kaleidoscopes and ‘insect eye lenses’ prism, glasses, etc. Include translucent things like coloured cellophane and thin fabrics. The children can look at a particular object such as a plant through these and describe how it appears.

Another idea is to have a glass or tank of water - how does the view of some something change when you look at it through the water? Do marbles look bigger or smaller when you drop them in?

Let the children take it in turns to be blindfolded and led around an obstacle course by a partner.

The next suggestion is of a ‘feely box’ - simply a crisp box or similar with a hole cut for a hand to go in and three or four objects inside with which the children are familiar.

Let the children take it in turns to identify the objects by touch alone.

Ask the children to go around the room in small groups and find as many different surfaces as possible and label them hard, soft, smooth, shiny etc.

You could ask the children to try and invent a ‘touch ‘game’ e.g. try to connect a nut and bolt inside the ‘feely box’ without being able to see what you are doing.

Ask the children to sit quietly and identify any sounds they can hear. Take the class to different parts of the school and ask them to close their eyes and identify any sounds they can hear.

Take the children out for a listening walk along the same lines.

Play some prerecorded sounds to the children and ask them to identify them and describe the sort of sound - loud , soft, rasping, cracking etc. The BBC sell a sound effects tape which could be useful here.

Make some sounds behind a screen - keys rattling etc and ask the children to identify them.

Make some ‘noisy boxes’ - sealed boxes with different items inside - rice, marbles etc and ask the children to identify the contents by shaking the boxes.

Ask the children to think of ways of communicating without using sound.

Let the children have a tasting session of assorted fruit and vegetables - include some they may not have tried before - e.g. mango, lychee, celery .

Try repeating this with a blindfold. Can they tell what they are tasting?

Now try but let them hold their noses. Do things still taste the same? Can they identify what they are eating without the sense of smell? They can record which tastes they like or dislike.

Smell - Set up a display of items which smell - leather, flowers, perfume, cabbage etc.

Take the children around the inside of the school for a walk and see if they can detect any different smells. Repeat this outside the school.

A leaf collection could be made while you are about and the leaves gently crushed to release any smell they might have. The children might find this better if they are blindfolded.

Make up a smell test - chop up assorted fruit and vegetables into small pieces and put a piece of each into a separate plastic cup. Number each of the cups and let the children smell each one and write down what they think the item is.

Ask a small group of children to go outside the room. Put a tiny drop of perfume on the hand of one of the remaining children and see if the returning group can identify the child with the perfume.