Sensory Story: Exploring Colours

This rhyming sensory story is designed to weave rhythm, tactile elements, and multisensory exploration into a captivating experience. It’s crafted with love and care to meet the unique needs of every child, including those with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). Through rich sensory input and gentle, inclusive storytelling, this activity provides a pathway for engagement, interaction, and joy, ensuring all learners feel valued, connected, and part of the magical journey. Gather your group in a circle. Use sensory props for each colour (e.g., fabric, scented items, toys) to enhance the experience. Allow children to interact with the items as you narrate.

An Exploring Colour Themed sensory Story

Verse 1: Red

Red is the colour of a big, bright flame,

It’s warm, it’s bold, never quite the same.

(Show a red scarf or shiny red paper.)

Feel it flicker, smooth and bright,

Red is the colour of firelight!

(Sensory Action: Wave the red scarf gently like flames.)

Verse 2: Blue

Blue is the ocean, the sky up high,

A cool, calm colour where clouds drift by.

(Use a soft blue fabric or bubble wrap for texture.)

Feel the water, cool and clear,

Blue is peaceful, like waves you hear.

(Sensory Action: Let children crinkle bubble wrap or blow bubbles.)

Verse 3: Yellow

Yellow is the sunshine, so warm and bright,

It tickles your skin and fills the light.

(Use a yellow pompom or feather for tickling.)

Tickle, tickle, soft as can be,

Yellow’s the colour of the buzzing bee.

(Sensory Action: Gently tickle hands with the feather or pompom.)

Verse 4: Green

Green is the grass where we run and play,

It whispers softly as it sways.

(Provide a piece of fake grass or green leaves.)

Feel the texture, smooth and light,

Green is the forest, a calming sight.

(Sensory Action: Let children stroke the grass or leaves.)

Verse 5: Orange

Orange is juicy, it’s bright and sweet,

Like tasty fruit that we love to eat.

(Give an orange-scented item or an orange object.)

Smell the orange, a fruity treat,

Orange is happy, bold and neat!

(Sensory Action: Let children smell the orange scent or hold the object.)

Verse 6: Purple

Purple’s the colour of mystery and dreams,

It sparkles softly, or so it seems.

(Use a sparkly purple fabric or lavender scent.)

Feel the shimmer or smell the air,

Purple’s the colour of magic, rare.

(Sensory Action: Let children touch the fabric or smell lavender.)

Closing Verse: Rainbow

Now we’ve found colours, one by one,

Each with its texture, its smell, its fun.

(Show a rainbow scarf or parachute.)

Let’s wave the rainbow high and low,

Colours together make the world glow!

(Sensory Action: Lift and wave the rainbow scarf or parachute together.)

Download the Free PDF EBook of Our Exploring Colours Ebook.

Exploring Colours Sensory Story-compressed Download

This rhyming sensory story combines rhythm, tactile elements, and sensory exploration, making it an engaging activity for all children, including those with SEN.

Here’s an SEO-optimised section you can add just before the “Download the Free PDF EBook” heading, focusing on the keyword “Benefits of Exploring Colours”:

Benefits of Exploring Colours in Sensory Learning

Exploring colours through sensory stories offers far more than fun, it’s a powerful educational tool that supports children’s cognitive, emotional, and sensory development. For learners with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities such as PMLD or autism, colour-themed sensory experiences create accessible entry points to communication, regulation, and understanding the world.

1. Enhances Visual Discrimination and Focus
By introducing vibrant, contrasting colours, children learn to notice, compare, and identify visual differences, essential early skills for literacy and daily life. Colour recognition also strengthens attention to detail and supports visual processing.

2. Encourages Emotional Expression
Colours are deeply connected to emotions. Associating colours with textures, scents, or sounds helps children learn to express how they feel in a non-verbal way. For example, yellow may become linked to happiness and blue to calm, offering a sensory-based emotional vocabulary.

3. Develops Communication and Language
Whether signing “red” or saying “soft blue fabric,” the benefits of exploring colours through sensory play invite rich communication. Repetitive, rhyming lines paired with colour props boost expressive language and support AAC users in making choices.

4. Stimulates Curiosity and Engagement
Using a multisensory approach makes learning irresistible. Children are naturally drawn to colourful, interactive experiences, which helps to maintain motivation and reduce anxiety around participation.

5. Supports Sensory Integration
Each colour experience in this story incorporates touch, smell, sight, sound, and sometimes movement. This holistic approach helps children explore and process different sensory inputs safely and meaningfully—especially important for those with sensory processing challenges.

6. Encourages Inclusion and Shared Attention
Group sensory activities focused on colours foster a sense of belonging. Every child, regardless of ability, can engage in their own way—whether by smelling an orange, waving a rainbow scarf, or simply watching the colours flow.

We create magical moments that teach, soothe, and connect by weaving colour into rhythm, routine, and sensory exploration. These benefits go beyond the classroom and ripple into every part of a child’s development.

10 PMLD and EYFS-friendly Exploring Colours activities

1. Rainbow Sensory Scarf Dance

Use coloured chiffon scarves or a rainbow parachute. Play calming music while children wave scarves in time with the beat. Focus on one colour at a time and name it aloud as you move.
Supports: movement, visual tracking, group participation.

2. Colour Water Play

Tint water trays with safe food colouring and add matching items (blue sponges, red cups, etc.). Allow children to splash, pour, and explore freely.
Supports: cause and effect, fine motor skills, colour recognition.

3. Coloured Light Exploration

Use torches with coloured filters, LED light panels, or fibre optic lights in a darkened room. Encourage children to track or reach toward colours as they appear.
Supports: visual engagement, choice making, anticipation.

4. Textured Colour Boards

Create sensory boards with materials in one colour per section—e.g., green felt, green sequins, green sponge. Let children explore with hands or feet.
Supports: tactile discrimination, exploration, consistency.

5. Scented Colour Discovery Bottles

Fill plastic bottles with water, glitter, oil, and colour-themed scents (e.g., yellow with lemon, purple with lavender). Seal securely. Let children shake and observe.
Supports: olfactory awareness, visual stimulation, calming regulation.

6. Feely Bags – What’s the Colour?

Put one coloured item in each fabric bag—blue sponge, red feather, green rubber ball. Let children reach in and guess or name the colour by feel.
Supports: prediction, tactile memory, language development.

7. Gloop and Glitter – Messy Colour Play

Make edible gloop (cornflour and water) and tint with food colouring. Add matching glitter or sequins. Offer spoons or hands for exploring.
Supports: sensory processing, messy play tolerance, fine motor control.

8. Colour-Themed Sound Boxes

Create colour-coded boxes filled with sound-making items—e.g., orange maracas, blue bells, green chimes. Children explore the boxes by listening and matching.
Supports: auditory processing, choice making, cause and effect.

9. Paint with Ice

Freeze water mixed with food colouring in ice cube trays with lolly sticks. Let children “paint” on paper or tuff trays as the ice melts.
Supports: cold tolerance, visual effects, motor control.

10. Outdoor Colour Hunt

Take children outside with coloured swatches and help them find matching objects—green leaves, brown bark, blue sky. Provide coloured baskets to collect safe items.
Supports: nature connection, exploration, colour matching.

Alternative Sensory Elements for Each Verse