Feely Bag

If you've only got ten minutes to spend doing something with your child and you're looking for an activity that's easy to set up, this is it! I got four items of different textures in a little platter: a flower hair clip, a foam block, a glass perfume bottle and a wooden train. I showed them to Eden and gave the items to her to feel, one at a time. We talked about different words that could describe that item beyond just describing its appearance. For example, the perfume bottle was cold, hard, had straight bits and round bits and smelled 'pretty'. This will give your littlie more words to add to their ever-expanding vocabulary, helps them to think about other properties of an item (beyond only using visual cues) and primes them for the next part of the game.

After we had talked about all four items, I put the platter behind my back and removed one item. The item was then put into a pillowcase (you could use a bag, but it has to be opaque), and I asked Eden to put her hand into the 'bag' and guess which object was in there using only touch. I kept the remaining items hidden from view and made sure she couldn't see inside the pillowcase, so she only had her sense of touch to rely on. If she had difficulty, I prompted her by asking questions which used the vocabulary from earlier: is it cold? Is it soft? Does it have hard edges? etc, etc.
She really enjoyed this game, once she got the hang of it.We did this about 2-3 times with each item, and I sometimes had two objects in there at once for her to guess.
After a bit, I turned it into a memory game. I got rid of the pillowcase, and simply removed one item from the platter when she had her eyes closed, and she had to guess which item was missing. Next time, I'll add a few more things and see how she goes.