5 Fun Summer Sensory Crafts for Students with CVI

Creating tactile crafts can be such a beneficial activity for students with CVI, as well as students with multiple disabilities. There are so many important skills that can be taught and practiced when completing crafts including various fine motor skills, color identification, choice-making, requesting (scissors, glue, paper, etc), and so much more! Depending on students’ needs, crafts can be adapted to promote success. In this blog post, I share FIVE summer sensory crafts ideas for special needs and students with CVI.

Before sharing the crafts, I want to share the materials you will need for your students to complete these summer craft ideas. I tried to use similar materials in the hopes of limiting what you would need to purchase or find for these summer sensory crafts for kids.

You will need the following materials:

• textured paper (metallic paper, glitter foam paper, corrugated paper, and felt)
• black beans
• sandpaper
• pom poms
• popsicle sticks
• googly eyes (optional)

What is my Favorite Summer Sensory Crafts for Special Needs?

How adorable and engaging is this textured fish craft? My favorite part is that each student’s fish looks different!

For this craft:

1. Print out a simple fish template from Google on white paper or glitter foam.
2. Cut out the template and glue it onto black cardstock. This contrast will allow students to see where they need to place the pom poms.
3. Put a googly eye near the front of the fish’s face. If you don’t have a googly eye, you can use black paper.
4. Students will then place and glue colorful pom poms on the fish’s body.

Summer Craft Number Two: Popsicle

For this craft:

1. Print out a simple popsicle template from Google on white cardstock. (You actually only need the template for the popsicle part!)
2. Cut out the template on white paper.
3. Glue a popsicle stick on the back.
4. Place it onto black cardstock. This contrast will allow students to see where to place the textured paper. Gluing is optional!
5. Students will cut the textured paper (or construction paper) into pieces (or they could be pre-cut).
6. Then, students will glue the paper onto the popsicle.

Summer Sensory Crafts Number Three: Watermelon

For this craft:

1. Print out a simple watermelon template from Google on white cardstock. 
2. Cut the “rind” off the template. The rind will be traced onto green textured paper of choice. I used corrugated paper. The “fruit” of the watermelon will be traced onto red textured paper of choice. I used red glitter foam.
3. Students will then cut out these pieces, or they can be cut out by an adult.
4. The students will then glue the pieces together on black cardstock.
5. Lastly, students will glue black beans onto the fruit of the watermelon for the “seeds.”

DIY Sensory Craft Number Four: Sun

For this craft:

1. Cut out a large circle on orange or yellow textured paper.
2. Then cut out small rectangles on different yellow, orange, or gold textured papers.
3. Provide students with black cardstock.
4. Students will then glue the large circle onto the cardstock. 
5. Students will then select the textured rectangles to glue on to create the rays of the sun. 
6. (If necessary, you can print out a simple sun template from Google to trace.)

Summer Craft Number Five: Ice Cream Cone

For this craft:

1. Download and print out a simple ice cream template from Google.
2. Trace the template of the cone onto sandpaper. Trace the template of the ice cream onto white glitter foam or white foam paper.
3. Glue the ice cream on the cone on black cardstock to provide contrast.
4. Students will then select glitter foam to snip to make sprinkles or jimmies (depending on where you live!!)
5. Students will glue the sprinkles (jimmies) onto the ice cream!

Need ideas for types of textured materials to use? Be sure to check out this blog post.

Need other summer or extended school year ideas? Be sure to check out this blog post!

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