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The Six Holiday Senses Book

Make this texture book to capture the sensory experiences of the holiday season.

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Very young children who are blind or visually impaired learn by using their senses. Each page of this book is dedicated to a different sense – vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. The sixth sense is a feeling – the love that you and your family experience during the holidays or any time of year.

Supplies

• Black cardstock, poster board, mat board, or craft foam sheets
• 5-6” piece of a plastic evergreen or pine bough (we cut ours off from a wreath)
• 3 three-inch cinnamon sticks, glued together and tied with string or narrow ribbon
• 1 three-inch wrapping paper bow, in red, green, gold, or silver mylar
• 1 two- or three-inch candy cane, removed from wrapper
• 3 one-inch jingle bells
• 1 piece of self-adhesive red felt, foam, fur, or textured fabric
• Holiday string
• Curling ribbon or yarn
• Craft glue or hot glue gun
• Hole puncher, craft scissors
• Avery #15264 printable labels, 3 1/3 “x 4”
  

Directions

Cover

First, cut the cardstock, poster board, mat board, or craft foam sheets into seven 5 x 7-inch pieces. We chose black because of the visual contrast, but you can use any color. With a hole puncher, make two holes on the left side (the short edge) of each piece. Make sure you punch the holes in the same place on each page so they line up for the binding.

With a computer printer, print out the words to the book using our template and Avery #15264 printable labels. If you don’t have a printer or the labels, you can also write the words on the pages with a Sharpie marker in a contrasting color (black or white).

Attach the title label, “The Six Holiday Senses,” on the cover of your book.

Pages 1-2

On the back of the cover attach the label, “I touch the Christmas Tree.” On the next page, glue on the piece of plastic evergreen or pine bough.

Pages 3-4

On the back of page 2 attach the label, “I smell the cinnamon.” On the next page, glue on the cinnamon sticks.

Pages 5-6

On the back of page 4 attach the label, “I see the shiny bows.” On the next page, glue on the shiny bow.

Pages 7-8

On the back of page 6 attach the label, “I taste the candy canes.” On the next page, glue on the candy cane, removed from its wrapper.

Pages 9-10

On the back of page 8 attach the label, “I hear the jingle bells.”

For the next page, first string three bells together on holiday string and make a knot to secure them together.

Punch a small hole about ½” from the top of the center of the page.

Thread one end of the string through the hole. Knot the ends of the string together.

Pages 11-12

On the back of page 10 attach the label, “I feel the holiday love.” Cut out a four-inch heart from the felt, foam, fabric, or other material and glue it the next page.

Bind Your Book

Bind your book with curling ribbon or yarn. Don’t use metal ring binders because they can be a choking hazard.

Now, read the book out loud with your child, turning the pages and experiencing the objects together with your senses. Talk about how prickly the evergreen bough is. Did you smell the cinnamon or ring the bells? End the book by giving your child a HUG! Now doesn’t that feel good?