If you walk into a school, preschool, or daycare, it isn’t surprising to come across a sensory path! These paths have gained quite the buzz, and for good reason. They allow kids an opportunity to move and work on skills such as eye-hand coordination and spatial awareness, both of which are crucial for learning and development.
Unfortunately, many of the “pretty” sensory or motor paths that you see while browsing the internet or Instagram come at a high cost. The good news is that you can easily create your own DIY sensory path with items that you have on hand or that don’t have the high price tag.
DIY Sensory Path
If you follow Pink Oatmeal on Instagram, you’ve probably seen some of the ways that we have created our own DIY sensory paths and motor paths. All of these have been created from items I have around the house and/or have collected in my time as a physical therapist working in the schools.
The following links are affiliate links. I only recommend items I personally use and love.
Some materials that are useful in creating your own path include painter’s tape, regular tape, an agility ladder, cones, hurdles, and balance beam. These are just suggestions. Of course in some cases you can’t leave out items like cones , hurdles or agility ladders, that’s where getting creative with tape and printables is very helpful.
Examples of DIY Sensory and Motor Paths
Below are some examples of different sensory and motor paths. You can combine these ideas to make a larger path or take bits and pieces from each idea to create the ideal path for your setting.
Starting out with some basic ideas for jumping or using an agility ladder. Painter’s tape can be used in place of the actual agility ladder and actual beam used in this video to create an agility ladder or spacing between the footprints. The footprints can be found in the Pink Oatmeal freebie library.
Adding in vertical surface work is awesome for kids. An example of this is the handprints on the wall. Not only are these great vertical work, but they also require motor planning and visual perceptual skills to correctly match the hand prints.
Using themes is a fun way to change up your sensory and motor paths. Below is an example of how a construction or transportation theme can easily be incorporated into your DIY design.
Changing up a path or creating a path to fit the current season or holiday is another way to engage kids and create an awesome movement opportunity. Below you will see a Valentine’s Day themed path and winter themed path. Many of the movement are similar, it’s a completely different path by changing up the theme.
Pink Oatmeal members have access to all of the printables shown here and more for FREE for a Lifetime. Be sure to check out the dog paws, dinosaur prints, and forest animal prints in the members only library. If you aren’t a member you can purchase several different sensory path printables in the Pink Oatmeal shop or become a member yourself and experience LIFETIME access to endless movement, fine motor and gross motor printables to create your DIY sensory paths and so much more!