Why Creative Activities Matter: Inclusion Is Built Through Play

Let’s face it, sitting still, silently listening, and copying from the board isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. Not for neurodivergent learners, not for neurotypical ones, and definitely not for that kid who’s just discovered the magic of clicking their pen non-stop.

In 2025, classrooms are finally catching up with brains. Around 15% of students globally have identified special educational needs, but every child benefits from creative, inclusive approaches that honour different ways of learning. The right activity can do more than just tick off curriculum boxes. It can build confidence, create friendships, and turn a tough Monday morning into a sensory-friendly adventure.

Whether you’re a teacher, teaching assistant, parent, or homeschooler, this post has your back. We’ve gathered 50 of the easiest, most creative activities to bring inclusion to life. These are quick to set up, adaptable for different needs, and best of all, genuinely fun. Because fun is not a reward. It’s how children learn.

So grab your glitter glue, your sensory bin, or just a large bag of rice and a spoon. Let’s build classrooms where every child feels like they belong.

The Magic of Creative, Inclusive Activities

Inclusive classrooms don’t just happen. They’re built, moment by moment, through the choices we make. The materials we provide. The space we give children to show who they are and how they learn.

The Inclusive Activity Challenge

Keeping everyone engaged is no small task. Your class may include children with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, speech and language needs, anxiety, trauma histories, sensory processing differences, English as an additional language, or all of the above. You may have a student who is reading Shakespeare and another who is still learning to hold a pencil. And you have 30 minutes, a tray of buttons, and a vague memory of your PGCE.

The Benefits of Using Creative Activities to Promote Inclusion

Creative activities bridge these differences. They provide students with tools to express what they know, eliminating the need for verbal instruction or written work. They strengthen executive functioning, communication, and emotional regulation. They give anxious learners something safe to explore. And, yes, they make lessons more fun.

This year, education is finally embracing flexible, neurodiversity-affirming practices. Choice boards, movement breaks, sensory circuits, and visual supports are no longer ‘interventions’. They’re part of universal design. And that means you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to include everyone. You just need to roll it through a tray of kinetic sand.

You’ll find 50 activity ideas grouped by theme, each one quick to adapt and use across age ranges. Pick one, tweak it for your learners, and go. No glitter? No problem. Activities don’t need to be perfect. They just need to feel possible.

Hands-On Learning: Let Them Touch Everything (Within Reason)

Children learn through doing. And when they can’t sit still, that’s often because their bodies are telling them they need to move, explore, and connect with the world physically.

Inclusive Creative Activities for All Learners

Tactile Fun: Learning Through Touch and Texture

Touch is one of our most powerful learning channels, offering children with autism, coordination difficulties, or sensory processing differences a pathway to success where traditional methods might fall short. These hands-on activities support motor development while providing the sensory input many children crave.

Build Shapes with Playdough – Transform simple playdough into letters, numbers, emotion faces, or even fantastical spaghetti monsters. This activity strengthens hand muscles essential for writing while making abstract concepts tangible. Children who struggle with letter recognition often find success when they can physically form each shape with their hands.

Sort Textured Objects – Gather items that are soft, rough, squishy, and hard for sensory discrimination games. Use fabric scraps, sandpaper, stress balls, and wooden blocks. This sorting activity helps children develop crucial sensory processing skills that support everything from choosing appropriate clothing to handling classroom materials confidently.

Create Sensory Collages – Invite everyone to contribute feathers, foil, fabric scraps, or natural materials to a group artwork. This collaborative creation allows each child to engage at their comfort level while building a shared masterpiece that celebrates different textures and contributions.

Ice Rescue Adventures – Freeze small toys or objects in ice blocks, then provide warm water and pipettes for a thrilling rescue mission. This activity combines science exploration with fine motor practice, and the sensory contrast of cold ice and warm water provides rich tactile input that many children find regulating.

Mystery Feely Bags – Fill fabric bags with various objects for children to explore through touch alone. Ask them to guess what’s inside and describe how it feels using descriptive words. This builds vocabulary, sensory awareness, and confidence in verbal expression for children who might otherwise be reluctant to speak up.

Crafty Tasks: Building Skills Through Creation

Fine motor development and visual processing skills flourish when children engage in purposeful crafting activities. These tasks provide structure while allowing for creative expression and personal choice.

Cut and Paste Patterns – Create sequences using shapes, colours, or themes that children can extend and complete. This seemingly simple activity strengthens the small muscles needed for writing while developing visual sequencing skills crucial for reading and mathematics.

Group Mural Projects – Assign each student a section of a large paper or wall space to paint or decorate, then join all pieces together. This approach allows introverted children to work independently while contributing to something larger, building both confidence and community connection.

Scented Clay Letters – Add essential oils, spices, or vanilla extract to clay before shaping letters and numbers. The additional sensory input of smell helps cement learning in memory while making abstract symbols more concrete and memorable.

Personal Interest Flags – Provide triangle or rectangular templates for children to create flags representing their hobbies, favourite animals, or family traditions. This activity validates each child’s unique interests while building sharing and presentation skills in a low-pressure format.

Cardboard Architecture – Transform cereal boxes, toilet paper tubes, and packaging into castles, robots, or entire cities. This open-ended construction work develops spatial reasoning and problem-solving skills while accommodating different ability levels and creative visions.

Exploring Materials: Discovery Through Investigation

Material exploration activities engage natural curiosity while building scientific thinking and mathematical concepts. These investigations work particularly well for children who learn best through experimentation and discovery.

Colour Mixing Laboratories – Set up stations with pipettes, food colouring, and water for independent colour exploration. Add paper towels for cleanup and absorption experiments. This self-directed activity teaches cause and effect while developing fine motor precision and colour theory understanding.

Mathematical Block Stacking – Use blocks for counting, measuring, and building towers according to specific number or shape patterns. This hands-on approach to mathematics helps children who struggle with abstract number concepts by making math physical and manipulable.

Finger-Paint Storytelling – Act out favourite books using finger paints, allowing children to become characters through colour and movement. This multisensory approach to literature helps children with different learning styles connect with stories while expressing their understanding creatively.

Sensory Tray Investigations – Fill large trays with rice, lentils, or shredded paper for pouring and scooping activities. Add measuring cups, funnels, and small toys for extended exploration. These activities provide calming sensory input while building mathematical concepts like volume and measurement.

Texture Path Adventures – Create pathways using bubble wrap, felt, foil, and other materials taped to the floor for barefoot exploration (or with shoes for more cautious explorers). This full-body sensory experience helps children regulate their nervous systems while building body awareness and descriptive vocabulary.

Multisensory Engagement: Appealing to All the Senses

When learning engages multiple senses simultaneously, information becomes more memorable and accessible. This approach particularly benefits children with dyslexia, ADHD, and other learning differences who may struggle with single-modality instruction.

Sound and Movement Integration

Mathematical Music Making – Transform skip-counting and multiplication tables into catchy songs and chants. Children who struggle with rote memorization often excel when rhythm and melody provide additional memory pathways.

Syllable Rhythm Clapping – Match hand claps to word syllables, supporting speech and language development while building phonological awareness essential for reading success.

Story Dance Drama – Act out characters and plot points through movement, allowing children to literally embody their learning while supporting comprehension and retention.

Percussion Counting Games – Use drums, shakers, or improvised instruments like rulers to make mathematics auditory and rhythmic. This approach helps children with attention difficulties stay focused while building number sense.

Follow-the-Leader Focus Building – Lead sequences of movements that children must observe and replicate, building attention skills and body awareness while providing needed movement breaks.

Visual Learning Enhancements

Emotion Expression Art – Draw different emotions on large emoji faces, then act them out for social-emotional learning that combines visual, kinesthetic, and dramatic elements.

Light Table Explorations – Use light tables or DIY versions with tablets and translucent containers for tracing, letter formation, and colour mixing activities that captivate visual learners.

Tactile Letter Formation – Practice writing letters in sand, salt, or finger paint trays, providing multisensory feedback that helps cement proper letter formation in muscle memory.

Picture-Prompt Storytelling – Provide visual story starters that children can expand through writing, drawing, or verbal storytelling, supporting children who think in images rather than words.

Hands-On Sorting Systems – Create classification activities using real objects sorted by colour, shape, size, or function, making abstract categorization concepts concrete and manipulable.

Multi-Sensory Combinations

Scent Memory Matching – Use coffee beans, lemon peels, mint leaves, and other safe scents for memory games and discussions, tapping into the powerful connection between smell and memory.

Rhythmic Reading Practice – Tap steady beats while reading aloud to build fluency and rhythm, particularly helpful for children with dyslexia who benefit from multisensory reading approaches.

Interactive Video Learning – Pause educational videos to act out answers or demonstrate concepts.

Sound Identification Games – Record familiar classroom and environmental sounds for guessing games that build auditory processing skills and vocabulary.

Literary Sensory Bags – Create collections of objects that match story elements, allowing children to touch, smell, and manipulate items while following along with books.

Group Collaboration: Learning Together Successfully

Social interaction enhances learning, but traditional group work can overwhelm neurodivergent children. These structured collaborative activities build teamwork skills while respecting individual needs and processing styles.

Structured Team Building

Cooperative Tower Construction – Take turns adding blocks to a shared structure, teaching patience, planning, and compromise while creating something beautiful together.

Story Role-Play Adventures – Assign character parts with simple props, allowing children to practice social interaction within the safe structure of familiar stories. Our dressing up sensory stories are great for this.

Partner Puzzle Solving – Work in pairs to complete puzzles, encouraging collaborative thinking without requiring extensive verbal communication.

Collaborative Sorting Projects – Sort materials together, then create shared charts or displays, combining individual strengths toward common goals.

Chain Reaction Engineering – Build simple cause-and-effect machines using classroom materials, teaching both scientific principles and teamwork.

Creative Collaboration

Class Book Creation – Each child contributes one page to a shared book, building community while allowing individual expression and skill levels.

Team Poster Design – Assign specific roles like drawer, writer, or decorator, ensuring every child has a meaningful contribution to the final product.

Story Ball Sharing – Pass a soft ball around the circle, with each child adding one line to a collaborative story when they catch it.

Shared Space Decoration – Work together to beautify classroom objects like pencil holders or welcome signs, building ownership and pride in the learning environment.

Community Building Projects – Create Lego towns, cardboard cities, or other shared environments where every student adds meaningful elements.

Inclusive Play Adaptations

Visual Tag Games – Use coloured cards or symbols instead of verbal cues for playground games, making them accessible to children with hearing differences or processing delays.

Buddy Partnership Systems – Pair children as equal partners rather than helper-helpee relationships, fostering mutual respect and shared learning.

Sensory-Friendly Scavenger Hunts – Design quiet exploration games with visual clues that can be completed in calm spaces rather than chaotic environments.

Card-Based Turn Taking – Use visual systems rather than verbal rules for games, reducing anxiety and confusion while building social skills.

Modified Charades – Choose familiar categories and encourage creative expression methods beyond traditional acting, accommodating different communication styles.

Flexible Skill-Building: Adapting Learning for Every Child

Effective inclusive education modifies environments and approaches rather than trying to change children. These adaptable activities meet learners where they are while building essential skills.

Learning Adaptations

Concrete Mathematics – Use beans, buttons, or other manipulatives to make abstract mathematical concepts tangible and understandable.

Vocabulary Embodiment – Act out new words using gestures, sounds, or mime, helping children internalize meaning through multiple pathways.

Visual Timeline Creation – Draw sequences for stories, historical events, or daily schedules, supporting children who process information better visually than verbally.

Interest-Based Job Sorting – Match classroom responsibilities to individual interests and strengths, then rotate to build new skills and prevent boredom.

Collaborative Room Labeling – Work together to create labels using words, pictures, or symbols, building literacy while creating supportive environmental cues.

Choice-Based Learning Activities

Multiple Response Methods – Allow children to demonstrate understanding through writing, building, drawing, or acting, validating different types of intelligence and processing styles.

Learning Menu Systems – Provide options within structured categories, giving children agency while ensuring coverage of essential skills.

Self-Selected Regulation Tools – Offer various calming options like fidgets, headphones, or movement breaks, teaching self-advocacy and awareness.

Interest-Driven Sorting – Use personal preferences rather than ability levels for grouping activities, building engagement and reducing comparison pressure.

Game-Based Skill Practice – Incorporate dice, spinners, and choice cards into skill-building activities, making practice feel playful rather than drill-like.

Reflection and Growth

Achievement Documentation – Create cards where children can draw or write about their learning, building metacognitive awareness and communication skills.

Emotional Expression Art – Use painting or drawing to explore feelings about learning, providing emotional outlets and self-awareness opportunities.

Props-Based Retelling – Use puppets, toys, or household objects to retell stories or explain concepts, supporting children who think and communicate better with concrete supports.

Peer Appreciation Systems – Exchange positive notes or comments, building classroom community and social-emotional skills.

Success Celebration Walls – Display achievements like “I helped a friend,” “I tried something new,” or “I finished my work,” celebrating effort and growth over perfection.

Bringing These Activities to Life

Success with inclusive activities comes from starting small, adapting thoughtfully, and focusing on engagement over perfection. Choose one or two activities that match your current resources and your students’ needs. Notice who participates, who smiles, and who surprises you with their contributions – these observations are your most important measures of success.

Remember that the goal isn’t to create elaborate productions, but to provide meaningful learning experiences that welcome every child. Use recycled materials, simple setups, and flexible expectations. The magic happens not in perfect execution, but in the moment when a previously disengaged child suddenly lights up with interest and connection.

Conclusion: More Fun, More Belonging

There you have it. Over 50 easy, creative activity ideas to help your classroom feel more inclusive, more connected, and a lot more fun. These ideas won’t solve everything, but they might open a door for one student who’s been stuck outside.

So give one a try this week. Share your wins and weird moments on X. And if you want to make life even easier, download our free Inclusive Activity Toolkit. It includes a printable prep guide, quick-reference activity cards, and templates you can adapt on the fly.

Next stop? Explore more SEN teaching tips on inclusiveteach.com and join our newsletter for weekly resources, laughs, and the occasional glitter-related emergency.

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