Awaken the senses with our fantastic activities! Your class will love tapping into areas of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Be sure to bookmark your favorite activities below to return and implement them in your classes, or at home, in future learning sessions.
1. Read A Five Senses Book
Reading about the five senses is a fantastic method of introducing the related vocabulary to your students. It dramatically increases comprehension when students can visually see a concept and then develop an understanding from there.
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2. Sense of Sight Activity
Playing eye-spy with your learners prompts them to be aware of their surroundings and learn how to describe certain concepts.
Learn more: Indulgy
3. Sense of Taste Activity
Make edible paint by mixing kool-aid, water, and flour before letting your inner artist shine!
Learn more: Little Rock Family
4. Sense of Hearing Activity
Go for a listening walk and let your students note down what they hear. Once back in the classroom, allow the students to share their notes with one another.
Learn more: Raising Children
5. Sense of Touch Activity
Blindfold learners and give them an item such as pine cones, shells, or sand to feel. Ask them to describe the texture and guess what it is.
Learn more: faculty.washington.edu
6. Musical Shakers and Rain Makers
Appeal to one's sense of hearing by making musical shakers and rainmakers. Simply fill an empty, sealable vessel with beads, beans, or other small objects which will rattle when shaken.
Learn more: Adventures and Play
7. Scratch and Sniff
Have a wonderful time making scratch and sniff projects such as posters or advertisements. Implement this activity with the help of glue, flavored Jell-O, and construction paper.
Learn more: fun-a-day.com
8. Mystery Touch Bag
Students should receive a bag filled with mystery items and have to describe them. For an added element of fun, ask two students to compete with each other to see who can guess the most items correctly.
Learn more: Confidence Meets Parenting
9. Scented Paintings
This low-fuss activity appeals to the students' sense of smell. Engage them in a scented painting task and try to match the scent to what they are being asked to paint, for example, paint a strawberry using strawberry-scented paint.
Learn more: Play to Learn Pre-School
10. Glockenspiel
Incorporating music into any class is a sure winner! Your students will love the opportunity to get creative and craft a song with the rest of their peers.
Learn more: Gift of Curiosity
11. The Hungry Caterpillar Taste Activity
This activity is so adaptable and could be changed to suit a class dealing with the senses, color, or number recognition. Replace the phonics, on the paper plates below, with food and let your kiddies munch through their delicious snacks. This one is sure to tingle the taste buds!
Learn more: Adventures and Play
12. Paint With Seasoning
Appeal to sensory creativity by painting on a piece of paper with different seasonings and spices. This fun activity allows learners to get in touch with their creative side and fosters freedom of expression.
Learn more: Learn with Play at Home
13. Sandpaper Sun
This art activity allows learners to fine-tune their painting and cutting motor skills. Sandpaper art allows learners to have fun and engage with new textures. We invite you to see how many textured pictures you can create!
Learn more: No Time for Flash Cards
14. Celery Absorption
Explore the sense of sight as you observe celery absorption, in action! Watch the magic happen as the celery stalks and their leaves begin to change color according to the food coloring used.
Learn more: Learn Play Imagine
15. Rain stick Music Bottle
Rainsticks are always a hit with young learners. This activity invokes a sense of calm as learners craft their music bottles and are then able to enjoy the distinctive rain sound thereafter.
Learn more: Rhythms of Play
16. Rubber Band Sound Creation
This marvelous sound experiment introduces students to the very important concept of sound absorption and distribution. This rubber band sound activity is quick and easy to organize and taps into one's sense of sound.
Learn more: Science Sparks
17. Sound Matching Game
Enjoy sensory-style play with this fun matching activity. Fill small candy containers with different seeds and wrap them in aluminum foil. Let the students shake a variety of containers in an attempt at finding matching pairs that sound the same.
Learn more: fun-a-day.com
18. What Makes a Sound
This cool activity is strong in its auditory appeal! By filling an empty baking tray with an assortment of sound-producing items, you can invite learners to explore different sounds and how to describe them.
Learn more: Pre-Kinders
19. Visual Tracking
Visual Tracking is an inexpensive activity that helps foster skills of visual processing and works well for deaf people. Arrange colorful bottle caps in a circular formation on a table. Then place a colorful pom in the middle of a circle and prompt the student to find all the matching bottle caps without moving their head, only tracking with their eyes.
Learn more: theottoolbox.com
20. Scented Rainbow
This child-friendly scented rainbow activity is one of our favorite scent-based activities. Make scented baking soda ice cubes that are colored with food coloring. Create a chemical reaction by bringing vinegar into the mix.
Learn more: fun-a-day.com
21. Orange and Lemon Playdough
This is the perfect at-home or in-class activity. Playdough and the use thereof provide our little ones with so many educational benefits. Better enjoy your dough after it's been marked with your favorite scents such as citrus fruit or even coffee beans.
Learn more: The Imagination Tree
22. Explore Sound With a Hanger and String
What a unique way of tapping into the sounds in your environment! Spark critical thinking by prompting your learners with questions as to what they hear.
Learn more: Buggy and Buddy
23. Sound Sensory Jars
Place a variety of items into different jars. Sound jars can be used for an assortment of activities, including comparing and contrasting, matching, feeling the texture, etc.
Learn more: Hands-On As We Grow
The benefits of incorporating sense-based activities are endless so why wait to adopt any into your future lessons! Help foster cognitive growth, develop motor and problem-solving skills as well as encourage social interaction and natural inquiry.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 5 senses?
Humans have 5 senses namely; sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch. Our sensory abilities help us process and make sense of the world around us. They are therefore vital components of everyday life and should therefore be worked into lesson plans from a young age.
When should I teach my child about the 5 senses?
Children should be introduced to their senses from a very young age. They should be given the opportunity, as far as possible, to start learning about the senses at Kindergarten age. Introduce the concepts slowly and in a fun way so that the children absorb and process the knowledge in a manageable manner.
25 Fantastic Phonics Activities for Kids