The Senses Theme /  Five Senses / 5 Senses / My Five Senses

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You can do this theme the following days after introducing the body.

The senses are a very important part of any person (or animal).  Most people can (1) touch; (2) hear; (3) see; (4) smell, and (5) taste.  There are many activities you can do with the five senses.  You can choose any game that uses the senses or use the ones listed on this page.   Make different Musical Instrument Crafts (drums, finger cymbals, shakers, tambourine, and trombone).  Play them.  Which senses are you using?

Five Senses Thematic Unit Five Senses provides lesson plans and cross-curricular activities based on the following pieces of literature: The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, The Little Red Hen. This reproducible resource is filled with ready-to-use lessons and cross-curricular activities. Also included are management ideas, creative suggestions for the classroom, and a bibliography.

Sense #1: Touch (Somatosensation): The Hands

Action Verse/Fingerplay

Act out the following action verse using your hands.  Ask you children/students, what other body part opens and shuts?  (Your eyes.)  Do the verse with your eyes.

Open, Shut Them
Open, shut them.
Open, shut them.
Give a little clap.

Open, shut them
Open, shut them.
Put them in your lap.

Hands-on Senses Activities
Goop
Play dough

Colorations Easy-Grip Dough Cutters - Set of 12 Jumbo Easy-Grip dough cutters are specially designed for pre-school children's hands. No small ridges for dough to get caught large handle for easy grip bright colors for visual stimulation. Fun familiar shapes easy for children to identify. Playing with dough and dough tools encourages the developement of fine motor skills and creativity.

Dressing Boards - Set of 6 Each of our new colorful dressing boards features a different manipulative skill - lace tie snap button buckle and zip. Made of brawny tough vinyl with a stiff board backing. Each measures 9W x 12H - in blue red yellow green orange and purple. Ages 3+.

Touch and Match Board Match 'em up while discovering textures. Match the 10 different textured circles with the same texture on the wooden board. Teaches tactile differences and sensory perception. The baseboard is 11L x 4W and the pieces are 1 3/4. Colors may vary.

Tactile Discovery Box 2007 Directors' Choice Award winner! Help children explore their sense of touch and enhance their shape letter and number recognition.

Stacking Shapes Texture Puzzles - Set of 2 Bright colorful puzzle pieces are great to touch and handle - each surface has a terrific texture. Stack and sort the pieces to enhance learning of colors and shapes. Includes a plastic base 12L x 2 1/2W with posts that match designs of the corresponding foam pieces. 22 Foam Pieces.

Tactile Match'em Up Match 'em up while discovering different shapes and textures with this plush set. Reach into the bag and feel the matching pairs. Use trays to match pairs - even play dominoes! Includes: 18 fabric shapes (3 of each texture/shape) 6 wooden trays and a sturdy storage bag. This plush set can be used with the item #MATCHING - Tactile Discovery Box.

Tactile Touchables Scratchy slippery silky bumpy or soft? Twenty 2-3 textured squares (ten different pairs) for matching and tactile discrimination. Includes tip sheet and bag. You'll want to include this engaging item in your classroom or child-care center today.

Fun Tactile Sea Creatures - Set of 5 Colorful huggable ocean friends! Turtle fish seahorse and crab each have different texture ideal for tactile and visual development. Machine washable. Ages 6 months and up. The smallest piece measures 7W x 2 1/2H while the largest piece measures 10W x 1H.

Texture Feel
Have different objects and have the children feel different textures.  For example: two or more objects that are: rough, smooth, bumpy, sticky, slippery.

Examples of:
Rough (bumpy): sand paper, rocks, coins, wall or door, etc.
Smooth: rock, door, taffeta fabric, counter top, etc.
Sticky: tape, stickers, etc.
Slippery: Place a little bit of oil on a plate, etc.

Feeling Box
Make one hole big enough to fit your hand through a narrow box and to the other side.  Place different objects in a small container (e.g. noodles, etc.).  Place in an empty tissue box or small box to fit the container.  Have the child feel what it is and tell you what they think it is. 

Feeling Bag
Place various objects in different lunch sized paper bags.  For example, orange, apple, lemon, shoe, coin, facial tissue paper, etc.  Have the child feel what it is and tell you what they think it is.

Feel It
Place different objects in a container (e.g. rice, beans, sand, etc.).   Fill it with your hands.

Fabric Feel
Some fabrics have different textures (depending which way you move your hand across it).  For: smooth or ripped: corduroy fabric; and smooth or rough: velvet.
Purchase various types of fabric.  Let the child feel the fabric.

Activities
-Take off your shoes or place your hands in the following objects (mud, sand, rocks, rice, beans, etc.)

Arts & Crafts
Use sponges, fingers, cotton swaps, different types of cooked noodles, etc. to make a painting using paint, finger paint (or corn syrup finger paint), etc.  (Feeling and Seeing Senses)

Make hand and/or finger prints using paint.

Walk through mud or stick your bare feet into paint.  Place your feet onto a large piece of paper.

Bargain Bag of Paint Scrubbies - Set of 24 Sponge on some fun! Bright mesh sponges easily twist to make unique textured designs. Wash with soap and water. Assorted colors. Approximately 3-1/5Dia.

BioColor Paint 16oz. - Set of 11 BioColor does it all! It's so versatile - use with brushes spatulas or our paint accessories. It spreads and adheres easily to paper plastic wood metal cardboard. It shines brilliantly when dry and won't crack or fade with age! Use for fabric painting sticker art and marbling projects or make multi-colored putty!

Fluorescent BioColor Paint 16oz. - Set of 9 Put on your sunglasses! BioColor gives color a new intensity with fluorescent colors - vibrant hues jump right off the paper. Rich smooth and opaque consistency makes it easy to create brilliant works of art.

Colorations Washable Finger Paints 16 oz. - Set of 10 Spread this brilliant rich paint onto a sheet of bright white paper and watch as children enjoy the smooth silky feel of this wonderful finger paint.

Colorations Washable Glitter Finger Paints - Set of all 8 Introducing the perfect marriage of our popular Colorations Washable Glitter Paint and Colorations Washable Finger Paint! Children will love the squishy sensation of this great finger paint medium that now adds the jewel-like sparkle of glitter! Glitter does not fall off when dry. Non-toxic and AP Certified. 16 oz. jars. Bottles are recyclable. set includes blue green orange red turquoise violet white and yellow.

Other Touch Activities
Neouroscience for Kids - Touch Experiments (K-12)

Games
Duck, Duck, Goose

See Shadow Tag.

Sense #2: Hearing (Audition): The Ears

Toobaloo This exceptional learning tool lets children hear themselves as they speak softly into it while practicing their reading and speech. The result is a stronger focus on their reading rate clarity/phrasing and expression.

Books
Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? or in Spanish Oso Polar, Oso Polar, Que Es Ese Ruido by Bill Martin Jr.

Music & Crafts
Make different Musical Instrument Crafts (drums, finger cymbals, shakers, tambourine, and trombone).  Play them.

Do Your Ears Hang Low @ NIEHS (words and music)
KIDiddles.com - Do Your Ears Hang Low (words only)

Sound Guessing Game
Have your children close their eyes. Have them guess what you were doing. Have them have a turn being the leader. Examples: Snap your fingers, clap your hands, whistle, stump your feet, hit a table or chair, turn a lamb on or off, type on the computer, play with blocks, turn the water on, crumble or rustle paper, open a door or cabinet, etc. You can also place something in a closed container and shake it. Have them guess what’s in the container. You could place rice or other things in it.

Red Light, Green Light Game and Prop
Simon Says
Red Rover

Sense #3: Sight/Seeing (Vision) - The Eyes / Eye Theme

Color Mixing Glasses Observe the world in new ways! Children can mix lenses to make different colors or add textured lenses (with or without colored ones) for kaleidoscopic fun! Unique kid-size glasses come with 8 interchangeable lenses: 2 each of blue red yellow and clear refraction lenses.

Hide and Seek
Have one person (or more) hide and be quiet while hiding.  The other person(s) need to cover their eyes, count to 10, say "Ready or not, here I come!", and then go find the person.  Once the person has been found, someone else hides.

Follow the Leader
Have the child do the actions of another child or you.  For example, clap your hands, stomp your feet, etc.

Music & Activity
LDS Church Music: "Do As I'm Doing"  Have the child do the actions that you or another child does.  Listen to what the words say to do ("high or low", "fast or slow").

Shadow Tag
Discuss the opposites: long and short and show examples with the shadows.  Now, have each child pair up into partners and they can chase their partners shadow.  When they have caught their partners shadow, they step on their partners shadow and they can say, "I got it", "I got your shadow", "You're it!", "You're turn!", etc.)  Let the next partner do it.

Shadows
Have the children make different animals or shapes (or just move their hands around).  Have them make their shadows between a lamp and a light colored wall (or door) or outside.

To make a butterfly by placing their thumbs together and move their other fingers like the wings of a butterfly.  (Younger children may not understand how to do it so let them do it however they like.  It may not  look like a butterfly to you but it is to them.

Shadow Links
Ashley's Hand Shadows
Snail, Panther, Dog, Turkey, Goose, Bird, Cardinal, Rabbit, and Kangaroo

Shadows - Hand shadows @ The Bill Douglas Centre
Spider, bull, rooster, elephant, American Indian

Art
Painting (See above.)

Binoculars Craft
2 pieces of 4 1/2 x 6 inches construction paper (or just use the toilet paper rolls)
2 empty toilet paper rolls
If using construction paper, glue or tape them onto each toilet paper rolls.  Staple them together at both ends and in the middle. Decorate.  Look through your binoculars inside or outside.

Sturdy Recycled Craft Rolls - 24 Pieces Roll out terrific treasures with these Sturdy Recycled Craft Rolls! 4 1/2L x 1 3/4Dia. each. 24 natural brown 1 mm thick rolls.

Camera Craft
Make a camera using a small rectangular box or small animal cracker box.  For the lens, glue a piece of felt, fabric, or cardboard on the front center of the box.  You can even use a lid from a plastic milk container (you will need to use a glue that will hold.)  For the button, glue on the top right hand side a small round sew-on velcro or a piece of cloth.  For the eyepiece, cut a hole (big enough to see through) from a Pop Tart or from another piece of cardboard.  Tape this to the top left hand side of the box where the tap is.  Tape the openings of the box so it is more stable.  Let the glue dry.  If you want, you can have your children color their camera.  Have your children have fun by pretending to take pictures.

Red Light, Green Light Game and Prop

Sense #4: Smelling (Olfaction) - The Nose

Activity
Smell different types of food, extracts, candy, products, etc.
You can place them inside a small paper bag and have the children guess what it is.

Sense #5: Tasting (Gustation) - The Mouth

Place edible cooking products into a small container.  Place some onto the childs hand.  Have the child taste it and tell which one it is.  For example, cinnamon and cocoa powder, sugar and salt, etc.

Cut up foods that look similar.  For example, a pear and an apple. Have the child taste it, and tell you what he/she thinks it is.  Discuss how they taste.

Place different foods into a paper bag. Have the child close his/her eyes, take it out of the bag, taste it, and tell you what he/she thinks it is.

Smelling and Taste sense can be combined together.  You can have the child smell different foods, extracts, candy and then taste the food.

You can make different food items or snacks.  For example, go to: The ABC's of Snacking, Food Theme, or any of my recipe pages (The Pratt Family Cookbook or Dairy-Free Cookbook) for ideas to help explore "The Five Senses".

Math and Hand & Eye Coordination Activities

Pasta Necklace or Bracelet
Tape the ends of a piece of yarn (or use a plastic needle).  Use uncolored pasta or colored pasta that has a large opening.  (For pre-schoolers, use pasta with a very large opening.)  Math: Make a pattern using different colored pastas.  Tie the ends off.

Also, you can use these tipped lacing cords:

Tipped Lacing Cords - 72 Pieces Tipped for easy stringing. 6 bright colors. 36 length.

All My Senses Activity

Edible Necklace or Bracelet
A quick and fun snack that involves all of the five senses is making an edible necklace or bracelet.  This can also lead into a math lesson of patterns.

Tape the ends of a piece of yarn or use a plastic needle (especially for pre-schoolers).  Also, you can use Colorations Colored Pipe Cleaners (ages 4+) and make a braclet instead (great for preschoolers).  (Be careful with the metal ends.)  Have the child place ring cold cereal onto it.  Math: Make a pattern using different colored cereals.  For the yarn: tie the ends off.  For the pipe cleaner: trim, wrap it around the ends, and tape together (so the metal part does not hurt the child).  Enjoy.

Note: Check for food restrictions.