My Five Senses Preschool Activities, Lessons, and Printables

Free 5 senses crafts, five senses preschool activities, and printables

The Five Senses Centers

Sensory Table
Create a circle opening the size of a hand on a large shoebox lid. Inside the box place different items such as a ball, fur, plastic fork, block, lego, tissue paper, sand paper, a toy car, etc. Close the box with the lid. Let children stick one hand inside the box, choose an item, and guess what the item is by feeling it. 

Five Senses Nature Walk
Take your children on a nature walk. Encourage them to pay close attention to the things that they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel on the walk. Stop at various points along the way and invite volunteers to share what they sense. Point out interesting sights, smells, and sounds as is appropriate. Halfway through the walk, stop and provide a healthful snack, such as raisins, pretzels, or fruit.

Popping Popcorn
Making popcorn is a great way for children to experience popcorn with all their senses. Invite children to watch, hear, smell, feel, and taste the popcorn. 

Shaving Cream Art (Sight, Touch, Smell)
Add a few drops of paint to some shaving cream. Have children use their fingers to paint with the shaving cream on a piece of paper. Tip: Not mixing the paint with the shaving cream will make it even more special to paint with.

The Sense of Sight Activities

What's Missing? 
Present children with a box of small objects such as a crayon, scissors, a pencil, an earring, a cookie cutter, etc. Let children select four or five items from the box. Put the items on the table. Have children close their eyes and then remove one of the items. Have children open their eyes and ask them to tell you what the missing item is. Continue the game, changing the items.

Who am I?
Describe a child in your group. Let children guess who it is based on the description. 

Make a binocular craft
Let children make a binocular craft and play the game "I spy" around the classroom or in your house.

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

The Sense of Sound Activities

Sound Walk
Take a walk with children outside. Bring either a tape recorder or a notepad and record the sounds that you and the children hear (birds singing, wind blowing, etc). Have a discussion with children about the sounds they heard, and then let them mimic the sounds.

Match the Sound
Place a plastic container with rice or beans, a rattle, a whistle, a small bell, and a drum in the middle of the circle. Pick up an item and make its sound. Let children describe the sound. Let children cover their eyes. Make a sound with one of the items. Let children uncover their eyes and find the item that made that sound. 

Fill pairs of large plastic Easter eggs partially with different objects, such as rice, beans, pom-poms, pennies, a marble. Tape the eggs securely. Let the children shake each egg and find the matching egg. 

Music Shakers
Prepare two containers filled with rice and beans. Cut different wrapping paper to fit around a paper roll. Let children choose a wrapping paper and glue it to their paper roll. Glue a muffin liner to one end of the paper roll and let dry. Use rubber bands to secure the muffin liner. Let children fill their paper roll with two spoons of either rice or beans. Glue the second muffin liner to the other side and secure with a rubber band. Let children use their music shakers while you sing a song together.

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

The Sense of Smell

Scratch and Sniff Paint
Using ordinary poster paint and a very small amount of glue, add a few drops of essence to each color paint (you could color associate it if you wanted to: orange aroma with orange paint, apple with green paint, etc.). Paint thick patches onto separate cards and let dry. Hang the cards up as a let children scratch the paint to smell the card.

The Story of Ferdinand (Puffin Storytime)

The Sense of Taste Activities

Popcorn Tasting
Prepare popcorn for snack time. Divide popped corn into three bowls. Season one bowl of popcorn with Parmesan cheese, one bowl with salt, and one bowl with sugar. Let children taste the three different flavored popcorns and identify the substance on the popcorn in each bowl. Make a chart to define the favorite popcorn flavor.

Flowers (Sight, Touch, Smell)
Provide the children with a variety of flowers to describe, to smell, and to touch.

The Sense of Touch Activities 

Surprise Bag
Place several familiar objects in a sack. Have each child reach in to pull out an object, and using only the sense of touch, name the object before pulling it out. (for example, the sack could contain several of the following items: spoon, fork, small ball, toothbrush, cup, small plate, pencil, small book, marble, cotton ball, paperclip, sock, shoelace, magnifying glass, jumprope, block from a Lego set, candle, etc.)

Texture Collage
Place textured materials (fabric scraps, precut and torn paper, fur, sandpaper, etc.) inside a basket. Pass samples of the basket around for the children to touch. Discuss how our hands/skin feel by touching it. Use words such as bumpy, soft, smooth, rough, etc. Let children choose different scraps and glue them on a piece construction paper.

Wet or Dry 
Have children touch a variety of different fabrics that are wet (water) and dry. Have children guess whether they are wet or dry.

Five Senses Rhyme:

I Use My Five Senses
(Tune: The Farmer in the Dell)

Author Unknown

I use my eyes to see,
I use my eyes to see,
And when I want to see a star,
I use my eyes to see.

I use my nose to smell,
I use my nose to smell,
And when I want to smell a flower,
I use my nose to smell.

I use my tongue to taste,
I use my tongue to taste,
And when I want to taste a peach,
I use my tongue to taste.

I use my ears to hear,
I use my ears to hear,
And when I want to hear a bird,
I use my ears to hear.

I use my hands to touch,
I use my hands to touch,
And when I want to touch a cat,
I use my hands to touch.

The Holiday Season and the Five Senses Activities 

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Amazing Animal Senses
Explain to children that animals have the same five senses as we do, but some animals have senses that we don't have or more heightened senses.

Bats
To avoid obstacles and catch food while flying, bats emit ultrasonic squeaks and interpret the echo the sound waves make after bouncing off objects in the environment. This is called "echolocation," and it is also used by dolphins to navigate murky waters.

Boas and Vipers
Temperature-sensitive organs located between the eyes and nostrils of boas and pit vipers allow these snakes to sense the body heat of their prey. There is one located on each side of the snake's head enabling the animals to perceive depth and strike with deadly accuracy even in complete darkness.

Rats
Most rats have poor vision, but they make up for it with the "whiskers" on their snouts. They use the long hairs, also called "vibrissae," in the same way that blind people use canes. By whisking the hairs across objects they come across, rats and other rodents form mental pictures of their surroundings.

Owls
An owl can see a mouse moving over 150 feet away with light no brighter than a candle!

Rabbits
Some animals, like rabbits, have their eyes on the sides of their heads, letting them see to either side and even behind themselves. That's because they spend most of their waking hours browsing for food; being able to see in all directions guards against other animals trying to sneak up on them.

My Five Sense rhyme	Find the difference	Maisy's Nature Walk literacy activity	Binoculars craft	Sense of Smell lesson