Add some sugar and spice (literally) to your homeschool lessons with these 5 senses activities.
Teaching the 5 senses can be fun and easy.
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Teaching the 5 Senses
Encourage your preschooler to notice the world around her by teaching the 5 senses.
Not only will she be more observant, but she will also be equipped with the tools she needs to describe what her senses are experiencing.
By teaching the 5 senses through senses activities, you can give your preschooler sensory experiences that help her to build her vocabulary.
You can talk about each sensory activity to see if your little one enjoys the lemon taste or the ringing of a bell.
When you talk with your little one as she is experiencing new things, she can learn how to put into words what she is experiencing.
Whether you are doing a full preschool 5 senses theme or picking and choosing a few senses activities, there are wonderful activities that you can do to help you with teaching the 5 senses.
Senses Activities
Hearing
Activity 1: Mystery Tubes
Wrap construction paper around the end of a toilet paper tube.
Attach it with a rubber band.
Fill the tube with an item (googly eyes, a marker, bells, paper clips, pom poms, rice, etc.).
Cover the open end with more construction paper and another rubber band.
Label the tubes A, B, C, D, etc.
Have your preschooler shake the tube and try to guess what is inside.
To make it easier, have one of each item (googly eye, marker, bell, paper clip, pom pom, rice) out on the table so your little one can see what could be in the tube.
No tubes?
Use plastic easter eggs instead!
Activity 2: Water Xylophone
Fill glass cups with various levels of water.
Have your little one use a utensil to gently tap on the side of the glass.
Each glass should sound different.
Try lining the glasses up in order from the most full to the least amount full.
You can also have your little one get her finger wet and rub it around the rim of the glass causing the glass to ‘sing’.
Again, each glass should sound different if you have different water levels in each cup.
Talk about music to your ears while teaching the 5 senses.
Seeing
Activity 1: Color Walk
Take a walk (outside if possible) and have your little one find things around that are red.
Then find things that are orange.
Keep looking and finding things around you that are different colors.
Another way to play this senses activity is to look for things that are rough, smooth, bumpy, sticky, wet.
You are using your sense of sight to see these things and you are using feeling words to describe them. This helps to reiterate the describing words.
Activity 2: Toy Bin Sort
Go to your toy bin and have your little one sort out the items in the bin.
She can sort by size, color, or shape.
Once she is done sorting, put all the items back together and sort them a new way.
She may even find the toy that she has been ‘missing’.
Feeling
Activity 1: Mystery Bags
Grab some brown paper bags and fill each one with something different.
Cotton balls, an apple, a ball, a truck, a small stuffed animal, a spoon, the possibilities are endless.
Label the bags with letters or numbers.
Have your preschooler reach in (without looking) and try to guess what is inside the bag.
Ask her what it feels like to help her come up with items that it could be.
If you really want to add some fun to teaching the 5 senses, put some shaving cream or cooked pasta into the bags.
Activity 2: Blindfolded Building
Have your little one sit on the floor with blocks.
Have her try to build a tower while blindfolded.
This requires her to rely on her sense of touch to figure out where her tower is.
Tasting
Activity 1: Taste Test
Get a few varieties of apples, chocolate, citrus, and pickles.
Cut up a red apple and a green apple.
Have your little one talk about what it tastes like and which one she likes better.
For the next trial use semisweet chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate chips to compare.
You can also use bakers chocolate to really change it up.
Try slicing up lemons, limes, grapefruit, and oranges for your little one to taste.
Lastly, offer bread and butter pickles and dill pickles.
Talk about the different items your little one is trying.
Relying just on looks isn’t always the best.
One bite of baker’s chocolate will have your little one convinced to use more of her senses.
Activity 2: Jelly Bean Test
In a bowl put some jelly beans.
Have your preschooler eat one.
Let her describe what it tastes like.
Look at the box to see what flavor choices there are.
Have her choose what flavor she thinks it is.
Do this activity again and again with multiple jelly beans.
What a yummy senses activity!
Some packs of jelly beans have tasty flavors and nasty flavors.
Be aware of this when you are choosing which pack to buy.
Smelling
Activity 1: Spice Painting
In each bowl mix liquid glue and a spice (cinnamon, garlic, onion, basil, thyme, etc.).
Repeat this with multiple small bowls so you have different glue and spice mixtures.
Encourage your little one to paint pictures using the spice and glue mixture to make a beautiful picture that is appealing to the senses, too.
Try adding extracts instead of spices to the glue, too.
Activity 2: Sniffing Jars
Take some clean spice jars and place different items inside of them.
A lemon, a cotton ball with vanilla on it, a cinnamon stick, popcorn, and a spring of pine.
Let your little one enjoy the senses activity by smelling the different scents.
You can also use a cup with a piece of foil that has a small hole poked in the middle.
Rubber band the foil to the cup.
Preschool 5 Senses Theme
Liven up your little one’s senses with these entertaining senses activities.
Watch your little one’s eyes light up as she tastes, smells, feels, sees, and hears new things.