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Free five senses activities, crafts, and printables

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.

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

View also our Twiggle Magazine 5 Senses Edition for more activities, crafts, recipes, and games.

The Sense of Sight

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.

The Sense of Sound

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.

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 Sense of Taste

Popcorn
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.

The Sense of Touch

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, paper clip, sock, shoe lace, magnifying glass, jump rope, block from a Lego set, candle, etc.).

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 Story of Ferdinand (Puffin Storytime)

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.