We just finished our Five Senses unit. I absolutely LOVED teaching the kiddos about their five senses. They loved learning about it too! It’s a long post, sorry, but worth the read for a wealth of activities to try in your classroom.
I always to make sure to incorporate reading in each lesson. We read on the carpet with my students all gathered around my rocking chair. It’s a time of the day that they all enjoy. Here are some books about the five senses that I read with this unit (and convenient links if you want to add them to your collection).
1. My Five Senses
2. Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, and Smell
3. My Five Senses
To have students practice using each of their senses, we did a variety of activities.
Smelling Cups- I had the students smell different scents inside of cups and try to guess what they were smelling. I had the real items sitting out in front of them to try to give them clues. I used peppermint, banana, orange, and lemon scents.
Then I made everyone a plate and they got to taste each item. Surprisingly, not too many even wanted to try the peppermint candy! They’re the buttermint kind, so not too minty and super soft (so that they’re not a choking hazard to my young kiddos).
Touch Box- I had 5 different items and I had 2 of each. I had one of each item lined up and sitting out next to the box. All of the other items were hidden in a bin. I would place one item nside of the box and let the students reach one hand in the box and see if they could identify what it was just by touching it. Here’s the touchbox.
What’s the Sound? – I use plastic “Easter” eggs with a variety of small items inside the eggs and have students try to match the sound. Again, with this activity, I have two sets of the items – one set that is visible, and one set inside the eggs. Some items that I used are: pennies, rice, cotton balls, marbles, dry beans, dry oatmeal, and mini jingle bells.
Eye Spy- I glued magazine clippings onto a piece of construction paper and asked them questions to have them spy certain items. I would ask my students to find items by using descriptive terms, such as color, quantity and/or shape. Example: Can you spy with your little eyes, something that is black and has wheels?
Here’s our Eye Spy chart.
For each sense we learned about, I also used these five senses sticks, that are a part of my unit. I actually printed out two sets and on the other set I placed magnets on the back so I could use them on my magnetic whiteboard. There is also a black/white version included in the pack, which I printed out for my students and had them make their own Five Senses sticks that they could keep.
Here’s the cover to our books! I just let them choose whatever colors they wanted to use. Sometimes I have them color things a specific color and sometimes I just let them choose. You can also see that there are a variety of ages in my class (3-5 year olds). The booklet on top is one of my 3 year olds. I think he did a great job!
This is one of the pages inside our Five Senses book. I’m so proud of how nicely my kiddos are learning to trace and color! I just glued each individual page onto a sheet of construction paper that I cut just a little bit bigger than the page.
