Low Prep 5 Senses Activities for Preschool

Inside this post I share a few of our favorite 5 Senses Activities for preschool! They're hands-on ideas that are easy to set up and teach kids about their five senses!

How do you teach senses to preschoolers?

One of the best ways to teach toddlers and preschoolers about their 5 senses is to get them involved doing simple engaging hands-on activities!

When our bodies use all five senses (or even just some of our senses), it helps us to notice the world around us!

The activities in this post help kids use their five senses- seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching- in fun and creative ways. Kids and parents will love these low prep 5 Senses Activities for Preschoolers!

Five Simple 5 Senses Activities for Preschool

Do you need some easy to follow 5 senses lesson plans for preschool? Or a simple plan for teaching about the 5 senses to your preschooler? Try these five easy activities!

(Taste) Tasting Tray

Materials: Muffin tin, several tasty snacks (from the different categories listed below), paper, markers

Place several different foods/snacks/treats in a muffin tin (make sure to pick ones from all categories: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and savory)
Make a chart and have kids/adults taste each item and then mark down if they liked it or not.
Talk about which ones were the most popular/least popular/favorites.

(Touch) What's in the sack?

Materials: Brown paper lunch sacks, several textured items

Place a different textured item in each sack (smooth, rough, bumpy, soft/fluffy, scratchy, etc)
Optional: Blindfold the kids
Have the kids stick their hand in each bag and touch the item without looking at it.
Talk about the texture together.
See if they can guess the object.
Repeat for all objects.

(Smell) Scented Painting

Materials: Kool-Aid packets, water, teaspoon, cup, paper, paintbrush

Place unsweetened Kool-Aid packets in small cups (one per color/scent)
Mix 2 teaspoons of water per packet.
Give kids a paintbrush, kool-aid paint, water, and paper and invite them to paint on the paper.
Talk about the scents as they paint.
Let dry and scratch the dried paint and see if it still smells!

(Hearing ) Sound Hunt

Materials: paper, pencil, printable sound hunt

Go outside in your neighborhood or to a park/outdoor space.
Give each kid a paper & a marker or pencil.
Print off our sound hunt for each child.
Have everyone find a spot on the grass or somewhere in nature and just listen for what they can hear.
Cross off each sound that you hear.

(Sight) Toy Matching Game

Materials: paper, markers, variety of toys

Work together to gather some toys/items in your house/classroom.
Tape white paper to your floor or table.
Trace each item to make an outline on the paper.
Hide the toys around the room.
Have kids find the toys and match them to the outline on the paper to complete the puzzles.
Repeat!

5 Senses Books for Preschool

Reading books together about the 5 senses can be another simple way to learn more about them! Here are two fun books about 5 senses for preschoolers.

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I Hear a Pickle: and Smell, See, Touch, & Taste It, Too! by Rachel Isadora

My Five Senses by Aliki