Teaching Five Senses to Preschoolers
How to Help Preschoolers Understand the Five Senses
Nov 15, 2009
Preschoolers can benefit from learning about the five senses since it contributes to their perceptions of the world around them. Learning about the five senses is more than just reciting the five senses. It is helping preschoolers to understand how they use their five senses on a daily basis. It gives them an awareness of sights, sounds and other stimuli that play a vital role in their world.
Utilizing Group Time to Teach the Five Senses
Spend one day on each of the five senses. Utilize group time to introduce the sense of the day and then follow up it with an activity that will further enhance their understanding. Some ideas are:
Monday: Sense of Smell
- Bring in containers of spices and have children take turns smelling each one.
- Ask children to guess what they are smelling.
- Keep track of which spices the children like/dislike and create a graph showing the most favorite smell and the least favorite.
Tuesday: Sense of Sight
- Bring in books with no words, only pictures.
- Introduce the children to abstract art.
Wednesday: Sense of Touch
- Fill bags with items that children must guess what they are by putting their hand in (things such as gummy worms, cotton balls, dried noodles, etc.).
- Present items to the children that they use words to describe (sandpaper, cotton balls, etc.).
Thursday: Sense of Hearing
- Have children listen to a book on tape or CD.
- Bring in a CD or tape with classical music, bird songs, etc.
Friday: Sense of Taste
- Introduce children to various tastes (salty, pretzels or tiny amount of salt; sweet, candy or sugar; sour, lemon juice, etc.).
- Blindfold children and have them guess what they are tasting.
Reinforce Concept of Five Senses With a Book
To reinforce the concept of the five senses, put together a book that the children can take home. Take a picture of the child holding up five fingers and paste it onto the cover page of their book. Write this title on the cover page of their booklet, My Five Senses. Each page is labeled this way: "With my eyes I can see," "With my ears I can hear," etc. Find creative ways to add elements to those pages. For instance, dab fragrant oils on the smell page. Glue colorful tissue paper on the sight page. Glue a piece of sandpaper and a cotton ball that has been stretched out for the touch page. Use tiny jingle bells for the hearing page. Have children cut out pictures of food from grocery ads and glue onto their taste page.
Teaching the five senses to preschoolers opens their world to a new level of understanding and insight. They begin to look at all the ways they use their five senses, recognizing the importance of them. Finding creative and fun ways to teach this concept will give preschoolers a good understanding of this important concept.
For more ideas on teaching the five senses, visit these websites:
Preschool Biology - Teaching the Five Senses
Preschool Activities for the Five Senses
The Five Senses - A Preschool Lesson Plan
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