Five Senses Books
My Five Senses by Aliki
This is a Stage 1 Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explains simple science concepts for preschoolers and kindergarteners.
I Hear a Pickle: and Smell, See, Touch, & Taste It, Too! by Rachel Isadora
This book includes five sections (one per sense) with a series of vignettes that represent that sense. You could read the whole book or just one part to focus in on one sense. Simple illustrations accompany each sentence.
Five Senses by Stephanie Reid
This wordless book shows close photographs of children using their senses. Your kids can narrate as they look at the pictures.
5 Senses at the Farmers Market by Katrina Liu
Two sisters on a sensory adventure in the farmers market.
My Five Senses by Margaret Miller
Photographs of children exploring how their senses work.
See my full list of books about the five senses.
Five Senses Music
Five Senses – The Kiboomers
I Have Five Senses – Jack Hartmann
Learning the Five Senses – silly School Songs
Five Senses Activities
Brown Bear Class Book: Sight
Take a picture of each child in your class. If you used a digital camera in the beginning of the year you will already have the pictures at your fingertips! Mount each child’s picture on a page and use the caption “_____, _____, who do you see? I see _____ looking at me.” Create a cute cover using die-cuts and fancy Fiskar scissors, laminate, and bind and you have your very own Brown Bear Class Book that your class will cherish all year long.
It Looked Like Spilt Milk: Sight
Materials: blue construction paper and white paint.
After reading the story place a teaspoon of white paint in the middle of a piece of blue construction paper and fold in half. When the paper is opened a wonderful picture will appear. Next, place a caption at the bottom that says “It looked like _____, but it wasn’t ____, it was a ____!”. After they are dry you can bind them in to a class book for the class library.
Color Tubes: Sight
Materials: colored plastic wrap- (it comes in red, yellow, blue, or green), toilet paper tubes, scissors, tape or rubber bands.
Cut pieces of the colored Saran wrap to cover the hole at one end of the toilet paper tube and attach with tape or rubber band. When the child looks through the end of the tube he or she will see everything in a different color.
Act Out The King’s Pudding by Joy Cowley: Taste
Act out the story of The King’s Pudding using capes crowns, and bowls for dramatic props. Afterwards give a Dixie cup to each child, pour in instant chocolate pudding mix and milk and stir with a spoon or tongue depressor. Instant King’s Pudding!
Tasting Graph: Taste
Provide different items for your students to taste; such as pickles, salty popcorn, lemon wedges etc. Have the students graph their favorite item when they are finished tasting.
Shaving Cream: Touch
Squirt shaving cream on a table and let your students “write” with it! This is a sure hit in any classroom. The texture is appealing and even your most reluctant writers will feel confident.
Mystery Bag: Touch
Put a textured object inside of a brown paper lunch bag and pass it around. Some examples are smooth rocks, rough shells, fur fabric, or even ice cubes! Ask the children to guess what they think is inside and describe it according to how it feels.
Boom Boom Tubes: Hearing
Ah-ha! You were wondering what Chicka, Chicka Boom, Boom was doing in the 5 senses unit weren’t you? Chicka is a book that lends itself well to the 5 senses unit. Read the book aloud with lots of inflection, shout “BOOM, BOOM!” and really get into it. When finished use toilet paper tubes and rice to make Boom Boom shakers. Use masking tape to tape off the ends and have the kids decorate the tubes with markers and glitter pens. Re-read the book and have the kids use their shakers whenever they hear inflection in your voice- shake softly when you speak softly, shake hard when you say “BOOM BOOM!” Lots of FUN!
Smelly Dough: Smell
Make scented playdough and add Kool Aid instead of food coloring. The Kool Aid powder will not only color the dough, but it will make it smell wonderful too! You can also add extracts such as vanilla, orange, or peppermint to make the dough smell good.
More Activities
More activities on Pre-K Pages can be found HERE
Five Senses Resources
Science Unit: Five Senses – This done-for-you 5 Senses science unit fosters inquiry and encourages your little learners to explore and investigate using fun, hands-on activities.
Magnifying Glasses – These bright, colorful magnifying glasses are super sturdy and perfect for little hands to hold. Your kids will love examining and exploring the world around them with these jumbo magnifiers.
Color Paddles – Not only do children enjoy looking through these colored plastic lenses, they also enjoy layering them on top of each other to discover how color mixing works.
Rainstick – Rainsticks can quickly catch the attention of even the most energetic preschooler! Rainsticks are for creating sounds and stimulating imaginations about other senses.
Jingle Bell Bracelets – Jingle bells are not just for holidays or even just for music time. Sound games can be played with these bells.
Xylophone – A xylophone is another musical instrument that can be used to support the development of memory, reasoning, language, and math skills such as patterns and sequencing. In exploring sounds, playing two notes on the xylophone can help with comparison skills and concepts such as high and low pitch.
Sound Bottles – These bottles are great for identifying, comparing, contrasting, and matching sounds.
For more recommended resources, check out my Amazon Store.
Hello Mrs. Vanessa Levina,
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Bernadette Mays