Touch, smell, sight, hearing, and sound make up our five senses that help us experience the world around us. Help your kids see how we rely on these senses everyday for our survival with these fun 5 senses activities for kids.
Once you start talking about senses, your kids will see the world around them in a whole new light.
We rely on our senses to keep us safe from pain, heat, cold, rotten foods and so much more.
What are the five senses?
The brain is responsible for interpreting sounds, taste, smells, seeing objects and sensing touch for our body.
Each of the senses help us to interact with the world around us and to help us sense danger.
Taste
The taste buds on our tongue can sense four different flavors: bitter, sweet, salty, and sour. An adult tongue can have 2000 to 4000 taste buds. They have receptors on them that can sense varying intensities of flavor and they not only sense just one flavor but they may sense two or three with half of the receptors in one region only being able to sense one flavor to see how intense that flavor is.
Tasting food that is off or not right helps you know not to eat that food that may cause you to have a stomach ache or worse.
Smell
In your nose you have smell receptors, the smell travels up your nose to the top of the nasal cavity near the part of the brains responsible for smell, the olfactory bulb and fossa. Nerve endings in the nasal cavity send signals to the brain about the smell.
Smell is important because it prevents up from eating rotten food or smell burning from smoke or food or that we know to check.
Touch
There are different receptors in our skin that send signals to the brain about temperature, pressure, vibration and pain like heat.
Sight
The process where you see an object is very complex. The light reflects off the object into your your eye. It passes through your cornea and into your pupil until it bends and is received by the rod and cone receptors behind your eye. There are millions of these receptors.
Hearing
Sound waves travel through our ear through the ear canal to get to our ear drum through the middle ear that has three small bones. The vibrations are sensed in the organ of Corti by tiny hairs that convert it into electrical impulses that travel to the brain.
Recommended 5 Senses Books for Kids
Try any of these five senses books to bring your senses alive. Learn more about each sense and see how we use them in our daily life.
The Listening Walk
Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, and Smell: Learning About Your Five Senses (The Amazing Body)The Magic School Bus Explores the SensesMy Five Senses (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1)My First Book About the Five Senses (Dover Children’s Science Books)The Five Senses
5 Senses Activities
Exploring all 5 Senses in Preschool: Sorting Activities and Books
Grab any little trinkets or your child's toys to sort them into the 5 senses. You can grab animals that are soft or things that make noise, foods or anything else that you can think of.
Download These Free Printable 5 Senses For Kids Puppets To Teach Children
Encourage your children to tell stories about one of the senses with these 5 senses puppets. It may be difficult at first, but keep at it.
Learning About the 5 Senses Potato Head Game and Free Printable -
Got a Mr. Potato Head? You have to try this hands-on activity
Exploring the Five Senses with Books: What a Wonderful World
Go on a nature walk or explore your home to see what you run into with your 5 senses. A fun way to observe nature.
Scratch and Sniff Names 5 Senses Activity for Preschoolers
You can always have fun with Jello, try this fun scratch and sniff name activity to have fun with your sense of smell.
Five Senses Science Investigation with Chewing Gum
Grab a piece of gum and explore it with all of your senses in this fun activity and it includes a worksheet.
Sense of hearing activity for kids with a glockenspiel
Explore your sense of sound with this fun instrument.
Human Body Activity
Discover your sense of touch with this cool temperature experiment.
Easy! 5 Steps to Planting a Sensory Garden for Kids
Get everyone involved by creating your own sensory garden, your kids will love this!
Adventures Outside Using our Senses and Imaginations
Head outdoors for your own 5 senses adventure to see what you discover.
4 Sights & Sounds of Winter Senses Preschool Monthly Theme Crafts & Activities
There are different experiences for any season of the year for your kids to discover.
Taste Safe Oobleck for Babies and Toddlers
Create this gooey mess and let your kids have fun with it knowing that it's taste safe.
Textured Hot Air Balloon Sensory Craft
Create a cool textured hot air balloon craft that looks so cool and delights your sense of touch.
Sensory Nature Cutting Tray
Grab little bits of nature and combine it with fine motor control in this fun cutting activity.
The Best Ways for Exploring Senses in Nature
Bring nature indoors to use for this fun 5 senses activity.
When learning about the human body, the 5 senses are an important lesson to add when studying the nervous system. As the center of control for our entire body the brain has many jobs to do all at once.
Your eyes are looking out for danger near you with your sight.
It’s smelling danger around you with your nose that can’t be seen like smoke or dangerous chemicals.
Your brain is feeling for danger with your sense touch so that you’re not touch anything pokey, too hard or too hot or cold.
Your brain is listening for any danger that may come near you, a tree falling, a wild animal or a brother charging through.
Your brain alerts you to the taste of expired food or food that was not cooked properly.
All just to keep your body safe but also to let you know when good food, family or friends are near too so it can keep you safe and make you happy.
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