jillianstockert
- Sep 23, 2023
- 3 min read

My 5 Senses Theme

Our 5 senses are being used nonstop throughout the day, especially four our littles who are constantly engaged in play and learning. Sensory play and hands-on learning is such a fun and exciting way to teach our littles about their 5 senses. As you are playing, point out which senses your little one's are using! It's fun to see how quickly they catch onto this concept and begin pointing it out themselves :)

Your little is already learning their senses by whatever play you are doing at home! Here are a few of the activities we did! Hope you enjoy :)

Over these two weeks, we focused on the letter "C" and "K". For our letter and writing practice we are using the alphabet bundles that I have created, a combination of upper and lowercase letters. You can also add in the beginning sound "Find and Color" documents I created while working on your letters.

I created a My 5 Senses theme bundle for you to download and do some or all of the activities with your littles! In the download, there is a "lesson plan" example and a template if you wish to change up your week! As a stay at home mom, the days get BUSY, so I enjoy having a loose idea of activities to have ready and pull out when we need some more structure!

Here is a look at some of the activities we did (download the file to see all the activities)!

Sensory and Hands-on Learning: (more detailed directions on how to create these engaging activities on the free download)

Tactile Number Boards - using pom poms, pipe cleaners, cardboard, and a hot glue gun you can create a tactile board for your littles!
Blended Cereal Writing Tray - a tasty way to learn about your senses and practice some pre-writing skills. We blended up some fruit loops to create our writing tray!
Snack Tasting (sweet, sour, salty) - grab a variety of snacks from your kitchen and blindfold your littles. This ended up being hilarious! I was MOSTLY nice :)

Lavender Sensory Play - our lavender rice was the perfect activity for engaging your senses. We made some lavender scented rice, white playdough, and explored! (Rice recipe in download)

Exploring Textures - write out your littles name or just give them a blank piece of paper to make a texture collage. We did ours outside and they got CREATIVE cutting grass and flowers to add to their collage! We also used: pom poms, colored noodles, rocks, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, beads
Egg Shaking and Listening - fill some Easter eggs with a variety of small objects. We incorporated ours into snack time, so I put different snack foods in our eggs! (Marshmallows, chocolate chips, seeds/nuts, blueberries, etc) Have your little shake and listen before guessing the snack!
Spotlight - we got this idea from Instagram and it was pretty cute! Put packing tape over a toilet paper roll, using a dry erase or permanent marker make a picture, shape, letter, number. Put a flashlight behind the roll and create a spotlight on the wall!

Scented Paints + primary colors - We added jello to our primary color paint, but you could also use a variety of extracts or essential oils! If using jello don't let it sit too long because it will chunky! Teach your littles about primary and secondary colors. Red + yellow = orange. Blue + yellow = green. Red + blue = purple!

Jello Sensory Bin - a fun (and yummy) snack to explore your 5 senses. Jello includes ALL of the senses. It's a great way to get your little's excited to talk about their senses
Colorful Fizzy Ice - use food coloring to make some colored ice. Grab some baking soda and vinegar to make it fizz!
Glow in the Dark Sensory Bin - this was a blast!! You need neon paint/blacklight paint and your sensory base + a blacklight! We added some glow in the dark monster trucks for extra fun!
Water Beads - water beads are another fun sensory base to explore some of your senses

Learning:

Here is a little look at some of the activities you will be able to do from the 5 Senses bundle!
These couple weeks were FILLED with lots of hands-on and sensory play, but we did sit down to do a few extra learning activities. Remember playing is learning! The paper activities are just supplements to all the playing your little is doing.