Five Senses

Engage your class in an exciting hands-on experience learning the five senses! Perfect for science activities for Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade classrooms and packed full of inviting science activities. Students will learn five senses science lessons through poems, hands-on senses lessons, and inviting senses printables. This pack is great for homeschoolers, unit studies, and includes science lesson plans!

Our students love exploring science. It’s a fantastic way to get kids learning without realizing they’re learning.

As we dig into our science curriculum, kids are amazed by our Walking Water Science Experiment and Static Electricity Experiment. They feel like little scientists as they document their findings in their very own Science Notebook.

To bring science together with our everyday life, we learn about taking care of our teeth with this Dental Health Science Unit. It’s an excellent way for students to see the importance of dental hygiene.

So that we can learn more about our bodies I’ve created this Five Senses Science Unit. Our students can learn about Sound, Taste, Sight, Smell, and Touch in an enjoyable way.

Would you like to have 4 science experiments planned out for you every month? Be sure to take a look at our Monthly Science Experiments Bundle.

Watch Hands-On Five Senses Activities In Action

Want to see a quick video about this resource? When you are done, scroll down for more details.

Inside You Will Find

– Science Lesson Plans for one week
– Definition Posters – 11 pages
– Five Senses Introduction and Sound PowerPoint – 17 pages
– Five Senses Introduction and Sound Posters (exact same as PowerPoint above) – 17 pages
– Five Senses Song Poster – 2 pages
– Five Senses Circle Maps – 5 pages
– Sound Activity – 6 pages
– Sound Worksheet – 1 page
– Taste PowerPoint – 10 pages
– Taste Posters (exact same as PowerPoint above) – 10 pages
– Taste Activity – 5 pages
– Taste Sort Worksheet – 1 page
– Sight PowerPoint – 11 pages
– Sight Posters (exact same as PowerPoint above) – 11 pages
– Camera – 1 page
– I Spy Book – 6 pages
– Smell PowerPoint – 9 pages
– Smell Posters (exact same as PowerPoint above) – 9 pages
– Smell Activity – 8 pages
– Smell Worksheet – 1 page
– Touch PowerPoint – 9 pages
– Touch Posters (exact same as PowerPoint above) – 9 pages
– Touch Activity – 8 pages
– Touch Worksheet – 2 pages
– Touch Book – 6 pages
– Five Senses Sort (with real pictures ) – 7 pages
– Five Senses Sort Worksheet – 1 page

Materials Needed for Five Senses

• paper or cardstock
• laminating pouches
• laminator
• double-sided tape, adhesive magnetic strips, or stapler
• hot glue gun
• 8 paper plates
• 8 jars
• 8 paper bags
• materials listed inside the product for each of the five senses activities

Using the Five Senses Science Unit 

After you purchase this activity and download it, I recommend that you print the activities out on cardstock and laminate them so it can be used year after year.

This science resource is full of an assortment of activities and centers. Therefore, preparation will vary. Below is a brief rundown of each component in the Five Senses Science Unit.

Science Lesson Plans for the Week

Throughout the week, students will complete different science activities learning about the Five Senses. I love to find books that go with our different units. For this science activity, we start off by reading My Five Senses By Aliki

All the work is done for you with this packed lesson plan! This unit has everything you need to teach your class about each of the Five Senses and what they do with hands-on and interactive lessons.

Five Senses Powerpoint and Posters

There is a seventeen page PowerPoint that introduces students to the Five Senses using scientific photographs. You’ll find eleven definition posters and 2 posters for the Five Senses poem.

Print these out and laminate for extra durability. Use for visuals during lessons, and you can hang them up around the classroom for students to refer to throughout the lesson and/or school year.

Each of the five sensories come with scientific photographs along with definitions and activities. Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, and Smell by Pamela Hill Nettleton puts everything we’ll be studying in a very exciting way.

Sound Lesson

Our kids love making sounds so now it’s time for them to listen to sound all around them. To get us thinking about the various sounds and other senses we read I Hear a Pickle: and Smell, See, Touch, and Taste It, Too! by Rachel Isadora.

To prep for this activity, print the pages (I prefer cardstock) and laminate for extra durability.

Cut all of the pieces out. You will need eight paper plates, hot glue gun, nails, rice, coins, beans, and the four circles for the shakers. Glue each circle on the bottom of a paper plate and set aside to dry.

Place the four remaining paper plates on the floor and put rice on one plate, coins on another plate, and so on. Using the hot glue gun, glue the edge of the plate, all the way around. Place the other paper plate directly on top and hold them together.  You will want to make sure that they are secured since students will be shaking them. Repeat for all four shakers.

Place the four shaker plate labels on the board. I always love using double-sided tape or magnetic strips for this. Have students shake each shaker plate and guess what is inside. Students will place the picture of what they think is inside the shaker underneath the corresponding plate.

Taste Lesson

To prep for this activity, print the pages for this lesson using cardstock and laminate so you can continue to use it year after year. Cut all of the pieces out.

You will also need to print out a worksheet for each student to complete. I prefer to print these out using the two per page option so the sheets will fit perfectly inside their science notebooks and it saves on paper.

You will want to have napkins or paper plates ready as they taste the different food and match it up to the different type of taste they experience. You’ll see the different food needed for this experiment.

Place all of the food on a plate or napkin. Have students complete taste worksheet while they are eating the food. Kids have so much fun with the different types of taste.

Once they have gone through and tasted all of the foods and completed the match-up worksheet students can then play the taste sort game.

Touch Lesson

To prep for this activity, print the pages for this activity on cardstock and laminate for extra durability. Cut out all the touch lesson pieces.

You will also need to print out a class set of the worksheets for students to complete. I prefer to use the one that has two per page because it fits perfectly inside students notebooks and saves on paper.

You will need 8 paper bags, a glue gun, and the provided circler bag names. Glue the circles onto the front of the bags.

When it is time to do the lesson, you will need to gather the materials inside the product to place inside the bag.

Place the eight bag labels on the board. I always love using double-sided tape or magnetic strips for this.

My students always think that it is so much fun to be blindfolded when we do this part. Students will then place the picture of what they think is inside underneath the corresponding bag.

Students will be giggling in anticipation of the different things they will feel as they reach into their bags. This is an engaging activity that will have students talking about it for days and weeks.

My Touch Book

Now that our kids have completed their touch lesson, they are ready to build their touch books.

These books are also a great way for students to work on their emerging reading and writing skills.

You’ll print one copy of the touch book for each student to complete. Students will work together as a class to create this fun and interactive sensory book while at the same time getting some literacy

Our little learners take pride in their books as they color them and fill them out.

Smell Lesson

This smell activity is very easy to prep. Like the other lessons, you’ll print out the pages on cardstock and laminate so you can use them for years to come. You’ll then cut out all the pieces.

You will need 8 jars, a glue gun, some paper, and the provided circles you cut out and laminated for the jars. I prefer using these salt shakers for my jars because they are closed, yet allow the students to smell what is inside.

To get started you’ll cut out small sheets of paper to line the inside of the jar so students can’t see inside. Next, you’ll glue the circles onto each of the jars.

When you’re ready to do the activity with your class, you can put the items inside the jar. Get ready for some interesting reactions to the different things your students will be smelling.

Place the eight jar labels onto a board. I like using double-sided tape or magnetic strips for this. Have students smell each jar and guess what is inside of them.

My students always think that it is so much fun to be blindfolded when we do this part. Students will place the picture of what they think is inside underneath the corresponding jar on the board.

When they are done guessing what is inside of each jar and finding out the results, they’ll have a fun smell worksheet to complete.

Sight Lesson

We always have fun exploring our sense of sight as a class. Students always love to play I Spy so this activity gives kids a chance to make their own I Spy books. This activity comes with a DIY “camera” for students to use to spy all the things around them.

Print out the provided sheets so students can make their interactive sight books. This is a great way to work on art, and you get to sneak in some literacy at the same time.

Kids have a blast searching and finding things they see and then drawing them out and then completing the sentences in their books.

Circle Maps for each of the Five Senses

You’ll want to print 1 set of circle maps for each student. I prefer to use the half page option for my students because it will fit perfectly in a science notebook. You can print off one full page to use on the projection screen.

Five Senses Picture Sort Center

This Five Senses picture sort is the perfect activity for center rotations.

To prep for this activity, you will print out all of the sheets for the lesson and then laminate them. You’ll then cut out the pieces for students to complete the sorting game.

I like to use two-sided tape and place each picture depicting one of the senses on the board. You can have your little learners work in groups or do this game as a class.

Kids adore being able to match their pictures based on their five senses.

Five Senses Sort Worksheet

Once you’re done playing the Five Senses Sorting Activity, students are ready to show what they know with the Five Senses Worksheet.

This is ideal to use as an assessment at the end of a fun week learning all about our Five Senses!

And we finish off our week of senses by reading The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses by Joanna Cole, because Ms. Frizzle makes everything more interesting.

Download Five Senses Now

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