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5 SENSES THEME

CRAFTS:

Creative Art Cellophane Painting (Sight, Touch)
Materials needed- clear cellophane, tempera paint
Procedure: Children can paint any design on cellophane, teacher hangs picture in window to dry so children can see the effect the sunlight has on their painting.

Cereal Rainbows (Sight, Taste, Touch, Smell)
You will need a box of Fruit Loops (or similar cereal), paper, pencil and glue. For younger children, you should draw a rainbow shape on to the paper then have the children glue the fruit loops inside the shape. Older children can make their own rainbow shape, or trace it. You may also do this project as open ended art by allowing the children to make whatever they wish with the fruit loops. For the taste part, most children will want to eat the cereal while working, provide the children with 2 bowls of cereal, one for the art, and one to eat.

Kool Aid Art (Sight, Smell)
Sprinkle a little dry kool aid mix onto a piece of paper. Have your child spray water from a spray bottle onto the paper. Use different colored kool-aid mix. For added adventure, you may choose to take your children out into the rain with a piece of paper that has kool-aid on it.

Rubbings (Sight, Touch)
Cut a variety of shapes from paper doilys or sandpaper. Tape these shapes to the table. Have the children place a piece of thin white paper over the shapes and rub a crayon over the shape.

Rainbow Eggshell Collage (Sight, Touch)
Use food coloring to color crushed eggshells a few different colors. (You can use eggshells from eggs you have used, there is no need to hard boil these egg shells.) Let your child glue the eggshells to a piece a paper after the dye has dried.

Shaving Cream Art (Sight, Touch, Smell)
Add a few drops of paint to shaving cream. Have the children use this to paint with. Not mixing the paint in will give it a special look.

Texture Collages (Sight, Touch)
Provide the children with a variety of different materials to create a collage. Foil, lace, paper, cloth, string, lace, ribbon are just a few examples of materials that can be used.

Torn Paper Art (Sight, Touch)
Have your child tear many different colors of paper. Let your child glue the torn pieces of paper onto a piece of paper.

GAMES & ACTIVITIES:

Alarm Clock
Materials:  An alarm clock
What to Do:  Before the meeting begins, inform the group that there is an alarm clock in the room that will go off several times during the course of the meeting.  When the group hears the alarm ring, everyone must leave the room immediately, no matter what they are in the middle of doing.  The leader then hides the alarm clock somewhere in the room and calls the group back in.  The group enters the room and tries to locate the alarm clock by listening to its ticking sound.

Blubber Experiment (Touch) 
Take two small plastic bags-turn one of them inside out and place it inside the other bag. Spoon crisco shortening in between the two bags and seal them together. This makes a blubber mitten and the kids can insert their hands into the mitten and put their hand into icy water and see the difference that the blubber makes in keeping warm.

Blindman's Stick (Sound, Touch)
This was a game played by children in pioneer times.
Equipment: a stick or a cardboard tube
How to play: Seat the Children in a circle, and draw straws for the first person to be IT. Put IT in the centre of the circle with a cardboard tube stick. Instruct IT to turn around while slowly extending the stick carefully towards the other players. When a player grabs the end of the stick, IT asks three questions and, from the sound of the answering voice, tries to guess the person's name. At the end of the turn, the player who grabbed the stick is the new IT. Depending on the ages and dispositions of your Children, you can make the game a little more difficult by encouraging the players to disguise their voices.

Blindfold Guessing Game (Touch)
Equipment:  None
How to Play:  Have the group sit in a circle and select one person to be blindfolded.  After the chosen person's eyes are closed, select another person to go in the centre.  The blindfolded child must identify who is in the middle with him by touch alone, by feeling face and hair.  Be sure to let each child have a turn at being blindfolded and see how difficult it is to only be able to rely on certain senses.

Laughing Balloon (Sound) 
Blow up a large balloon and gather all the kids into a circle. Toss the balloon upward. While it is in the air, everybody laughs. When it touches the floor or comes to rest anywhere, everyone must stop laughing.

Looking Through Different Objects (Sight) 
Materials needed-Refracting laser glasses,telescope,prism,cellophane sheets,magnifying glass,microscope
Procedure: Children can use different objects to look through seeing the difference between (how one thing makes it look vs another object). Teacher should encourage the child to talk about how the objects affect their way of seeing things.

Sound Matching Game (Sound) 
Materials needed: Popsicle sticks or Jumbo tongue depressors,tapes and pictures of different sounds, cat, dog, duck, horn, Etc.
Procedure; Child will listen to different sounds on tape or teacher making sounds and hold up pictures that matches the correct sound.

Sensory Stimulation (smell)
My boredom buster is to use sensory stimulation with the children. I take empty film containers and put a small piece of sponge in each container. Then I take an eye dropper and drip one or two drops of different kinds of extracts onto the sponge. We are always looking for how to make a new "flavor," like "banana split" or "pineapple upside-down cake." We put the lids on the containers and save them for a rainy day. The kids love making experiments, and I love that they are using their noses instead of wanting to watch a movie or TV. --Marlena L.

Sound Bottles And Smelly Jars (Smell, Sound) 
The sound bottles are simply prescription bottles. (the pharmacy gives them free if you tell them you are a preschool teacher) In pairs have 2 with a penny in it, rice, salt, oatmeal anything you can think of. Then cover the bottles with colored contact paper. Then have the children try to match the sounds from the bottles. It will keep them interested for a long time. The smelly bottles are also empty prescription jars with cotton balls soaked with different smells: Vanilla/orange extract, perfume, vinegar, Etc. Let your imagination run wild. Let the children smell them and guess what it is they are smelling. It's great sensory fun. 

Taste & Smell (Taste, Smell) 
Bring a variety of different spices and foods in small containers for the kids to smell and taste. Can they identify them? You might try peanut butter, vinegar, lemon, orange, pepperoni, vanilla, cloves, chocolate, onion, and smoked fish.

What's in the Sock? (Sight, Touch, Sound) 
Find a very colorful sock. Place something in the sock, like a block, or a toy. Let the child feel the object and try to guess what it is.

What scent is this? (Smell) 
Gather four or more different objects with different scents, like vanilla, mint, lemon, popcorn. Blindfold the child, then place the object close the the child's nose, and ask the child to smell it and try to identify what it is.

What Taste is this? (Taste) 
Gather four or more different food objects with different tastes, Skittles can be used. Blindfold the child, then ask the child to taste the food, and ask the child to taste it and try to identify what it is. [Note: some children may have allergies or diet restrictions, please keep these in mind when choosing items for children to taste. Peanuts products, strawberries and meat products are ones that you should avoid.

Wet or Dry (Touch)
Have the children touch a variety of different fabrics that are wet (with water) and dry. Have the children guess whether they are wet or dry.

SONGS:

Have any good songs? Let us know!
 

STORIES:

Have any good stories? Let us know!
 

FOOD SUGGESTIONS:

Have any good food ideas? Let us know!
 

TIPS/NOTES: