Five Senses Lesson Plan

Five senses lesson plan student level: Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary

Five senses lesson plan materials required:

• A kaleidoscope or interesting photograph (Kaleidoscope craft idea)
• Whistle or musical instrument
• Piece of sandpaper
• Soft or furry piece of material
• Perfume or sweet smelling flower
• A piece of candy or sugar cube for each child
• Dragon Fun Five Senses Lesson Plan Handout (PDF download)
• The children's picture book, Old MacDonald had a Dragon by Ken Baker, illustrated by Christopher Santoro

Five senses lesson plan activity time: 30-40 minutes 

Concepts taught by five senses lesson plan: The five senses; sight, hear/sound, touch/feel, smell, and taste

Preparation for five senses lesson: Make enough copies of the provided  five senses lesson plan picture handouts for each student and then cut out the individual pictures.

Introduction to the five senses

Sight-
Explain what the sense of sight is in your own words. Let the students look at the photograph or kaleidoscope. Explain that everything they see with their eyes is through their sense of sight. Colors, movement, light, dark, people, animals, and places are all things that they see with their sense of sight.

Sound-
Explain what the sense of sound or hearing is in your own words. Blow the whistle or play the musical instrument. Explain that they heard that noise and that they hear all noises with their ears using their sense of sound or hearing. Shouting, whispering, singing, laughing, lions roaring, frogs croaking, all animal noises, noises in the city, noises in the country, and all noises are heard through these sense of hearing.

Touch-
Explain what the sense of touch is in your own words. Let them feel the soft material and the rough sand paper. Explain that they use their sense of touch in their skin, fingers, and all parts of their body, inside and out) to know how something feels. Pain, cold, heat, hunger, soft textures, rough textures, etc. are different things they can feel with their sense of touch.

Smell-
Explain what the sense of smell is in your own words. Let them smell the perfume or flower. Explain that everything they smell with their nose is using their sense of smell. Flowers, perfume, skunks, and cookies in the oven are all things that they can smell.

Taste-
Explain what the sense of taste is in your own words. Let them taste and eat the candy or sugar cube. Explain that when they eat, that the taste buds on their tongues let them taste all the different flavors found in food. They taste the sweet, sour, salty, and bitterness of different things with their taste buds.

Assess and reinforce students understanding of the five senses:
Hand out to each student a set of the five senses lesson plan picture handouts. Tell the class that you're going to read them a story and that as you read the story you want the children to listen and look for times when the characters use one their five senses. When they discover one of the five senses being used they should hold up the picture representing that sense as well as a picture of the item the sense is acting on or related to. Then, read to the class the children's picture book, Old MacDonald had a Dragon by Ken Baker and illustrated by Christopher Santoro (more information on Old MacDonald had a Dragon). As you read the story, watch to see if the students display the correct five senses pictures and encourage or congratulate them as they do so.

The following represent the most obvious scenes in the story where the the five senses are used and for which pictures have been provided for in the lesson plan handout:

• Farmer sings E-I-E-I-O (hear/sound)
• Animals moo, oink, baa, or bark (hear/sound)
• The pig stinks (smell)
• The dragon tastes the animals; delightful dairy, savor swine, marvelous mutton, and delectable doggy (taste)
• Wool socks keep farmers feet warm (touch/feel)
• The dog saw what happened to the cow, pig and sheep (sight)

After reading the story, review with the students what and how the different five senses were used throughout the story. The teacher can also discuss some of the other senses not represented in the picture handout, such as the animals/farmer tumbling in a slimy heap (touch/feel or taste), the dragons flash of fire (sight and touch/feel), the dragons tummy ache (touch/feel), dragon burping (hear/sound) or the farmer plucking his guitar (hear/sound). Make any needed additional explanations about the senses to reinforce students' understanding.

To print this lesson plan: Download a printer-friendly PDF version of the Dragon Fun Five Senses lesson plan