Play a Senses Discovery Game

By Jennie Preece

Jul 1, 2020

25 min activity

00:00

When Ms. Mole leaves school without her glasses, Elinor and her friends worry that she won’t be able to run errands. As they hurry to find her and return her glasses, they discover that Ms. Mole ran her errands quickly because she used her five senses.

How can our senses help us explore? Play this senses discovery game with your child to find out.

Materials for the Five Senses Discovery Game

A variety of household items that your child knows and doesn’t know. Examples include an item that has a distinct smell, such as a citrus fruit cut in half or a bar of soap, an item that has an interesting texture, such as a sponge, something your child uses every day, such as a toothbrush or a spoon, small toys that your child plays with often and/or hasn’t played with in awhile, an item of clothing, such as a sock or hat, a natural object, such as a leaf or rock.
A box large enough to hold the objects, such as an empty tissue box or wipes container
Observation Chart (PDF)
Pencil

How to Play the Five Senses Discovery Game

Let’s Be Curious! Talk to your child about the 5 senses — sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. What does your child know about the 5 senses already? Invite your child to play a senses game with you to find out!

Let’s Make a Plan! Tell your child that you have chosen a few items from around the house for the senses game. Provide examples for what the objects might be, such as food, kitchen tools, clothing, toys — anything — so that your child has some context when they try to guess! Place the items in a box with a hole cut out of the top so that your child can reach in and feel the object or bring the box to their nose to smell what’s inside.

Let’s Explore! Present each item in the box to be discovered. Allow time to explore the item through taste, touch, smell and sound. Ask your child questions about what each item feels, smells, sounds or even tastes like!

Once your child has identified an object, help them write down the name of the object or draw the object and record what they noticed about it while using their senses. Ask your child, “Is it smooth and bumpy? Sweet or salty? What words would you use to describe the object? Which sense tells you that?”

Continue the senses game until all objects are identified.

Let’s Share! Invite a friend or other family member to play the senses game with you and your child. Have them write down their findings, then share and compare.

Explore Further

Take the adventure outdoors! Lead your child on a sensory walk through your neighborhood, a nearby park or another outdoor place. Stop at various locations and invite them to use their senses to discover things in the area. Feeling brave? Let your child guide you! Talk about what you notice.

We hope you had fun together! Snap a photo of you and your child doing the activity and share it with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. We’d love to see how it turned out!

Want more “Elinor Wonders Why” activities? Check out the Falling for Fun: Drop and Investigate experiment and the Observe With a DIY Magnifying Glass activity to continue the fun!