Sense Games to Play

Sight

• The Cool Kids Craft Ideas website recommends presenting children with a number of reflective objects, such as mirrors, pots, lenses, spoons and a pool of water. Have the children move about and look at their different reflections, comparing how they look in each different object. Talk to them about what makes reflections change on different surfaces.

  You can also play "I Spy." One student picks an object within sight and says, "I spy with my little eye..." and gives a characteristic of the object such as "something big" or "something black." Players take turns trying to guess the object, with extra clues added if necessary.

  To test the children's memory skills as well as their sight, fill a box up with small objects. Reach inside and pull out four or five. After the children take a look, have them close their eyes. Remove one of the objects and have the children try to remember what is missing. Grab some new items and play again.

Sound

• Play hide and seek. Have one child hide and then make some kind of noise to help the other children find him.

  Or, find a recording of children's music without any lyrics. Play each track and see which student can guess the name of the song first.

Smell

• Blindfold the children and take them to a table where you have a wide variety of foods, spices and extracts. Have the children guess what each object is. Talk about the different words we use to describe fragrances. Ask them which they liked and which they disliked.

Taste

• Similarly to the smell game, present children with different tasting foods and have them taste the food without being able to see it. Talk about their opinion on the various foods using words like sweet, salty and sour.

  The Kids Soup website describes a fun taste activity. Just make popcorn and divide it into three bowls. Season each bowl with a different flavoring such as salt, sugar or cheese. As children taste the popcorn, encourage them to guess what flavor each bowl of popcorn is.

Touch

• Take some boxes and create small holes in them. Block each hole with a piece of construction paper so that students may reach into the box without seeing what's inside. Place a different item in each box and have students try to guess what's inside based on what it feels like. Include some items that are easily identifiable and some that aren't so easy. You can also put the items in paper bags and have the children feel them from the outside to try to guess what's inside.