This storytime brings awareness to how we explore and interact with the world around us using our five senses: sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound. Includes books, a song, a realia activity, and the Mouse Paint craft with free printables.
Intro: Teaching/Reviewing Our 5 Senses
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If your kids haven't begun learning about the 5 senses yet, do a quick introduction like this:
Me: Can you tell me, what do we do with our eyes. *Points at eyes*
Kids: We see! *Pointing at eyes*
Me: *Cupping ear* What can we do with our ears?
Kids: *Cupping ears* We hear!
& so on. Then explain that these are the five ways we explore or "get to know" the people, places, and things around us. We use different senses to learn and enjoy different things. We use our eyes to see each other, the weather, or a pretty picture, but we can't use them to hear music, so we use another sense. This brings us to our realia activity (below), which I interspersed throughout the storytime.
Realia Activity: What Would We Do With a...?
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Gather together several interesting objects that you would use different senses to experience. Keep them in a bag and pull them out one by one. Have the children identify the object then go through each of the senses with them, asking if they'd use each sense on this object. This is a good time to use humor with them. They will think it is hilarious when you ask questions like "Would you smell the slipper?" or "Can you eat a truck?"
I was really proud when they got that clothes can have a scent and that we do not taste the uneditable objects, even though we can technically put our tongues on them.
Some Sense-ational Books!
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Book 1: Rain (Manya Stojic)
This book does a great job of incorporating all 5 senses. The savanna animals use their senses to predict and experience the rain. When the rain is gone, they use their senses again to see the lush grasses, take a cool drink from the watering hole, and so on.
Book 2: The Nose Book (Al Perkins)
This is part of the Dr. Seuss Beginner Books series, so it has that silly rhyming style. It was a favorite amongst the kids and has a lot of silly animals. The book presents a number of different types of noses and the pros and cons of noses. In the end, we decided that it is definitely better to have a nose, since food smells so good.
Book 3: Mouse Paint (Ellen Stoll Walsh)
This classic book is all about colors, one of the defining features of sight. To make this story interactive, I asked the kids what each color was then had them predict which color the mouse was about to make before flipping the page. They did a great job! This would also be a lot of fun to do as a live demonstration, if you have a paint palette to mix in front of them.
Book 4: Dragons Love Tacos
My favorite of the bunch! We learn that dragons love tacos, but they don't like spicy salsa because it makes them spit fire. They come over for a taco party and it turns out that the mild salsa is now made with spicy jalapeño peppers. Chaos ensues. The kids could all agree that they love tacos too. One boy even stayed after to tell me very sincerely that he REALLY loves tacos. REALLY loves them.
More Sensational Sensory Books:
Sing-Along: The Animals on the Bus
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We did this song for our Nursery Rhyme storytime last week, but I forgot my bus so we had to do it again. It still works for our theme since we make animal sounds and later talk about a skunk's odor. The song, which I believe comes from Mother Goose is on the Loose, is just like the wheels on the bus, but instead you sing...
"The (animal) on the bus goes (sound, sound, sound)..."
I brought mouse, horse, pig, dog, cow, and duck finger puppets. I also made a skunk (whose eye needs a little help), for the last verse. I explained what a skunk was and that if you scare it, it may spray you with a stinky smell. So we sang:
"The skunk on the bus goes psst, psst, 'Pee-yew!', psst, psst 'Pee-yew!'"
Craft: Mouse Paint Color Mixing
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I made these little Mouse Paint themed printables that you can get for free at my TPT store here. You just need to place a dot of red, blue, and yellow paint on the canvas and they can practice mixing the colors. Review the other senses during this activity by having them listen to the spurting sound of the paint coming out of the bottle, asking them what the paint smells and feels like, and discussing why we wouldn't eat the paint.