I get the question, “how does arts and crafts help a child’s development? all the time, and honestly… The answer is SO MUCH! Arts and crafts aren’t just fun activities for our little ones to keep them entertained, they’re an exciting and invigorating gateway into exploration and learning!

Hands-on activities are beneficial in tons of ways like aiding in fine motor skills, creating an outlet to express creativity, and even teaching different important concepts!

And when we can engage our kiddos’ senses during arts and crafts, it makes the activity even better. That’s why I’m excited to share 5 senses crafts for preschoolers today!

These activities offer unique opportunities for preschoolers to explore the world around them through their senses, ensuring that they’re getting the most out of the experience. These activities for preschoolers are fun and developmentally beneficial! 

What are 5 Senses Crafts For Preschoolers?

When it comes to preschool play, 5 senses activities offer a whole new world of learning and fun! Unlike other types of craft activities, these projects are designed to fully immerse kids into an experience by engaging their 5 senses hearing, smell, taste, touch, and sight!

The senses make activities really come to life. It’s a great way to take traditional activities, and turn them into an all-out experience! 

What are the Benefits of Five Senses Art and Crafts for Preschoolers?

Enhancement of Sensory Processing

Five senses arts and crafts enhance sensory processing simply by engaging multiple senses at one time. This strengthens neural connections in the brain, which in turn lays the foundation for better interpretation to sensory experiences. This helps with things like fine motor skills, gross motor skills, cognitive growth, and tons more! 

Improvement of Fine Motor Skills

Lots of five senses activities involve doing things like squeezing, pouring, and pressing, which all require those small hand muscles to get to work! The manipulation of objects of different sizes and textures improves a kid's ability to use small muscles and coordinate their movements. This is important for things like holding a pencil, tying shoes, zipping up a jacket, etc. 

Promotion of Language Development

When you provide the opportunity for your little one to explore their environment through multiple senses, you’re also providing the opportunity to expand their vocabulary! They’ll want to describe these experiences to you. Five senses arts and crafts encourages them to articulate their thoughts in meaningful ways! 

Encouragement of Mindfulness

Sensory activities are one of the best ways to naturally encourage your little ones to slow down and focus on the task at hand. When they’re feeling the squishy texture of playdough, or looking at the mixture of different colors, they’re likely going to stay fully engaged in the experience.

Being mindful helps children engage their five senses, which in turn, fosters greater mindfulness and focus! See how full circle that is?

Inspiration for Furthered Creativity

Five senses crafts are fantastic ways to inspire further creativity. It encourages experimentation, boosts imagination, builds confidence through self-expression, encourages multi-dimensional thinking, and most importantly, it makes learning fun! 

8 Five Senses Craft Ideas For Preschoolers

Cloud Slime DIY

A great go-to craft idea that engages multiple senses at once will always be slime. Not only does it keep your little one entertained for hours, it’s also a valuable activity for senses of touch.

For this activity, add glue, baby oil, food coloring, and baking soda into a bowl and mix it well. Once it’s mixed, add in shaving cream and blend that together. Next, pour in contact lens solution until the slime pulls easily off of the bowl, mending it with your hands until it isn’t sticky. Now, add in already grown instant snow until it’s fully integrated with the slime. Finally, mend it all together until it’s no longer sticky!

Your preschooler will love the sticky and stretchy texture of the slime, and the different colors will add to the already mesmerizing experience. 

Play Mud

This dirt-free alternative, while it still may be a bit messy, is another great way to engage the senses. On one hand, the different scents and textures are fantastic for keeping your little one focused, interested, and entertained. On the other hand, what kid won’t want the opportunity to play in mud?!?

In a bowl, combine a 1:1 ratio of cocoa powder and cornstarch, gradually adding water as you stir. While real mud may not particularly smell “good”, adding a few drops of vanilla extract into the mixture can be a beneficial additive for sense of smell! Now is the time where you adjust the consistency, adding more water if it’s dry, or adding more cocoa powder and cornstarch if it’s too wet.

Finally, it’s playtime! Hand your little one some small tools if you want them to focus on fine motor skills, or let them mold the fake mud with their hands for a direct, texturally engaging experience. Keep in mind, you’ll want to use a sensory table with this activity to contain the mess!  

Bubble Feet Painting

The only way to make bubble wrap more appealing for little ones is to tape it to their hands and feet and give them some paint!

Lay down a large piece of white paper, and secure it to your floor with painters tape. Add just a few small drops of paint onto the paper wherever you see fit, I recommend straying away from the edges so the paint doesn’t splatter onto the floor! Next, wrap your kid’s hands and/or feet with bubble wrap, gently securing it with tape.

Now, have your little one stomp and smash and rub the paint all over the paper, letting their creativity run wild! They’ll love the small popping sounds from the bubble wrap, the actual texture of the bubble wrap, and the way they get to make their own little masterpiece with the swirling and mixing of all the colors! It’s a great activity all around!

Edible Beach Sand

This edible activity is fantastic for engaging your little ones’ sense of taste and sense of sight. While it won’t taste great, it’s an activity you won’t have to worry about your kid bringing to their mouth. And nonetheless, the colors make the activity all the more intriguing!

Start by pouring your flour into an oven safe pan (this step is crucial, since cooking the flour is what makes it edible!) Next, add some food coloring into water and add it to the flour, mixing well with your hands. Bake it at 330° in 10 minute intervals, thrusting it with your hands each time you take it out. When it cools, add vegetable oil, thrust it with your hands to remove the clumps, and add the “sand” into a bin!

If you do want it a bit tastier, consider switching out flour and food coloring for graham crackers and brown sugar!

Colored Rice

This activity is taste-safe, inexpensive, and most importantly, colorful! For an added sensory benefit, you may want to consider adding in kid-friendly scents, like vanilla extract! It can help cancel out that vinegary smell.

Measure 1 cup of rice for every 1 tablespoon of vinegar, and add that mixture to a plastic bag. Add a few drops of food coloring into that ziplock bag, and shake it until all the rice grains are colored. Lay it out to dry on a flat tray over parchment/wax paper, keeping it in a thin layer so it can dry evenly!

Your kids will be enthralled by the texture of the rice and the different added colors! You could even take this activity the extra mile and turn it into a learning experience by asking them to draw different shapes or letters! 

Recycled Rainbow Cardboard Puzzle DIY

Making DIYs from reusable materials is one of my favorite hacks it’s just as entertaining, and it’s inexpensive! This DIY rainbow cardboard puzzle is great to add to your sight activities itinerary.

Grab recycled cardboard pieces, and cut the two of them into the same size. On one piece, use a marker to draw a large circle, using a ruler to divide it into ⅛ sections. Cut the circle and individual sections out, and glue the two cardboard pieces together. Use markers or paint sticks to color each piece, and then hot glue a pom pom to each of the individual pieces.

Once you put the puzzle inside the circle, allow your little ones to explore the activity! The pom poms provide an interesting, fuzzy texture, and the different colors are intriguing to mix and match with! Plus, they’ll love the ability to pick up and put down pieces as they choose.

Painting With Beans

For this activity, you can use a simple bamboo tray from Michaels for a fun keepsake, or you can use recycled cardboard for a quick, easy-to-clean activity!

Just grab your tray or cardboard, and add a few drops of paint in different areas. Put some black beans in a cup, and ask your little one to place the beans across the surface they’re working on. Once they’ve laid them down, gently shake the tray/cardboard so the beans move around a bit.

Now, ask your little one to use their finger (or spoon) to move the beans around, blending the paint however they want! This is fantastic for their fine motor skills, sensory stimulation, and creativity! They’ll love the way the beans mixed with the paint feels, and they’ll enjoy watching the paint swirl around to create the perfect little “painting”. 

Mothercould Activity Packs

Activity packs are a fantastic way to engage the five senses in fun, interactive, and intriguing ways. On the Mothercould in your Pocket resource, there are tons of packs based on different holidays, seasons, goals, and even ages. In particular, there’s a sensory play activity pack that features activities perfect for mixing sensory benefits with arts and crafts consider it a mini “senses book”!

It combines a self-portrait page, a shape-dotting activity, coloring pages, and more! Not only do you get activity packs, you also have access to tons of parent hacks, fun tutorials, and lots of play recipes. 

5 senses crafts for preschoolers can effortlessly make learning fun! 

Finding crafts that engage all 5 senses is so rewarding both for the little one participating, and the parent who can have the reassurance that they’re able to teach kids in a fully immersive way.

For an added hack, you could incorporate anchor charts into your craft time to help your little one keep track of what they’re learning. They’re super helpful, easy to organize, and fun to create! 

For plenty of fun-filled tutorials, DIY play hacks, and easy-to-follow recipes, download the Mothercould in your Pocket resource! For more sensory activities and engaging arts and crafts, visit the Mothercould blog!