All About Me: Touch!

Next in our study of the 5 senses is Touch. The sense of touch is different from the other senses in that it is located all over the body, not just in one specific part. Along with the face, neck, lips, tongue, hands and feet, fingertips are one of the most sensitive areas of the body. In fact, each fingertip has about 100 touch receptors! We put our fingers to the test in a few different ways today.

The awareness of one sense is increased when we can't use other senses. For our first activity, we sat down at a table, and I blindfolded each child. Then I handed them an object and gave them a minute to feel it. As they ran their fingers over it, I asked them to note the shape, the texture, whether the same texture was on all of it or part of it, the size, etc.



I tried to find things they were not very familiar with. After a minute, I took back the objects and removed their blindfolds. Then I gave each a piece of paper and pencil and asked them to draw their best interpretation of what the object was like.



Afterwards, we had fun comparing the drawing to the actual object and talked about what they felt and imagined in their mind's eye. Turns out they both knew what their objects were--so they did a pretty good job with their drawings!



Next, I gathered some objects with different textures and hid them under the couch cushions: a piece of sandpaper, a soft piece of cloth, a hard marble, a cold ice cube (in a baggie!), cotton balls, a pokey leaf, a smooth book.



The kids took turns reaching in without looking, and I asked them to describe what they felt. It was fun to see how many describing words or adjectives they could come up with.


Finally, we worked on this Touch page for our All About Me book.

You can print it here. I cut some pieces of fabric, sandpaper, shiny posterboard, and bubblewrap, and they glued them above the right describing word.



A couple of books you might want to find on your next library trip are: Find Out By Touching by Paul Showers and My Bunny Feels Soft by Charlotte Steiner.


And of course, touch is very important through hugs and cuddles, so be sure to give out lots of those today!