Best 5 Senses Coloring Pages: Free & Easy Print!

Looking for some 5 senses coloring pages for your students while you study the human body?

The below printable packet is just the thing for kids of all ages to dive into the human senses!

You will find a cover page for your coloring book, an introduction to the senses, and individual coloring pages for each sense.

I also included a lot of notes and fun activities!

No matter what age bracket you’re working with – little kids to first grade students to upper elementary – you can have a lot of fun teaching about the five senses!

I have always found that hands-on activities and open discussion are the best way to help my kids learn and retain information. 

So, definitely consider adding in some of the senses activities and discussion questions included in this post to take your lessons to the next level!

****A text link at the bottom of the post will open a PDF file for instant download. 

Check Out Your 5 Senses Worksheets And Coloring Pages!

If you are at the very beginning of learning about the senses, the first thing you want to do is give a brief – age-appropriate – explanation of the nervous system. 

The brain is at the center of the five senses above because it receives all the information from the body parts.

The brain uses all of that information to make decisions – to keep us alive and healthy.

Should I eat this or that? Is it time to go inside? Should I wear this or that? 

Those are just some of the decisions we make every day based on information we get from our senses.

This free download gives a quick overview of the 5 senses.

Have your student trace the words and then use different colors for each of the body parts!

Lastly, have your student draw a line to match each sense word to the corresponding body part.

****You can have your student draw their own picture, or as an alternative, you can have them cut out pictures from magazines for each of the senses. It just depends on their fine motor skills and which activity you think they would enjoy the most.

Sense Of Taste

This is usually every kid’s favorite sense to learn about…because treats are usually involved! 

For a memorable, fun activity, I would highly recommend doing the classic blindfolded taste test. See if your child can identify a variety of foods by taste alone. 

Specifically ask if what they are eating is sweet, salty, sour, or bitter. 

Why Is Taste So Important?

This is a great question that will bring critical thinking into your lesson!

I am sure your student will give a variety of answers, but be sure to include that taste helps us to avoid foods that are bad for us (rotten, toxic, etc.).

It also helps give us the desire to eat.

I once knew a woman who had survived cancer. Her sense of taste was significantly impacted by chemotherapy, so she had very little desire to eat. It was really just a chore for her to make food and eat it regularly to avoid hunger. This of course affected her weight and the nutrition she took in.

Elderly people will experience this too as their taste buds dull with age. It is a struggle for them to take in the calories they need when they don’t taste the same anymore.

Sense Of Smell

This sense can also be explored with a fun blindfold style test.

You could use any variety of smelly things you have around the house: soaps, lotions, essential oils, seasonings, etc.

Just make ensure the items will not be harmful to the child (i.e. cleaners).

Why Do We Have a Sense Of Smell?

Great question!

It’s not like we’re an animal out hunting down our next meal. So why do we need it?

Well, there are a variety of reasons. One of the top ones is that it tells us a lot about our environment and what is going on around us (for example, smelling rain in the air before a storm).

It helps us sense danger (for example, smelling smoke or something burning) and it helps us tell if something might be good to eat. 

Many of us experienced life without smelling during COVID and it was no fun.

Smell and taste are closely connected, but we’re going to talk about that further down.

Sense Of Touch

Provide several different items for your child with varying textures.

Things like sandpaper, a doll, an orange, a pinecone, and a sponge.

Have them describe what each item feels like. Some kids might struggle with the correct adjective here so feel free to give them options to pick from.

Is it hard, soft, rough, bumpy, smooth, hairy, prickly, or squishy?

The “That’s Not My…” series from Usborne would be an excellent senses book to add to your lesson. These books really help young kids identify and discuss texture in a fun way.

Why Do We Need A Sense Of Touch?

I actually find this so interesting. 

As a former nurse, I would see patients who had lost their sense of touch due to neuropathy/diabetes. It was difficult for them to walk because their feet couldn’t quite feel the floor with each step. 

They would also hurt themselves because they couldn’t feel pain in their extremities. This means you could burn or cut yourself without knowing it!

Touch does many things but one of the biggest is helping us to interact with our environment safely.

Sense Of Hearing

This is such an important sense that many of us take for granted every day. 

Tell one student to give another student a message…but they can’t use talking or any noise to give the message. Show the child how much we rely on hearing to communicate quickly and easily. 

Play different noises for your child and see if they can recognize them; a favorite song, food cooking on a stove, wind blowing leaves around, birds singing, a car door closing.

Our ears are trained to hear and distinguish many different unique sounds!

Have your student put in earplugs for a few hours and see how frustrating it is to have diminished hearing.

Why Do We Have a Sense Of Hearing?

Hearing helps us tremendously to communicate with others, but it also helps us to identify danger. 

We can hear things like a police siren, a fire alarm, a dog barking, or someone yelling out. 

Not being able to hear can be very isolating. Thankfully we have wonderful options, such as sign language, to communicate with the deaf.

Sense of Sight

A great way to help children appreciate sight is to give them an idea of what it would be like without it.

Blindfold your student and coach them through a simple task, such as making a PBJ sandwich. 

There will probably be lots of laughs as they attempt to do a simple thing without vision. 

Switch roles and have the student blindfold you. They will see how difficult it is to explain each step to someone who can’t see.

Was it kind of dangerous to do? Were things almost dropped? Did you grab a container of salsa instead of jelly out of the fridge?

If time allows, introduce your student to the story of Hellen Keller and watch The Miracle Worker.

Why Do We Need Sight?

This is probably the easiest sense to understand. 

A life without sight makes us incredibly vulnerable to getting hurt or hurting ourselves. It is difficult to make food, dress yourself, interact with others, get exercise, learn, or work without help. 

There are many advances to help people without sight: service dogs, braille, and assistive technology. 

A Few More 5 Senses Activities and Tips 

Some senses do overlap!

For example, your tongue can taste ice creams, but can’t it also feel that it is cold? Why is it important that your tongue can sense temperature? 

Texture is also a very important thing for many people when it comes to food. Their mouth can feel that food is chewy, slimy, dry, or unappealing in some way. Why would that be important?

As you likely know, the senses of taste also overlap with the senses of smell. Have your children pinch their nose shut and takes bites of their lunch. 

What happens? Discuss why the sense of smell impacts your sense of taste.

Ask your studen if they can think of any other things that overlap the senses. For example, you can hear rain, feel that it’s wet, and smell it, and some people might want to run out and taste it!

Click Here To Download Your 5 Senses Coloring Pages!

Click the above text link/image link to get your 5 Senses Color Pages today. A new window will open with your document that you can print today.

Terms of use for this free digital product: Homeschool, classroom, co-op, and personal use only. Thank you!

I hope you and your student really enjoy working through these coloring pages and worksheets.

These free printables were designed to adapt to any curriculum, senses theme, or resources you’re using.

Feel free to use them with kids of all ages, as morning work, during an indoor recess, or as a stand-alone week-long study.

Enjoy and share with your teacher and homeschool friends!

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