Mental Health Activity: Five Senses Scavenger Hunt (2024)

This May, we are celebrating Mental Health Awareness month bysharing activities, information, stories, and resources to support the mental health and wellbeing of our children and our families.

The five senses scavenger hunt helps us explore the world around us using all fivesenses — sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. This activity helps kids to calm their bodies and minds and come into the present moment. It can be especially helpful when kids feel scared, worried, anxious, or stressed. Focusing on our senses helps keep us grounded in the present moment instead of worrying about the past or future.

5-4-3-2-1 Senses Scavenger Hunt

This activity can be easily adapted to any indoor or outdoor environment. We recommend getting outside if it is accessible, as the outdoors can provide a perfect setting for an engaging sensory activity.

Encourage kids to find objects that engage each of the five senses, such as a brightly colored flower (sight), a fragrant herb (smell), a smooth rock (touch), a sour berry (taste), and a bird's chirp (sound). By focusing on each sense, kids can learn to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings and tune out distractions.

  1. Take three deep inhales and exhales to ground and focus
  2. Walk around your yard, neighborhood or house and use your senses to find:
  • Five things you can see
  • Four things you can touch
  • Three things you can hear
  • Two things you can smell
  • One thing you can taste*

* If there is nothing edible in your environment, you can bring some fruit or veggies to use as a sensory item or imagine what something might taste like if you popped it in your mouth!

This activity not only provides a fun and educational experience for kids but a tool to promote mental health and mindfulness. By taking the time to observe and appreciate their surroundings, kids can bring themselves into the present moment and soothe any anxiety they might be experiencing about the past or future.

We encourage parents and caregivers to try these activities with their children and make mindfulness a part of their daily routine. Together, we can promote mental health and create a healthier, happier future for our youth!

Mental Health Activity: Five Senses Scavenger Hunt (2024)

FAQs

What are the 5 senses of mental health? ›

The '5 senses' technique is a coping tool for stressful situations. Also known as the '5,4,3,2,1' technique, it helps to ease anxiety by encouraging you to focus on the present moment. The technique works by connecting you with each of your five senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste.

What is the 5 4 3 2 1 scavenger hunt? ›

Five things you can see. Four things you can touch. Three things you can hear. Two things you can smell. One thing you can taste*

What are the learning outcomes of scavenger hunt? ›

Hidden Benefits of Scavenger Hunts
  • Social Skills. ...
  • Sensory Regulation. ...
  • Mind and Body Exercise. ...
  • Connecting With Nature.

What is the 5 senses therapy trick? ›

What is the 54321 method? The 54321 (or 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) method is a grounding exercise designed to manage acute stress and reduce anxiety. It involves identifying 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.

What is using the 5 senses to create a mental image? ›

Sensory imagery is a literary device writers employ to engage a reader's mind on multiple levels. Sensory imagery explores the five human senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell.

What are good scavenger hunt questions? ›

The 35 Best Scavenger Hunt Clues for Adults
  • If I'm on the road, you'll have a decision to make. ...
  • I am two things: an instrument and a shape. ( ...
  • Looking for the best way to avoid the doctor's office? ...
  • I don't move; however, you may find me running around your backyard but never in the house. (
May 6, 2022

How do you give clues for a scavenger hunt? ›

You can photograph the location yourself or use any graphic that depicts the hiding location (eg. a picture of a fridge can be drawn, photographed, clipped from a magazine, or found online). Before cutting up the picture, be sure to write the location of the next clue on the back or front of that picture.

What is the 5 sense trick for anxiety? ›

You can follow simple grounding exercises that activate your five senses — sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste. For example, simply listening to birds chirping or smelling fresh cut grass could help you focus less on your anxious thoughts and more on the present moment.

How to turn a lesson into a scavenger hunt? ›

This engaging activity makes learning fun and helps students solidify their knowledge.
  1. Step 1: Define Your Objectives. ...
  2. Step 2: Select Your Clue Locations. ...
  3. Step 3: Create Your Google Form.
  4. Step 4: Create QR Codes for Each Location.
  5. Step 5: Organize Your Scavenger Hunt.
  6. Step 6: Run the Scavenger Hunt.
  7. Step 7: Assess Learning.
Nov 1, 2023

How to do a scavenger hunt lesson? ›

Post “cards” around the room (or into the halls) with specific learning tasks on them. Prepare an answer page that each student will carry around. Students are told a starting point in the scavenger hunt. After working through the first card (their starting point), students walk around to find the answer.

What is an example sentence for scavenger hunt? ›

They were on a scavenger hunt, they said. The money for the scavenger hunt was left over tuition for school and from local sponsors. This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license. There is also an outdoor classroom for schools and groups, and a scavenger hunt scorecard.

How do you activate 5 senses? ›

5 Tips to Heighten Your Senses
  1. Olfactory Training for Smell. ...
  2. Eat foods with antioxidants for vision. ...
  3. Stop smoking for smell, taste, and vision. ...
  4. Exercise for smell and sound. ...
  5. Use your eyesight and focus for touch.

What are the five senses a gift? ›

Enter the “five senses gift” concept, where you curate or craft presents that engage the fundamental senses of the human body: sound, touch, taste, smell, and sight.

What is the 5th sense? ›

The idea that humans have just five senses dates back to Aristotle's De Anima, Book 2, chapters 7 to 11, written about 350 BCE. [1] He called them our “outward wits.” The five aristotelian senses people typically cite are vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

What is the math scavenger hunt activity? ›

  • Mathematics Scavenger Hunt. In this game small teams search for mathematically interesting items from a list and take pictures of them. ...
  • 1 - Decide the location. ...
  • 2 - Decide a time limit. ...
  • 3 - Define the list of items. ...
  • 4 - How to find and capture items. ...
  • 5 - Share the findings. ...
  • Before the event. ...
  • During the event.

What is scavenger hunt riddles? ›

Scavenger hunt clues are riddles, questions, puzzles, and hints that lead players through treasure hunts. For example, “if not for me, the birds would live in a hole in a tree” leads players to a birdhouse. The purpose of these riddles is to make scavenger hunts more fun and interesting.

What is the rule for the scavenger game? ›

The first team to find the most items on the list and/or has the most points wins! 10. Playing Fair - Have fun and try to win, but don't let your competitive instincts drive you to ruin other peoples' chances to win. If you do, your team will be disqualified.

What is the rule of scavenger hunt? ›

Hide or identify objects, landmarks, or other things for players to find, and write down fun clues using words and images. Split players into teams, set a time limit, and then set them loose!

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