Five Senses Smell + Art • 3-5 years
What Do You Smell? Five Senses Art
A two-day smell conversation and art project with nose shapes, children’s ideas, and scented flower painting.
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Pond Theme + Group Art
Collaborative Pond Mural
This collaborative pond mural is a group art activity where children work together to create one big lake scene. Children paint a large blue and green pond background, then add pond animals, lily pads, reeds, rocks, logs, and other details to build a shared classroom habitat.
Best for: Pond themes, lake animals, classroom collaboration, habitat vocabulary, painting, sorting, counting, and group display boards.
Learning Goals
- Collaboration and turn-taking
- Creative expression
- Fine motor skills
- Pond animal vocabulary
- Habitat awareness
- Counting, sorting, and storytelling
Materials
- Large paper or bulletin board paper
- Blue and green washable paint
- Paintbrushes or sponge brushes
- Pond animal cutouts or stickers
- Lily pads, reeds, rocks, and log pieces
- Glue sticks or tape
- Scissors
- Table or floor covering
How to Do the Activity
- Prepare a large piece of paper in a pond or lake shape.
- Invite children to paint the background with blue and green colors.
- Let the mural dry before adding the pond pieces.
- Set out pond animals, plants, rocks, logs, and lily pads in small trays.
- Invite children to choose pieces and decide where they belong in the pond habitat.
- Glue or tape the pieces onto the mural together.
- Use the finished mural for counting animals, naming habitats, and telling pond stories as a class.
Questions to Ask Children
- What animals can you find in our pond?
- Where should the frogs live?
- Which animals are swimming and which are resting?
- How many lily pads can you count?
- What did we make together as a class?
Teacher Tip: Keep the animal and plant pieces in separate trays so children can make intentional choices. This also gives you a natural way to practice sorting, counting, and vocabulary during the activity.
