Exploring Nature with Your Senses: Touch

Updated for 2025: Spring Sensory Celebration
As we step into a new season, we’re refreshing this post with new insights and activities for our Spring Sensory Celebration! This annual initiative encourages families to slow down and experience nature with all five senses. Whether you’re a longtime follower of OutGrown or discovering us for the first time, we hope these ideas inspire fresh ways to explore the outdoors with your little ones.

While wandering through nature, we take in our surroundings using our senses. We smell flowers, touch tree bark, listen to bird calls, see details (like an ant trail on a tree), and even taste some of the natural objects we come across (think berries or edible flowers). And, while investigating nature in this way comes naturally to most children, sometimes we forget to allow children the time and space they need to do it.

As part of OutGrown’s Spring Sensory Celebration, we’re sharing simple, engaging ways to activate each of the five senses outdoors with young children.

Photo Credit: Michelle Pearl Gee

Exploring Nature by Touch

Touch is one of our most immediate ways of experiencing the world. Every moment outside offers a chance to notice new textures and sensations, from the sun's warmth to the rough bark of a tree under our fingertips. Though we take almost all of our touch sensations for granted and do not think much about them, one minute outside can feel like this: You touch the doorknob to let yourself outside and immediately feel the warm air and a slight breeze on your skin. You step outside, and your bare feet feel the warm cement ground.

You walk toward your front yard and brush your arm up against a bush. You touch some flowers right before your feet touch the cooler grass. You take a moment to relish the feeling of the grass before you sit down and feel the soft ground under your body and maybe a slight itchy feeling on your legs. We often take these sensations for granted, but when we slow down and focus, we can turn everyday outdoor moments into a mindful, sensory-rich experience. But, if we slow down outside, practice a little mindfulness, and think about each feeling as it touches our body, it can shift any outdoor experiences greatly.

Five ways to slow down and experience the sense of touch in nature:

1. Create a touch box. A touch box is a fun, hands-on guessing game that helps kids explore nature through feel alone. Gather natural objects—pinecones, feathers, smooth stones—place them in a box, and have kids guess each item by touch. All you do is gather some simple nature items and put them inside a box. Don’t let your children see what is in the box and have them guess what nature item it is based on touch alone. You can put one item in at a time (good for younger children) or all at once to make it more challenging.
2. Walk barefoot in nature. Our feet are packed with nerve endings, making them perfect for sensory exploration. Walk barefoot on grass, sand, or dirt, noticing how each surface feels differently. When you intentionally think about each sensation your feet feel, the whole experience of walking barefoot shifts just a bit.
3. Find different textures in nature. Try a texture scavenger hunt! Challenge kids to find something rough, smooth, soft, bumpy, cool, or warm. You can also just have the ideas in your head and have the kids search for one at a time while you meander your favorite trail. Some examples of easy-to-find nature textures are rough, smooth, cold, warm, wet, dry, hard, soft, etc.
4. Hug a tree. Tree-hugging isn’t just for fun—it’s a great way to explore texture and size. Notice whether the bark is rough or smooth, warm or cool, thick or thin.. Are you able to wrap your hands all the way around? Is the bark rough or smooth?
5. Count the skin sensations. Pause for a minute and count all the sensations on your skin—the breeze, the sun, the feeling of the ground beneath you. You’ll be amazed at how much you notice when you focus! The wind on your skin, the sun's warmth, the feeling of the ground under your body, the fly that landed on your leg, and so much more. It is hard to focus on only the feeling of touch, but how many different things our skin can feel in just one minute is fantastic.

Ready to explore more? Join our Spring Sensory Celebration! Share your sensory nature experiences with us using #SpringSensory, and check out our other posts on hearing, taste, smell, and sight for more ways to engage with nature.
 

ABOUT OUTGROWN

OutGrown is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works to create a world where everyone can enjoy the physical and mental benefits of spending time outside. We are focused on creating opportunities and removing barriers to access so families with babies and young children can take their first steps outside. We believe all families have the right to connect with nature, benefit from spending time outdoors and be inspired to a lifelong love of nature. Since its grassroots inception in 2013, OutGrown is a growing community of 280,000 families and over 300 volunteer Branch Ambassadors. More information on all of our programs can be found at WeAreOutGrown.org 

EDITORS NOTE:

We hope you enjoyed this article from OutGrown. We’re working hard to provide our community with content and resources that inform, inspire, and entertain.

But content is not free. It’s built on the hard work and dedication of writers, editors, and volunteers. We invest in developing premium content to make it easier for families with young children to connect with nature and each other. If you believe in making outdoor experiences more accessible for all families, consider supporting OutGrown. Your contributions help us provide free resources, programming, and community events like the Spring Sensory Celebration!