Classroom Activities
Lesson One - Our Five Senses
This lesson can be used to introduce the unit on the five senses. The activity allows the students to explore and discover what is in a mystery box through the use of their five senses. I chose to read a book for reinforcement of the five senses: See, Hear, Touch, Taste, Smell by Melvin Berger. The activity can be done as a whole group or it can be modified for small group or center use.
Objectives:
1. Students will use each of the five senses in discovery of what is inside of a mystery box.
2. Students will be able to use their sense of hearing to listen to the popcorn being popped, sense of smell, sense of sight to see the popcorn, sense of touch to feel the popcorn, and sense of taste and see if their guess was right.
3. Students will discover connections between the five senses and the corresponding sense organs.
Materials:
Hot air popcorn popper
Large box to cover popper
Popcorn to pop (enough for 26 students)
Napkins/cups for popcorn
Procedures:
1. Place an air popcorn popper filled with popcorn on a table covered with a box in the classroom when the students are not present.
2. Have students sit on the carpet in front of the mystery box. Turn on the popcorn popper.
3. Ask the students how we could find out what is in the box: What does it sound like? What does it smell like?
4. Remove the box. Did the students guess correctly? Tell the students that I will be asking more questions when they get the popcorn about how it feels, tastes and sounds like. Pass out popcorn to students.
5. Ask the students what they see, feel and taste. Ask the students to describe each experience: What does it look like? What does it taste like? What sound does the popcorn make when you eat it?
6. Ask the students to try to explain what they used to find out what was under the box. 7. Briefly discuss the five senses, and the sensory organs. Talk about descriptive sense words: loud, soft, hard, rough, heavy, light, etc.
7. Quickly review: What are the five senses?
Evaluation of student learning: Through discussion after the activity, were the students able to effectively describe their experience of using their senses to figure out what was in the mystery box? Were the students also able to identify the sensory organs used? Did the students appropriately respond to the questions asked during the reading of the book.
Lesson Two - Sensory Centers
The purpose of this lesson is to raise the students' awareness of the five senses and the role the senses play in making food choices. The teacher will read a book about the senses and provide the students with a variety of center activities. This is a great opportunity to invite parent helpers could help facilitate the centers and assist in gathering the appropriate materials.
Objectives:
The students will explore the relationship between the senses and food preference; review the names of the five senses; draw and label the senses; recognize that participation in the activities involves trust.
Materials:
Foods of different sizes and textures
Adult or older student volunteers at each center
Student writing journals
Chart paper
Big Book, My Five Senses: A Lion's Tale
Procedures:
Ask the students to close their eyes while you pass something under their noses (a cut lemon, chocolate candy, coffee beans or peanut butter). Hide the smelly item from sight and discuss what they think it was. Ask them to tell you what sense they used to figure that out. Ask them what other senses they have and how they could use those senses to observe the object in a different way. For example, they could use their sense of touch to feel the shape of the lemon. They could use their sense of hearing to observe how the coffee beans sound as they drop or shake in a cup.
Read the Big Book, My Five Senses: A Lion's Tale. Discuss how the lion used his senses in the story. Tell them that they have five senses that help them observe the world. Ask the children to reflect on what their five senses are and how they use them. Encourage several children to give their responses and ideas.
Divide the class into five groups to rotate to five centers. Each center will focus on a single sense. Choose foods of different sizes, temperatures and textures (green banana/ripe banana, outside/inside of pepper, grape, apple, grapefruit, bread, lettuce). The children will use one sense at a time to choose which food they would like to eat. The student should tally of what choices they make at their center and record any comments. (Have the foods in closed containers so children cannot see the objects in advance.) The teacher will need to signal when the groups rotate and oversee the whole process, making sure they have enough time at each center.
Centers:
Touch: Have the children handle foods with their eyes closed or blindfolded (no eating). After feeling all the choices, ask them to select one thing that they think they'd like to eat based on feel. Ask them to explain their choices. Chart their answers.
Taste: Have small samples of foods of different tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, and salty). As children sample the foods, write down their comments. Tally which foods children choose as their favorite flavors.
Smell: Have students close their eyes and use only their sense of smell to make choices. After smelling all the choices, ask them to select one thing that they think they'd like to eat based on smell alone. Have them to explain their choices. Chart their answers.
Sight: Choose items that may not be familiar to students for this center. Have students use only their sense of sight to make choices. After looking at all the choices, ask them to select one thing that they think they'd like to eat based on sight alone. Ask them to explain their choices. Chart their answers.
Hearing: Have students turn their back to the facilitator. Use foods that make noise (cold cereal, pouring milk, snapping carrots, breaking chips). See if children can identify the foods.
Evaluation: Students write in their journals about their five senses. They should draw a picture of eyes, ears, hands, mouth and nose. By each sense, they should illustrate something that was attractive to that sense. Post the words "hearing," "taste," "touch," "smell" and "sight" on the word wall or in the writing area so that students can copy the words and label their drawings. Encourage students to write about the foods they observed.
Lesson Three - Now Hear This
Plastic eggs will be filled with various objects and children will need to use their sense of hearing to figure out what is inside.
Objectives: The children will use their sense of hearing to determine the objects inside the egg. The children make guesses and check their answers.
Materials: plastic eggs, objects for inside the eggs, cotton, rice, paper clips, marbles, pennies etc., permanent marker, picture worksheets, data worksheet, scissors, glue, pencils and ears.
Procedures: Fill plastic eggs with various objects. Number each egg with a permanent marker. Explain to the class that they will shake each egg and try to guess what is inside. Show them the pictures of the objects they will be listening for. Children will shake each egg and listen. They should not open the eggs. Children will select which object they think is inside the egg and cut out the matching picture. Glue the object onto the corresponding numbered egg on the first worksheet. Continue on until all the eggs have been done. After all answers have been recorded on the worksheet, the children can open each egg to see what is inside. They can then check their guesses. Discuss the sense of hearing and how it helped to identify the sounds inside the eggs.
Lesson Four - Tasty Smell or Not
This lesson will demonstrate the connection between the sense of smell and the sense of taste, which was introduced in lesson two. Film canisters will contain various smells and scents and the children will need to use their sense of smell only to decide - is this a tasty smell (would I like to eat this?) or not a tasty smell.
Objectives: The children will use their sense of smell to decide a tasty smell or not tasty smell. The children make their choice, guess the contents, and check their answers.
Materials: 12-15 film canisters, cotton balls, vanilla, garlic, vinegar, hand soap, onion, perfume, chocolate, lemon, peppermint, soil, data worksheet, scissors, glue, pencils and nose.
Procedures: Number each canister and create a list. Infuse the cotton balls with the various scents by placing the ingredient and a cotton ball into a plastic bag overnight. The student should see only a cotton ball when they open the canister. Explain to the class that they open each canister and gently smell the contents and decide, is it a tasty smell or not. Also at this point they may choose to write on their chart a guess of what they smell. Once all students have completed the activity, reveal the actual source of the smell from the list and graph the student's results. Discuss the fact that although some things smell not tasty, they are in fact food (vinegar) and the opposite may also be true (bubblegum scented hand soap).
09.06.02.03
Lesson Five - Scavenger Hunt for Sensory Sleuths
This lesson will take place at the local park, with help from parents or other chaperones.This is a weather-dependent lesson and can be adjusted based on available resources. The season of fall offers a variety of natural changes that help students learn to be observant.
Objective: The students will use descriptive words to complete the senses chart on the scavenger hunt. The students will learn to read and fill in a matrix. The students will work in cooperative groups to complete their work.
Materials: local park, adult helpers, data worksheets, small ziploc bags of trail mix (variety of raisins, m&m's, cheerios, small pretzels, goldfish, etc.)
Procedure: The students will be going on a nature scavenger hunt as sensory sleuths. Explain how a scavenger hunt works, but that this hunt will only be for collecting sensory information. Generate a list of describing words (adjectives) on the board/chart paper or orally prior to the trip to help the students with resources. Divide the students into cooperative groups of 3-4 with an adult assistant/chaperone. The students are to find the items on the list to investigate and write about. Encourage them to use a variety of descriptive words and be complete on their charts. As a challenge, students may include items not on the list, adding them to the chart. At the conclusion of the lesson time, distribute the trail mix for final sensory investigation.
Evaluation: Students will complete the chart with appropriate descriptive words.
@SH:Notes
1Peter Rowan. Big Head: A Book About Your Brain and Your Head.(New York: Knopf Books For Young Readers), 31.
2The Dana Guide to Brain Health: A Practical Family Reference from Medical Experts (Washington: Dana Press), Primer.
3Sandra Ackerman. Discovering the Brain (Washington D.C.: National Academy Press), 16.
4The Dana Guide to Brain Health, 181.
5 H.P. Newquist. The Great Brain Book: An Inside Look At The Inside Of Your Head. (Mexico: Scholastic Nonfiction), 65.
6The Dana Guide to Brain Health, 182.
7 Thomas Czerner. What Makes You Tick?: The Brain in Plain English. (New York, NY: Wiley), 181.
8Czerner, 185
9Ackerman, 19.
10Ibid.
11Dana, 139
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