Having Fun with our Five Senses!

My kiddos have thoroughly enjoyed learning about their five senses this week.  I think it is because of all of the hands on activities.  They did a taste test during snack time and got to taste something sweet (chocolate cookie), salty (Cheese-its), and sour (lemon).  Each day since, I have asked the kids to describe the taste of their snacks (sweet, salty, sour, bitter).  I think it goes without saying that they prefer salty and sweet, who doesn't?

They did a great job coming up with foods to put on our giant tongue chart!  They even got to stick their tongues out at each other so we could find out what taste buds look like!  I made sure to tell them "No tongue touching allowed!"

We pulled out the "Feely Bags" to explore our sense of touch.  Don't be fooled, these are merely empty paper bags.  I demonstrated how to use the bags and then I partnered my students up.  One partner took the bag and put something from the classroom inside.  The other partner had to sit with their eyes closed.  Next, the partner got to stick their hand in the bag and guess what they were touching.  They took turns, switching roles each time.  They loved this game, and did a really good job guessing what was put inside each time!

I only have 10 kids in my class, so things didn't get too out of hand, but if you have a larger class you may want to do this as a whole group activity, or only let a few kids get up at a time.  They get really excited!

We have also been reading books about how we use each of our senses, and then writing in our notebooks each day.  My kinders have amazed me with how they are already trying to sound out words at the beginning of the year!

Last, but not least, we studied the sense of smell.  I found some different "smelly" items around my apartment and put them in ziplock bags.  I then put the ziplock bags inside paper bags and labeled each of them with a letter.  The paper bags were to prevent the kids from seeing what they were smelling.  They drew/wrote what they thought was in each bag on a recording sheet.  Everybody guessed at least a few correctly, but nobody guessed Bag E--coconut!

Let me know if you want a copy of the "smelly bag" paper and I can send it to you!  We will be doing five senses assessments next week to finish up the unit.  

--Lauren