Meet Mr. Broom. Mr. Broom joined us as a special guest the first two weeks of school. He didn't talk much, but he did assist us as we learned about our five senses.
We began our study of the five senses by reading the book Me and My Senses by Joan Sweeney. This book was a wonderful introduction to our five senses. The language was simple and easy to understand and the illustrations captured the attention of young learners.
Once we had established some common background knowledge, we created a chart to capture our questions about the five senses. We started by discussing what it means to wonder and what it means to ask a question. Slowly, the questions began to emerge and we soon had enough to inspire us to do some research and learn more about our five senses.
Sense of Hearing
After reading the book Hearing, from the Acorn series of books, the students played a game of Sound Bingo. In this game, they listened to a CD of different sounds, such as a dog barking or a plane taking off. Then, they had to find a picture that matched that sound. We also read the book A Listening Walk by Paul Showers and went on a listening walk around our school. We were amazed to discover how many things we could hear when we closed our mouths and focused on listening to the world around us.
Sense of Sight
We began our study of the sense of sight by reading the book Seeing. Then, we went into our cubby area, turned off the lights and conducted a seeing experiment. We sat knee to knee with a partner and looked into their eyes. Without the students knowing, I turned on the light. The room was filled with gasps as the students saw their partner's pupils shrink dramatically. They were even more amazed when I turned the light back off and they saw their partner's pupil double in size. This led to a lively discussion about the purpose of the pupil in our eye. The students were able to determine that the pupil got bigger because "There wasn't enough light." Likewise, they deducted that the pupil got smaller when "There was too much light." The next day, we tested our sense of sight along with our powers of observation while we played a game of "I Spy."
Sense of Smell
After reading another book in the Acorn series, titled Smelling, the students tested their sense of smell by sniffing a variety of mystery bottles. We learned that unless the brain has experienced a smell before and put a name with it, it will not be able to recognize it. The students were able to identify vanilla and cinnamon out of the five mystery scents.
Sense of Touch
We had fun finding things around the classroom and hiding them in our "Feel Box" for others to touch and guess. Some were definitely easier than others to identify! We read the book Touching and learned that the nerves in our bodies send messages to the brain and then the brain tells us what we are feeling.
Sense of Taste
In what was probably the most dramatic day of our five senses study, the students participated in a taste test after reading the book Tasting. They were each given a plate with four items on it: A lemon wedge, Tootsie Roll, Pringles chip and a piece of Baker's chocolate. They were told they could eat the items in whichever order they chose, but in the end, they had to try to determine which items were salty, sweet, sour and bitter. Suffice it to say, Baker's chocolate was an unwelcome surprise for their young taste buds!
Popcorn: An Experience for Every Sense
We culminated our study of the five senses with a multi-sensory experience...popcorn! Each student received a plate of popcorn and they explored it one sense at a time. We created a chart of words which described the way the popcorn looked, felt, smelled, sounded and tasted. It made "sense" to add some special seasonings to our popcorn to enhance the tasting experience!
