To wrap up the calendar year and start the new one, we began of one of my favorite science units to teach: the 5 senses. Not only does this time of year lend itself well to this subject for all of the sensory elements it has to offer, but learning about the senses is also a great way to learn about empathy.
We have been doing special experiments for each of our senses. To learn about our sense of sight and how it helps us live our day-to-day lives, we practiced some everyday activities with blindfolds on.
We have been doing special experiments for each of our senses. To learn about our sense of sight and how it helps us live our day-to-day lives, we practiced some everyday activities with blindfolds on.
At my center, I dictated words to the kids which they then had to write on their white boards. At the independent center, they had to navigate the rug, the bin of blocks, their towers, their peers, and their peers' towers. And at Mr. Ploof's center, they had a cup of bingo chips which they needed to separate, one at a time, into each individual cup of an egg carton.
The following day, we discussed what was difficult about these activities, and how our other senses came into play to help us complete them successfully. We talked about what it means to have limited or no sense of sight, and what the life is like for those who are blind or visually impaired. I talked about reading with braille, guide dogs, and various other accommodations that those who are blind use in their day to day lives.
For our sense of touch, I had 10 small paper bags filled with different mystery objects. Each kid took turns putting their hand in the bag and guessing what was inside. I would reveal the item after each kiddo had gone, and repeated the process for each item. The kids felt popping corn, feathers, buttons, a bouncy ball, crafting pom poms, and lots of other things from around the room! I tricked them a few times, but they were generally really good at guessing the items.
Next, we explored our sense of hearing. I had old film canisters which I filled with dry rice, paper clips, cap erasers, and pennies. Each student had a piece of paper folded into 4 sections. To test their hearing, I would shake the canister several times, and they would write their guesses for what was inside on the paper. We would then go around the room and each student would share their guesses before I revealed what was inside. Students told me they could tell something was made of metal, things were soft, and that there was "a lot" of an item inside the canister based on how it sounded inside. How impressive!
The following day, we discussed what was difficult about these activities, and how our other senses came into play to help us complete them successfully. We talked about what it means to have limited or no sense of sight, and what the life is like for those who are blind or visually impaired. I talked about reading with braille, guide dogs, and various other accommodations that those who are blind use in their day to day lives.
For our sense of touch, I had 10 small paper bags filled with different mystery objects. Each kid took turns putting their hand in the bag and guessing what was inside. I would reveal the item after each kiddo had gone, and repeated the process for each item. The kids felt popping corn, feathers, buttons, a bouncy ball, crafting pom poms, and lots of other things from around the room! I tricked them a few times, but they were generally really good at guessing the items.
Next, we explored our sense of hearing. I had old film canisters which I filled with dry rice, paper clips, cap erasers, and pennies. Each student had a piece of paper folded into 4 sections. To test their hearing, I would shake the canister several times, and they would write their guesses for what was inside on the paper. We would then go around the room and each student would share their guesses before I revealed what was inside. Students told me they could tell something was made of metal, things were soft, and that there was "a lot" of an item inside the canister based on how it sounded inside. How impressive!
Our sense of smell was a lot of fun to experiment with. They say that the sense of smell is the hardest to differentiate--it typically benefits from assistance from the sense of sight--unless their is a memory associated with the scent. That's pretty cool, but made the items I chose for them to smell extra difficult to determine!
Each "scent" was put on cotton balls, which I passed around for each student to smell. Then, like with the sense of hearing, I had the students write (and draw a picture of) what they thought the smell was. The scents included lemon juice, hand sanitizer, vanilla extract, raspberry extract, and coffee. We use sanitizer every day before snack, so they kids easily associated that scent. Some kids thought the vanilla was ice cream or cookies, and the kids who correctly guessed coffee said they have coffee-drinking parents, so that helped!
Finally, we tested our sense of taste with a little taste test. First, we discussed how there are different kids of taste. On individual plates, the kids had a pretzel, marshmallow, and lemon wedge. One item at a time, we tasted the foods and described the taste. We determined that the foods were salty, sweet, and sour, respectively. Then we brainstormed some other foods we know of that fall into each category. It was a fun, simple way to finish up our senses unit, and the kids LOVED seeing each other's faces when they ate the lemon...and I did, too ;)
Now for the other things!
Below you will find some pictures from our Advent board and door, Secret Santa gift exchange, Polar Express viewing party with the K-3rd grades, our final Random Act of Christmas Kindness activity, the Manger Tableau, our field trip to carol at the St Josephs Home, and pictures from the Christmas Concert. Hover over the photos for descriptions!
Each "scent" was put on cotton balls, which I passed around for each student to smell. Then, like with the sense of hearing, I had the students write (and draw a picture of) what they thought the smell was. The scents included lemon juice, hand sanitizer, vanilla extract, raspberry extract, and coffee. We use sanitizer every day before snack, so they kids easily associated that scent. Some kids thought the vanilla was ice cream or cookies, and the kids who correctly guessed coffee said they have coffee-drinking parents, so that helped!
Finally, we tested our sense of taste with a little taste test. First, we discussed how there are different kids of taste. On individual plates, the kids had a pretzel, marshmallow, and lemon wedge. One item at a time, we tasted the foods and described the taste. We determined that the foods were salty, sweet, and sour, respectively. Then we brainstormed some other foods we know of that fall into each category. It was a fun, simple way to finish up our senses unit, and the kids LOVED seeing each other's faces when they ate the lemon...and I did, too ;)
Now for the other things!
Below you will find some pictures from our Advent board and door, Secret Santa gift exchange, Polar Express viewing party with the K-3rd grades, our final Random Act of Christmas Kindness activity, the Manger Tableau, our field trip to carol at the St Josephs Home, and pictures from the Christmas Concert. Hover over the photos for descriptions!