While I plan on going pretty in depth into each of the senses, I wanted Chloe to have a basic idea of what they all were. That and there are SO MANY things to do with kids and their senses that I wanted to split it up a bit. I did the following activities over the span of two weeks.
BOOKS
While I was looking for books that included all of the senses for this lesson plan, most of them seemed to forced. We like stories that show not tell. This book is very colorful, but the pictures are kept simple. A group of hodgepodge animals are awaken by a noise. They cant see anything and they cant hear what it could be so they each venture out to touch. Each animal touches a part of elephant (they don't know what it is) and comes back thinking its a giant version of what ever animal they are. In the end all of the animals, including the elephant, go back to sleep in their hammock until the elephant hears something.
Rain is about animals in Africa who are waiting for the rain. They know that its coming because their senses tell them. I love how they mention smelling rain, I love the smell of rain! The words are switched from present tense to past tense which added an element of learning that I wasn't expecting. It mentions the effects that the rain has on the environment and eludes to it coming full circle back to dry again. This was a fun book with lots of description words.
If you have any book recommendations for the 5 senses please let me know! Most of what we read were not that great. Maybe you want to write us a story!
Poem
I know that I love to talk about books and how amazing they are, but I also think that its important to expose our kids to different styles of writing. All we do with poems is read threw it a few times during the week. I wont focus to much on poetry with her unless she sparks an interest in it, but I do want her to know what a poem is.
From the Johnson Journey blog
Tech
I know that many people are against their child being on technology, but I think that it is a wonderful teaching tool.
Curious George Oh Deer
The first half of this episode is something about Valentines day, but the second half is all about our five senses. Curious George is trying to find a way to keep the deer out of the garden. He tried building a scare crow, he talked with his friend about using smell but decided it was a bad idea, he made loud sounds but kept everyone up all night, and finally he remembered that the deer didn't like his cinnamon oatmeal! They sprinkled cinnamon on the plants and the deer stayed away. Not only do I love how well they integrate the senses into this show I also love Georges use of the scientific method. Way to go George!
The number one thing that we use technology for is dace parties! Below are the senses song we added to our dance party routine for the past two weeks. We keep the ones that we like best in the rotation for future weeks. As with all dance parties funny motions are a must!
Hands On Activities
We tried many activities for our five senses and picked the best to share with you!
Scavenger Hunt
Most of us have been on a scavenger hunt at some point in our lives, but how many of you had to use all your senses for it? This activity can be great to do inside or outside just make sure to tailor it to your location. I will provide you with a small list of ideas to get you started but there are just so many that it could be a blog in itself!
Floral
Stinky
Spicy
Smooth
Slimy
Sticky
Sweet
Tart
Gross
Red
Small
Square
Jingly
Loud
Calming
I tried to provide three for each sense, please leave a comment below with more ideas to share!
Apple Chart
This was a bit more direct than I normally go but she loved it so much that we even did another version as you will see below! While this way is a bit simpler we decided we wanted more than one word to describe each sense. We described it before we ate it and after. I attempted to draw an apple and write neat...
Its not about the product its about the process right?
Letter Practice
Chloe LOVES to trace letters and she was so proud when she was done with this work sheet. She insisted on showing it to everyone! Remember, your child is going to learn best doing what they want to do, if your child does not want to do the worksheet, or any other activity, it would be counter productive to force them.
Mystery Sense
Ironically in Tinkergarten this season we are also learning about our senses. Its like fate! For our opening activity I took: peeled grapes, cooked and oiled noodles, rocks, pine cones, pine needles, cinnamon sticks, toy elephant, and a smashed banana, and put them in different types of containers.
I had kids smell the cinnamon sticks and touch/smell the pine needles and mashed banana.
I had them feel and attempt a smell of the noodles, pine cones, toy elephant, and grapes
The rocks in a metal container got a nice listen!
Under different circumstances I would have had a few up for taste as well, but in Tinkergarten one of our rules is that we don't put anything in our mouth except for snack! Although a few of our edible items did end up in some little mouths anyways!
Nature Walk
We use our senses all the time when we hike around but this brought out more of a focus. It also makes a really good journal entry if you are trying to instill that habit. Make sure that you point out what your senses are noticing as well! We added taste in for the things that we could identify like tree sap and dandelions. This can also be a great activity to do as each season is changing, you can compare past journals to this one.
The last, and personally our favorite, was the popcorn chart! We started off by making four different types of popcorn: Plain, Tex Mex, Ginger Bread, and Mystery. For our mystery I had Chloe go into the spice cabinet, pick three random spices, and put it on the popcorn along with butter. With so much popcorn we had to share!
I made a little chart for each of the popcorn flavors and went threw our senses for each, Remember to do smell before you do taste! We are lucky to have such a wide range of ages in our family so we started with the youngest and worked our way to the oldest. This gave the older people a chance to challenge their vocabulary as well. I think that this type of community learning is not only the most beneficial to all parties but also the most fun! I don't expect Chloe to know the same words as our older players, but its good for her to experience those more descriptive words in a fun environment!
That's all I have for this lesson plan! Look out for the more in depth lesson plan we will be doing for smell! As always please send us pictures of you trying the activities and any other ideas you have!
