The 5 Senses
A collection of ideas/activities dealing with all 5 senses. Lots of hands-on ideas included!
Ok, here goes....|
I do about 5 weeks for my unit. The first two senses I do more as centers, sometimes I will do the third one as well with centers(depending if I have another adult in the room or not) and the last two I combine and do as whole class activities.
I usually start with a general overview of the five senses with my students.
Then the first sense we cover is "touch".
I have 4-5 centers and we do them everyday for a week in rotations. Each day a group does a new center.
My centers are...
- touch and feel bags - I have 12 bags filled with different items. The students put their hands into the bags (no peeking) and draw what they think are in the bags on a sheet I made that has 12 boxes for them. Sometimes I have done more...
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I thought the post might get too long so I'm breaking it up. I won't do all five tonight but I will finish them up before the end of the week.|
- This one and taste I do not do as centers as it's easier to just do the activities as whole group activities.
- make 3-D glasses - this one is always fun to do. I have a template and we order in the blue and red plastic to glue on each lens to make them 3-D
- Braille - we re-look at braille and I went to the National Institute for the Blind and was able to obtain a number of braille books for free.
- Optical Illusions - we do this one more as a class and we look at a variety of optical illusions.
- Camouflage - I have the...
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This is probably my favorite out of all of the senses to teach. I do mainly centers but sometimes will do a few class activities as well.|
Guess that sound - I went to London Drugs and asked for empty film canisters. Most stores which develop film are more than happy to give you bag-fuls of canisters.
I labeled the tops of 12 canisters with coloured dots and numbered them 1 to 12. In each canister I put an object (kool-aid, marbles, dice, money, eraser, tacks, beads, etc.,). Then on a sheet that had pictures of canisters from 1 to 12 on it the students wrote or drew what they thought was in the canister. When everyone in the group is done then I open the canisters to show what was inside.
Canister Sound Concentration - I took more canisters and made...
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OK, this is my final section.|
usually I do these two senses together as they are somewhat connected.
We discuss our tongue and the main 4 tastes we taste. We also talk about how these tastes can be combined to make many different flavours.
One experiment I always do....
Get some jelly-belly beans and give students about 4 to 6 jelly beans each. Have them plug their nose and chew on one jellybean and then after about a minute unplug their nose.
Up to that point they would have had a sugar taste but when they unplug their nose the full flavour just jumps out. So then we discuss how smell is important in how food tastes.
We also have a tasting party - sometimes I just bring in the items - other times I ask parents to donate items.
Sweet - candy,...
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I love this lesson. It's a science lesson using the 5 senses. Its called "What's inside our mystery box? Inside a large box you put a popcorn popper. Cut a hole on one side to let the extension cord through. Have the children look at the box and make predictions on whats inside (sight) and write them down on chart paper or the chalk board. Next, turn on the machine and have them predict what it could be just by listening to the sound and write those guesses on the chart paper. Now as a class you can ruleout certain guesses and as the popcorn begins to pop the children usually know what it is. And you use all of your five senses( touch, taste, smell) throughout the lesson. And you can assess the lesson with a sequencing page on which sense you used first,second etc. If...
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I have done experiments: Use film canisters with different "smells" inside. Cut a hole or slit in the lid of the folm can. Put things like cotton balls soaked with a little vanilla extract or almond. You can slso have slices of onion, a pickle, peanut butter and so on. They obviously have to try to identify them only a sense of smell. |
For another "touch" experiment, the 'feely' box would work. Reach in and identify items by touch. For sight, you can use pieces of a whole (magazine) picture. They try to identify the whole by seeing only the part. You could also try partners leading one another, while one is blindfolded to get the experience of not having sight.
For hearing I have made tapes of common sounds that they identify (Discovery toys used to have a game like this with all tapes!).
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I set up my 5 senses unit as centers. This week we did the sense of touch.|
I had 4 centers (each day the students rotate centers).
Center 1 - bags with items inside. They feel what is inside the bag and then draw what they think on a record sheet. I oversee this experiment (to prevent the sneaking a peek syndrome). At the end I show them what was in each bag.
Center 2 - socks with items inside. This time they use their feet to feel what is inside the socks. They record their answers on a sheet. Later I open the socks and show them what was inside.
We then discuss which was easier - using our hands or our feet.
Center 3 - Making our own braille card - I created a large sheet with the braille alphabet. The dots are coloured in dark. We glue split...
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I do a FUN activity with my kids using the five senses. I give each student a piece of writing paper and tell them we are going to write about "Object X." They have to pretend they are aliens and want to send information back to their home planet about a new discovery: "Object X" (a Hershey's kiss!). |
1) we write about what it looks like first(no touching);
2)then how it feels,
3)then we write about the sound(of the foil wrapper);
4)next we smell Object X
5)we use our sense of taste!!!! mmmm!
By the way the students are not allowed to use the words CHOCOLATE, or KISS! My first graders had a lot of fun with this activity and it is centered around writing! I have my kids write at least one sentence for each sense.
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As a new teacher you may not have resources, so you can get some help from the children!|
Send home with each child a brown lunch bag and have them select something for classmates to touch (and guess) at circle time.
Another day, send with each child a film canister w/ a cotton ball and have them put something smelly in it.
For sight, send home a piece of paper and have them glue magazine pictures (or draw) things they like to see. Share at circle.
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When I student taught it was in a first grade setting. I did a unit on the five senses. I did a lot of activities that were hands on. I had a hands on bulletin board that the students loved. |
( I bought it from the teacher's store).
-When I taught smell I bought small tubberware and cut slits in the top. I filled each container with a different object. (lemon, onions, maple syrup, etc) The children used their sense to firgure out as a small group what was in each container.
-Hearing. I made a tape with all differet noises that they would know such as the phone ringing, the car horn, a doorbell, water running, even the toilet flushing. THey loved it and learned a lot.
-Touch. I filled containers with all sorts of objects and even included food. The students put...
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I do a sense a day and have a page for each sense in the packet. For sight I have them draw (and write for those who can do invented spelling) things they see. |
For smell, I do a blind smell test where two kids buddy up and pick out of familiar smells in a box at their table like paint, wood, crayons, etc and they write if they got them right or not.
For taste I have a sheet with the word bank for the parts of the tongue (salty, bitter, sweet, sour) and we try lemon, brown sugar, salt, and coffee grinds on the four parts of the tongue to see where they taste it best and then label a tongue with the word bank words.
For touch I do feeling boxes like the other person that wrote.
For hearing I bring in different instruments...
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Taste: Provide an assortment of safe to taste food items that cover sweet, sour, spicey, etc. All the areas of taste on the tongue. Have the students taste item, then place a picture of it on a grid to indicate how it tasted (sweet column, sour column, etc.)|
Hearing: Sensory bags or boxes with something inside that makes a sound that the children have to identify. Or make the sound behind a screen or something so the children can't see what it is. Use a timer, a see-and-say, wooden blocks tapped together, a bell, crumple a piece of paper, etc. Use sounds they are familiar with in the classroom.
Sight: Make Magic Wands. Place a piece of colored celophane between a cutout shape of a magnifying glass & have the children look at things. How does the color make them look different? Overlap a red wand with a blue wand; suddenly it's purple! What...
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I did a mini unit on the senses not too long ago..here's a few of the ideas I used/found (my students are younger than yours so...not sure if these would help...but may give you some ideas to build upon...:
Taste test different foods..salty, sweet, sour, hot, cold, crunchy, mushy, etc...
We colored pictures of different things and then matched them to what senses we use to identify them...i.e. perfume (smell), flower (sight, smell) fur (touch), etc....
we made a texture collage for touch...soft, hard, smooth, rough, etc.
you can use extracts (vanilla, peppermint, etc) and coat cotton balls in them..then put the cotton balls in a film canister of some small container and have students sniff them and try to identify/match the smells.
paint with textured paint...put in oatmeal,...
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We do the five senses after Christmas but here are some of the activities we did:|
1)sight- played I spy, I made a guess who type game where I glued pictures of animals onto bristle board then the children would ask a question about what they could see (ie. does it have wings) If it didn't I would use sticky notes to cover all the ones that did) and so on until they could guess it.
2)taste- tasted sweet, sour, salty foods, graphed our favourites and made lists of other foods in those categories.
3)touch- touched different textures things, made texture art, they drew a pictures and I provided materials of all different textures to glue on, had a feely bag
4)smell (talked about good smells and bad smells. Had a center where I had six magerine containers with holes in the tops and things...
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I was in a grade one class observing last week and the Science lesson was a wrap up to the Senses unit. Each child was given a pre-made tiny booklet. On chart paper and colour coded the teacher had the following:|
Title: My Senses
Page 1: I see a ______.
Page 2: I smell a _____.
Page 3: I taste a ______.
Page 4: I hear a _______.
Page 5: I feel a ______.
What she didn't want copied was printed in black (example Title) and the rest was in blue, which was to be copies by each student. They aslo placed their name on the bottom of the cover page By ________. I was thinking to use the same out line but maybe add the Easter or Spring theme to it.
In Spring I see _______.
In Spring I smell _______.
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I did a mini-unit for an education class on the five senses and I saw a really cute bulletin board idea. I wish I still had the URL. I am trying to remember exactly what I saw... let's see there was a person in the middle with his head and shoulders including one arm with a hand. Then there were different objects and pictures hanging around the board on string attached somewhere near the man. This is not very clear I know. :o) HOwever, let me see if I can do this... say there was a flower. The flower could then be moved to the eyes (sight, the nose (smell), and the hand (touch). If the object was a cat it could go to the hand, eyes, and ears. Does that make sense? The students move the pictures to the various senses it uses. I...
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I did the same lesson at the beginning of firt grade. We talked about each sense. I made a little booklet for each. At the top of each page I said. We use our ___ to see_____. We then cut pictures out of magazines that represented each sense. Like a picture of a mouth. Each student filled up their pages with pictures. I also did a blind test using small butter bowls filled with different things. One was an orange they had to smell and guess. Beans had to touch. Look at a round object in the bag a ball. And ears was krinkle paper, listen and guess. Anyway, I rambling hope this helps. |
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I really love this unit and it is so much fun to teach with the students. What is neat is I have more ideas than I can use which makes it easy for me to change it every year so it doesn't get boring for me either.|
I set up this unit in centers - usually one week per sense with one last week bringing it all together. So usually I have 5 centers with the students doing one center per day.
Sense of Touch
- mystery bags - I number 12 bags and put in objects. Students put in their hands and feel the object and then on a form I created that has 12 bags on it - they write down what the object is or draw a picture of it. This is one that should be supervised so the students do not peek in the bags first.
- socks - I number 8 socks and put items...
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