The Five Senses
Grade Level: Preschool or Kindergarten
Submitted by: Debbie Haren, preschool teacher

Topic: 5 Senses

Length of Unit: 6 lessons

Objective:

To help students be able to name their five senses and how they used.

Outline:

Lesson 1: Discussion of 5 Senses
Lesson 2: Make a bulletin board of five senses
Lesson 3: Try to guess the Smell?
Lesson 4: How Does it Feel?
Lesson 5: What does it taste like?
Lesson 6: What is that sound?

Lesson #1 Let's talk about the 5 Senses:

Begin by pointing to your ears, mouth, nose and hands. Ask the children what you are pointing at and what they use them for everyday. Start a discussion about what each child's favorite food is to eat and why. Ask them about the importance of being able to hear. Discuss what things could happen to them if they were unable to hear noises around them. For instance getting run over by a car or train or not hearing the telephone or smoke alarm in their house. Explain to the children that they have 5 senses. Touch, taste, see, hear and smell. Some people are born with some of their senses not working. What do some people use if they can not see?(a seeing eye dog or a cane with a red tip) Some people do not have hands to touch things so they use their feet instead!!!

Activity:
Make a class book with pictures of all the 5 senses and how people use them. Get pictures from magazines and glue them onto heavy construction paper then laminate the pages. Put the name of the child at the bottom of the page that they cut out pictures for. For instance Susan knows one of the
senses is touch. This is a picture of a girl petting a dog!! And give a sentence on each page. Even two sentences if more then one child put pictures on.

Lesson # 2: Make a Bulletin Board of the five Senses

On a large bulletin in cut out letters section out the bulletin board in five part shown below:

See Taste Hear Touch Smell

Beside each word have a picture of that item. (nose, eyes, mouth, hand and ears.

Then draw a line down beside each word to divide the sections. Next have students look in magazines of different pictures of people using their senses. Have them cut them out and glue them to correct section of the bulletin
board. This makes it an interactive bulletin board and the children learn alot!! Suggestion: For small children it is best if you have many pictures from magazines but have them ripped out of the magazine already. Some kids can not rip them out with out ripping up the picture they want!!

Lesson #3: Try to Guess the Smell??

Put different flavorings in a bowl and have the children smell them and try to guess what they are. Some examples are coconut, peppermint, spearmint, strawberry and vanilla or chocolate. After they have tried to guess make a chart of what each child guessed it was of or make a quote chart like this:

Andrew: " I think the first flavor is blueberries."
John: " I think the first flavor is cherries."

And so on. This activity really gets the kids talking. When you are done you can let the kids have a capful on a spoon and let them take a small taste of the flavorings. Remember flavorings are very strong!!!

Lesson # 4: How does it feel???

Materials:

sand paper
cotton balls
a piece of silky
cloth
a piece of synthetic fur
burlap
a piece of ice or a cold pack.

Activity:
Have students come to a table where the items blocked from view by a divider.( a box will work) Just put the items behind the box so they do not see them. Have each student give you their hand and you lead the hand to touch one of the items. Have them tell you what it feels like. (smooth, rough, cold, soft, furry) Do this with each child and then when they have all felt
each item ask them to think about what each item was. Have them raise their hands and tell the teacher what they think number 1 was... and so on. Then move the box and let them see what each item was. See if they got it right!!!

Lesson # 5 How does it taste?? What is it?

Get a bag of Starbursts for the class. Talk about the colors of the wrappers. Ask them what flavors they think each wrapper represents. For instance a red wrapper might be watermelon, cherry or strawberry. Give each child a startbust and have them eat it. Ask each child what flavor
they think they had. Talk to them about which of the five senses they are using. Give them one of each flavor and after they eat them make a chart of which one is their favorite and tell them what each flavor is!!!

Additional Comments:

Needless to say the kids love this activity. Be sure that none of the students are diabetic before doing this project. If any are find a diabetic candy substitute!!