Mission Exploration: Using our Five Senses

"Our Five Senses" is a unit I do each spring. My students enjoy learning how their senses help them explore and learn about the world around them.

I usually focus on one sense each day. Monday - sight, Tuesday - hearing...

We did a plethora of hands-on activities, here are just a few...

Sense of Sight

We briefly learned about the parts of an eye and then graphed our eye color.

If I would have realize how many students had blue eyes,
I would have created my graph a little taller!

During this unit, our Bible lessons focus on the miracles Jesus did during his ministry. When learning about how Jesus gave sight to the blind man I shared how Jesus has power over spiritual blindness - He is the Light of the World (John 8:12)! I wasn't sure my kiddos were understanding the analogy until one girl said "That's like the song 'Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord'!" I happened to have that song on CD, so we popped it in and sang the chorus together. Those unplanned "lesson diversions" are the best!

This was a fun transitional activity using our eyes AND brains: What's Missing?

Look at the left picture and then the right. Can you tell what's missing?

Let me tell you... students had skill! I had to start taking away two items at time.

Sense of Taste

This next activity is totally worth the prep time... just to see their reactions! We talk about how our tongue is like a map - different parts of our tongue taste different kinds of food. As we taste tested we categorized: Is it salty? Sweet? Sour? Bitter?

I couldn't help laughing at the reactions to the pure lemon juice. Haha! One little guy shook all over with a cringing face... and then gave it a double thumbs up. 

Each time we tasted an item, I had everyone show me if they did or didn't like it by circling or "X"ing the picture on their recording sheet. I took a tally of each item on the whiteboard.

When we were done, we counted the tallies for each item and figured out which "tastes" were our favorites. Can you believe popcorn and M&Ms beat out straight cocoa powder? Crazy kids!

Sense of Hearing

This bingo activity was a highlight when we learned about our sense of hearing.

(Be prepared for laughter.... one sound is a flushing toilet. Haha!)

Sense of Smell

We passed around these containers, each taking a sniff, to see if our brains could recognize the smells. They did very well (considering it's allergy season...didn't think that one through...) I gave a few clues as the smell was being passed around: "You may have smelled this when dying eggs for Easter. (vinegar)"

One girl said the taco seasoning canister smelled like her grandma's dog's breathe!

Sense of Touch

Each student got a turn to put their hands in the "feely" box and try to figure out the mystery object. I would choose one from my pencil box and they would describe what they were feeling for the class. They came up with some creative adjectives!

What activities do you do when teaching about our Five Senses?