The Five Senses

Scientists use many methods to generate hypotheses or explanations for things they observe.  People tend to think we have five senses that we generally use to observe things in our environment.  However, experts believe that we have nineteen or more senses.  We use senses such as barometric or temperate to learn about things.

We watched the DVD, "The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells" about how scientists develop hypotheses.  Then I explained to the class how we use all of our senses to learn about things.  We explored each sense through a series of activities.

1.  Smell - I put different items in some condiment containers I purchased at Dollar General.  I saw this idea many years ago at The Exploratorium( http://www.exploratorium.edu/) in San Francisco.  I have used it ever since.  This year I put one of the following in each container:  lemon, orange, coffee, chocolate, honey, and garlic.  We passed these around, pressed the sides of the container to released a whiff of scent, and then guessed what the scent was after everyone had a turn.  The children love this activity.  They cannot see what is in the bottles so they must rely on their sense of smell to determine what is in the bottle.  I reminded them of our study of rocks when we scratched a sulfur rock to smell it.

2.  Touch - I keep some old socks to use for this activity.  I simply insert one item in the toe of each sock.  The children cannot see it.  They put their hands inside the sock to feel the object at the toe.  I vary the items in terms of smooth, rough, etc.  I like to include a shell in one and a rock in another.  This year I also put in a small flashlight, a plastic square chip, and a toy stegosaurus.

3.  Hearing - I like to play "Listening Lotto" for this sense.  I love watching the children try to guess the sounds.  They get so excited and caught up in the game.

4.  Taste - I talk about taste buds and that you can taste different things on different parts of the tongue.  I then have the children taste one food at a time and identify the taste.  I usually pick one food for each of these tastes:  sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.  This year I used lollipops, lemons, potato chips, and unsweetened chocolate.

5.  Seeing - I like to teach the children to play "I Spy" to explore this sense.  I ask various students to take a turn telling the group, "I spy with my little eye something ..."  They tell a color and then the others take turns guessing what the person spied.

I have a recording of the book, "The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses."  This is a great book that explains how our senses work in the human body.