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.

Garden Stepping Stones for Mother's Day

We created Garden Stepping Stones for Mother's Day using quick drying cement.

The materials we used were:

aluminum cake pans
WD-40 (spray on lubricant)
quick drying cement mix
glass flat marbles and stones
white duct tape (for name labels)

We labeled every cake pan with each child's name.  I have also done this project the same way with plastic plant pot drip trays.  This time, I decided I would like the children to carry the stepping stone home in the pan.  When I use the drip trays, I keep the tray after removing the dried stepping stone.







Before adding the quick drying cement, we sprayed each pan with WD-40 so that the stepping stone could a easily removed from the pan when dry.

We mixed the cement in an old plastic pan and then poured some into each cake pan.

A 60 pound bag made enough cement for 16 cake pans.

Next, the students added glass flat marbles and stones. We told them to be sure to push them down into the cement so that they would be surrounded and not come out when dry.  Sometimes, I have the children stamp their name with cookie cutters or a stick.   They then place the marbles on the letters to form the shape of their name. This year, I decided to let them create any design they wished.

We allowed the stepping stones to completely dry for several days before taking home to our mothers.  Each student made just one, but you could produce multiple stones for a garden in the same manner.