The Body: 5 Senses

This is going to be a long unit. I'm breaking it up into 3 major chunks: 1) My Five Senses, 2) Inside of Me 3) My Spirit and My Body.  But besides that, we're taking a break starting tomorrow that may last up to two weeks, so you know, that kind of draws things out also.

Here is what we have done with our 5 senses. Oh I just remembered, we did do a lot of worksheets as well, you know write out the letters or the words, color the pictures, etc. But I didn't take any photos because they are kind of the same as what we did the last month. Just imagine the same worksheets with the letters E and F, and words like Finger, Eye, Nose, Tongue,  and Ear.

We started with taste. I didn't have any cocoa, which is what I would have used for bitter, but online I read that onion juice is also bitter. So I made my own onion juice. Gross.

 Bitter

before and after

  Sour

We  created a little table where we could sample food and then check off whether they were sweet, salty, sour, bitter, or a combination. And then we took our papers and pens and clipboards to Costco to get some samples - except they only had ONE sample person out. I was totally disappointed.

 We ended up sampling our dinner and recorded our tastes down for that.

 For the sense of smell we went to a flower shop and smelled all their flowers. This shop is owned by a man in our ward and he let the children each take home a Gerber Daisy. They were so excited and kept smelling their flowers for the next few days... until they were all wilty. Then the kids pulled out all the petals, drowned them in their vases, and I ended up throwing the mess away while they were distracted somewhere else. :)

I combined the senses of sight, touch, and hearing all into one. For a little history, we studied Helen Keller a bit. The kids really liked the movie, they watched it twice. It was an interesting conversation to have with little kids, about what life would be like if you couldn't see or hear anything. After our first Helen Keller lesson the kids went into a dark room and played around with flashlights to have a little fun with their sense of sight.

 In the next activity I blindfolded the kids and made them use their other senses to guess what object I had placed into their hands. I had a few things you could smell and hear, besides just touch, but this "lesson" really had more to do with the sense of touch than anything else. They had a good time with this.

 Smelling a lemon.

 Smelling an apple.

 Besides our discussion and mini lesson on Helen Keller, we didn't talk a whole lot, or do very much, with the sense of hearing. I wanted to go to a music shop or something so the kids could hear a few different instruments. I suppose I could have found sound bytes online, but I didn't. It's been a busy week and it's been hard to stick even this stuff in, so I'll just have to be happy with my best. And I am.

Our closing for the 5 senses was to draw those parts of the body used in the senses on our bodies. On our paper bodies. These hang up in the kids' room. After we learn about a different body part, we will draw it on so that in the very end, we will be able to see all that we have learned on a really big poster. So far of course, there hasn't been much to draw, so the posters are a little blank.  That will all change in about 2 weeks, when we start learning more of the internal organs. Should be fun.