When I taught kindergarten, one of my favorite mini units to begin Science was exploring the 5 senses: seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, touching. Fall is such an amazing time to do this unit with all of its colors, textures, tastes, and smells. I was excited to share this learning with my 5 year old. He loved it, and has being identifying which sense he is using throughout the day.
We explored one sense every day, and paired the unit with a couple of books on the five senses.
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My Five Senses by Aliki is an easy to read and great introduction to the five senses.
My son found this book in our collection after we started the unit – I forgot I had it! We always love Magic School Bus adventures; this is a more advanced look into the senses.
Day 1: Sight
There are so many things we can see with our eyes. I focus on colors, shapes, items in nature, and anything my son wanted to talk about that he could see. We made a list, and then he chose something to write about in his 5 Senses book. He chose to write and draw Duke Caboom, his favorite toy.
Day 2: Hearing
We practiced closing our eyes to block out our sense of sight in order to focus on our sense of hearing. We again made a list of all the different sounds our ears could hear. On this particular day it was raining, so my son chose to write and draw rain in his book.
Day 3: Smell
When my 5 year old came down the stairs in the morning, he smelled muffins baking in the oven. It was the perfect intro to the sense of smell! For this lesson I had him blindfolded, and had him smell different spices and items from the kitchen. He smelled vanilla, milk, fish sauce, cinnamon, and several other distinct smells. His favorite? The muffins!
Day 4: Taste
We really enjoyed the tasting day! I set out 4 cups and dissolved sugar, baking soda, salt, and lemon juice in water. I then wrote out four words on paper: salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. We had fun matching the liquid with the word and discovering what was in each of the cups!
Day 5: Touch
On the last day we explored our sense of touch. I had five items in bags for my son to touch without seeing and describe what he was feeling. We traced his hand and glued the objects on the fingers along with the written describing word. As we talked about things we feel and touch we wrote a list of describing words.
He had so much fun with this mini unit that he decided to write a poem about his senses the next day!
Here is the free download to the Five Senses book he created:
Kristen's Korner 