Five Senses

Our first unit in Science was "The Five Senses." We talked about our five senses and then we went on our "Senses Walk." The students recorded what they saw, heard, smelled, and touched. We talked about how as first grade scientists we will be focusing on those four senses. During the rest of the week and into next week, we will be doing specific activities for each of those senses. The students put their recording sheets in their science notebooks when they finished.

Then, we focused on the sense of Sight. We read Eric Carle's "Hello, Red Fox." This book was a BIG hit during our study of five senses. It plays "tricks" on your eyes. It is based on a the basics of color theory developed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Here is a link that explains a little more about the book: http://www.eric-carle.com/bb-HRFnotes.html

Then, we played a game with our 4th grade buddies where students put six items on a tray. Then one turned around while their partner removed an item from the tray. Recalling what they had seen, the first student tried to identify the missing object.

Next, we focused on the sense of hearing. First we past a few containers around. Using only our sense of hearing, we predicted what was inside. Some cans were harder than others! Then, we played Animal Sounds Bingo. The children worked together to figure out what animal sound they heard. It was fun listening to all of the different sounds the animals made.

After hearing, it was time for touch. The students reached inside of bags and only using their sense of touch, had to figure out what was inside the bag. We recorded and shared what we thought. We all thought that the items were pretty easy to figure out, but we realized we couldn't tell the color of the items just by feeling them. You would need your sight to be able to figure out the color.

Finally we focused on our sense of smell. We passed around numbered film canisters. Students took a sniff and then had to determine if the scent was lemon, perfume, vanilla, vinegar, chocolate, or baby powder. They recorded their observations and discussed the results. Some of the scents smelled so good!

To wrap up learning about the five senses, the students each created their own collage by cutting out pictures of things they could see, hear, smell, our touch in magazines. After they finished, they added the collage to their science notebooks. While cutting, we talked about which senses we use the most and the least.