5 senses unit: Hearing

Hearing was so much fun! We started by reading a book about our sense of hearing.  Then we used a powerpoint I made to predict what sounds we heard.  The sounds would come first and each student made a prediction.  Then the picture came up.  The kids loved trying to guess what they heard.  After that we practiced making sound and hearing it.  Each student had an instrument and we played loud and soft.  (I am sure the teacher next door just loved me for this!)


We also made our own noise maker using  paper plates and rice.  First the kids colored their plates and wrote their names (we practice our name in some form DAILY), then we put in one scoop of rice and staples the edges.  The kids did the stapling (with adult support).  Stapling is a great way to work on building muscles for all of the fine motor tasks that our required of us daily.   We then all played our new instruments. 

The following day when our role models were not there we played another listening game.  This one is a CD that plays sounds and the kids have to decide if they have it on their card.  It is called Listening Lotto and is similar to this one from Key Publishing.

Check out some of our other 5 senses activities here!!!

5 senses Unit: Sight

As we continued on our 5 sense journey we introduced one sense per day over a two week period (our “role model” students only come 3 days per week) 
We introduced sight by reading a book and then talking about things we see.  We used look and find books with magnifying glasses (a little extra excitement never hurt anyone!) to use our sense of sight to find the objects.  I love the My First Look and Find series because the books have large images, use fun characters that the kids recognize, and are like big board books.  My own boys love them and now I have pulled the books into my classroom and my students love them. 




We also used a book called Look Book by Tana Hoben.  This book is really neat because it shows the students a small picture first and they can predict what it is. Then you turn the page and see if your prediction was correct.





The students also used the magnifying glasses outside to look at different things on our playground.

 


I also introduced a website that I use often called Playrific.  I love this site!  You can search for videos, books, photos, websites and games. Only videos and games that have been previewed and are good for students come up in your search results.  There are no ads are inappropriate content.  This all makes this teacher happy!  Let me know if you check it out and what you think.


Check out some of our other 5 senses activities here!!!

 

Intro 5 senses with pumpkin!!

The craziness of back to school sure has hit me hard!!! Between back to school night, t-ball games, social skills group, and drs appointments we have been running around silly this past week. I am hoping I can jump back into the blog world so that I can start sharing all of the new stuff we have been doing!

One thing we did that was a huge hit with most of the kids was sensory play with pumpkin.  Most LOVED it!  Two would not even touch it.  We used the pumpkin on the day we introduced our unit on the 5 senses. It was something we already had and it enabled us to talk about the smell, taste, touch,  the way it feels and the way it looks.  I also introduced the word prediction when I asked them to predict how it would feel.  The other teacher I work with made a chart in her classroom of all the words they thought of to describe the pumpkin.

5 senses: Taste

We have been working on our 5 senses and for the sense of taste I wanted to have the kiddos try different foods. We were going to have banana, pretzels, lemon, a sour patch kid or two, and probably a few m&ms. However, in traditional busy mom/teacher fashion I forgot to buy bring the tasting items to school. So what is a teacher to do? I quickly assessed what we had in the cooking drawer and went from there. We tasted a lot of different kinds of cookies, but they got the idea. We talked about what we were tasting and they had to decide if they liked it or not. If they liked it, then they circled the picture, if they did not like it, then they drew an X over it. One of my students just could not wait to get the vanilla sugar wafers. He was practically jumping out of his seat. I don't know if he even tasted it when I gave it to him. The kiddos really seemed to enjoy this activity (Food is always a great motivator).