Overview The primary focus of these lessons are on young children as individuals, and how they respond to the stimuli in their world around them.

The first unit discusses the senses, It introduces the parts of the body that are sense organs and develops the concept that using the senses helps people learn about the world around them.

The second unit is health oriented and is designed to help young children understand their bodies by discussing body parts and movement, how to care for their bodies, and how their bodies grow. It also incorporates a lesson on understanding emotions, which encourages students to learn to share their feelings appropriately.

NOTE: ONLY LESSON ONE FROM UNIT ONE WILL BE PRESENTED.

Purpose The unit will provide meaningful, literature-based experiences which assist the students to develop, practice, and apply critical thinking process skills. The students are given the opportunity to use, practice, and apply those processes which are most compatible with their appropriate developmental level.

Objectives Children will be able to:

ii. Describe what each sense organ does for the body.

Resources /Materials

Low table or clean sheet for floor

Activities and Procedures The following basic process skills are presented in experiences, which facilitate the children's' advancement toward higher levels of cognitive maturation therefore towards more advanced thinking patterns.

Basic Process Skills:

Using Numbers

VOCABULARY: senses, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, hands, skin.

GROUP SIZE: Whole class and small group.

When the children are not in the room, place a box of candy on a low table covered with a box. Children will sit on the floor in front of the table.

CLOSURE: Review the senses used to identify the candy.

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES Put a vegetable or fruit in a small bag. Have the students sit in a circle. Have the students guess what is in the bag without looking inside. Pass the bag around and ask the students to shake and listen to it. Pass the bag and ask the students to feel the object. Students should now be able to guess what the box contains. The final pass around, let each student peep in. Discuss the contents of the bag and how they learned what was in it. Prepare a tray of different fruit and vegetables for students to taste.

CHALLENGE: Encourage students to use their senses to sort some fruits and/or vegetables into groups. Students will discuss and share which senses they are utilizing during this activity. Write on chart paper the students responses. They may classify by color, smell, or taste.

Materials Needed

Clean small bag

CLASSROOM CENTERS Bulletin Board

Goal: To provide individual students with the opportunity to show an understanding of the parts of the body that help them sense their world.

Materials:

Pictures of objects/living things

Procedure: Make a large head picture of the childrens' favorite person or character out of construction paper. Make the features exaggerated. Mount pictures of objects or living things that exemplify using a specific sense. Attach one end of a piece of yarn to each picture. Ask the students to attach the other end of the yarn to a sense used to learn about each object

Science Center

Materials:

Nature objects

Procedure: Make five mini-centers for children to explore their 5 senses.

Hearing Center: Listening to a story tape with or without storybook. Make their own tape recording reading the storybook, then listening to their tape recording.

Touching Center: Students try an guess what each object is in the "feely box". Next, through their sense of touch, match each object with their twin.

Seeing Center: Look at their self in a mirror and draw a picture of what they see. View various rocks, plants, objects at the center or classroom with a hand lens, or tripod magnifying lens.

Smelling Center: Through their sense of smell, match each spice with their twin. Checking their work by closing the lid tightly and matching the colored dots on the bottom of each film canister.

Tasting Center: Students will taste various fruits and vegetables, and describe to a friend how each food tastes or tastes like.

Tying it all together

Speakers/Visitors: Invite a person who knows sign language to visit the class and share with students why some people use this type of communication.

HELPFUL HINTS:Curriculum Integration

Art Students will make kaleidoscopes. Using a warm iron and a pressing cloth, melt crayon shavings between two large sheets of waxed paper. Cut out circles that will overlap one end of a toilet paper tube. Secure the circles with tape.

Assessment The teacher should make sure that the children are each given the opportunity to feel and respond to the various questions included in the activities. Now let the children learn and recite the following Poem. Find out how many children can learn and recite the Poem.

Title: My Five Senses

ELSSA, 1997

Suggestions/Modifications

• Instructor may substitute any of the materials with other appropriate ones.
• Instructor may focus on one sense each month and tie the lessons together at the end.
• Students may vote and choose which senses they want to learn about and in which order.
• Students may be asked to interview their family or friends about the importance of the 5 senses and find out which is their favorite.

Author(s) Mary L. Nisewander; London Elementary, OR

http://www.col-ed.org/cur/