Special Me & the 5 Senses
Here are some ideas of things I did with my class.
I decorated a small box with paper and stickers. Taped a small mirror inside and cut a small square so the children could see themselves. I told them there was something very special inside. We passed the box around the circle and I told them they had to keep it a secret until everyone had a chance to see what was inside. They were soo excited to finally say what was inside. I asked each one individually so they could all say me.
We talked about how special our names were and on black construction paper I wrote their name with glue. They had different colored pieces of tissue paper that they had to ball up and put on the glue. The colors looked great on the black paper. One suggestion - write 2 letters at a time so the glue doesn't dry out.
For the sense of sight, we read Arthur's Eyes . We discussed how our sense of sight is so important and how some people need glasses to help them see. Also, we need to go to an eye doctor to keep our eyes healthy. You can also read, I Went Walking. Then each child said "I went walking," the class responded "what did you see?" then the child completed the sentence "I saw ___________ looking at me."
For the sense of smell, I used different scents(rubbing alcohol, vanilla extract, violet, both gel, cinnamon, etc) and put them on a cotton ball. Then I had these white small containers to put each cotton ball in and closed it. The top had holes in it and the child's had to guess the smell. Then, we made a list of things that smell good and things that smell bad.
For touch, I brought in various fabric with different textures. We were working on the letter "a" so we used sand and glue to make the letter "Aa." You could make salt pictures, First the childen drew a picture with crayons on white construction paper. Then, they had to brush glue on their pictures and shake salt over it. When the glue dries, it leaves a shimmering residue. You could emphasize that we use our hands to tough by making hand puppets. Each child traces one hand, cuts it out and decorates it with eyes, feathers, scraps. When dried, it can be attached to a craft stick.
For hearing, I played a tape of sounds(from the Peabody Kit) and the childen had to guess the sounds. Then we played a game of making funny sounds. Like hot potato when the music stopped the child had to make a sound and the others tried to repeat it.
Conclusion activities: pop popcorn so that we can use all of our senses. Painting with Kool-Aid ice cubes.
Click on the themes below for some more great ideas.
