Objective
To introduce the students to the five senses and sense organs.
To have students participate in a few activities using their senses.

Materials
My Five Senses by Aliki
My Five Senses is a very elementary book about the senses. First it describes the part of the body used for each sense, then gives an example, and then makes the point that more than one sense can be used at once. It is a good introductory book for a unit on the senses.

Procedure
1. Read My Five Senses and discuss.

2. Choose a few activities from the ones below so students can begin to focus on using their senses.

3. Try and incorporate these activities throughout the unit, if you can.

Activities
Hearing
Sit quietly for a minute and listen to all the sounds you hear as a class.

Close your eyes and try to guess classroom sounds: e.g. ringing of a bell, crumpling paper, writing on the board, closing a book.

Blindfold children and have them guess each other's voices.

Sight
Hide objects on a flannelboard and have children guess missing objects.

Cover a picture up with post-it notes and uncover it bit by bit and have the children guess what the picture is.

Use water paints to do color mixing.

Put down the blinds in the room and have children observe each other's pupils before and after.

Have children cover their eyes with wax paper to see what blindness is like.

Touch
Have children write letters and numbers on each other's backs.

Have children guess or find items from a feely bag.

Taste
Have children use Q tips . to taste the following: vinegar water, salt water, sugar water, vanilla extract water. See if they can distinguish the part of the tongue used.

Make popcorn and graph how children like it: with salt, with salt and butter, plain.

Discuss favorite foods.

Smell
Use pill bottles with cotton balls in them so the children can sample different smells. Have them guess the smells with blindfolds on.

Give out scratch and sniff stickers.