Five Senses

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Home : 2004 : July : 8

Five Senses
By Cathy-Dee

I really love this unit and it is so much fun to teach with the students. What is neat is I have more ideas than I can use which makes it easy for me to change it every year so it doesn't get boring for me either.

I set
up this unit in centers - usually one week per sense with one last week bringing it all together. So usually I have 5 centers with the students doing one center per day.
Sense of Touch
- mystery bags - I number 12 bags and put in objects. Students put in their hands and feel the object and then on a form I created that has 12 bags on it - they write down what the object is or draw

a picture of it. This is one that should be supervised so the students do not peek in the bags first.

- socks - I number 8 socks and put items in them (the socks should be thick ones) - this time the students take off their shoes and socks and feel the object with their feet.

(once they have done both activities we discuss which was easier and the students usually come to the conclusion that hands were easier because we use them more to touch)

- braille cards (this one can be done for sight as well) - I made up a template of the braille alphabet and it is large enough for students to glue split peas on the circles (already coloured in) to create a large braille alphabet.

- blindfold concentration
take a number of objects (in pairs) and glue them on separate pieces of cardboard. Have the students spread them around - then blindfold one person and have them try to make pairs by touch. I usually have enough cards so that a group of 4 can divide into two groups and work in pairs.

-tactile names - I print each student's name on a piece of bristol board and they cover the letters with different materials (seeds, beans, sequins, beads, etc.,) to make their name tactile. (Can be done for art as well)

- Touch and Feel Book - I have a little take-home book that the students cut and put together by pasting objects on each page for each touch. Cotton balls - sentence says - This feels soft.
Sandpaper - sentence says - This feels rough.