seeing
hearing smelling
touching
tasting
Five Senses Safari
A PBL+MM for Kindergarten (Five Senses)
SOL: Science K.2a, b; Lang. Arts K.6a, d, K.11a, b, K12; Health K.1c; Tech.
Mouse Usage, Printing, Typing
Designed by
Melinda R. Montoro
[email protected]
QUESTION
I see with my eyes
I hear with my ears
I taste with my tongue
I smell with my nose
I touch with my fingers--- and my toes.
Your body has special senses that give you information about the world
you live in. These senses are called seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and
touching. Some people cannot use all of their senses, because they do not
work very well for them. In three weeks we will have a new friend joining
our class and he has trouble with his hearing. What do you think that
means? How important is hearing? Can he use his other senses to help
him when he can not hear? Let’s go on a Five Senses Safari and learn all
about what our senses are for and which parts of our body use them. When
our friend joins us in three weeks, we will know how special his other
senses are and learn more about what it is like to have trouble with
hearing. After we explore our senses, we can make a PowerPoint
presentation and share everything we have learned with our parents.
PLAN
As a class we will use the KWHL chart to find out what we already know
and direct our future learning about the Five Senses. Students will split up
into five teams and each team will brainstorm ideas and plan for a center
dedicated to one of the five senses. After setting up centers, teams will
rotate among them, researching, exploring and discussing each center.
Once this is a complete, the class will come together again to compare
what they have learned with other groups. The KWHL chart will be
revisited at this time.
An activity using popcorn will be explored with the entire class, and
decisions about our favorite senses will be established. A poster will be
created using Kid Pix, magazines and scrap art materials will be created. A
tape recorder and digital camera will be in use through all class and team
activities. A PowerPoint presentation will be planned by the students,
created (with help from students), and shown to our parents during a
parent/student evening.
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES FOR USE DURING
TRANSITION TIMES
Who's Knocking at My Door?
Have students play a listening game to identify other students' voices.
• Have a volunteer come to the front of the class and turn his or her
back toward the group.
• Point to another student, and have her or him say, "Knock! Knock!"
• The student at the front of the class must listen carefully to the voice and
try to guess who spoke.
I Spy
Play a traditional game of "I Spy," describing the visual characteristics of
an item in the classroom. For example, you might say, "I spy something big
and yellow."
• Students can ask questions about the item until someone guesses what
it is.
• Continue playing the game, inviting volunteers to spy other objects for
their classmates to guess.
SCHEDULE
Ten (l0) days, with 40 to 45 minute blocks of time per day, should be
allowed for this project. (Teacher should allow for extra blocks of time as
needed, based on the students’ interest).
Day 1.
Introduction: Posing the question, beginning exploration, KWHL
chart, group brainstorming. Form teams and complete necklaces.
“Safari Passports” will be handed out to the students. They will
each receive a “safari sticker” each time they complete an activity.
Day 2.
Plan and set up centers
Day 3. through 7
Center rotation
Day 8.
Class discussion about centers and popcorn activity. Begin Kid Pix
projects.
Day 9
Continue Kid Pix projects, discuss and plan PowerPoint
presentation, make invitations for parents.
Day 10.
Finish Kid Pix posters, begin putting PowerPoint presentation
together using students’ comments and text labels.
Presentation to Parents Evening
PROJECT
Step 1. Students will “explore” goldfish crackers and find out how many
different ways they can learn about them. What ARE the five senses? The
students will label each of the five senses on a big drawing of the body.
Which body part matches each of our five senses? The students will make
a class chart, using a KWHL chart, showing what they already know, want
to know, how they will learn, and what they will learn about the five senses.
KWHL chart found at: http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/KWL.chart.html
Step 2. After completing the KWHL activity, the students will split
themselves up into five teams. Each student will receive “safari passports”
to take with them for each activity. There will be one adult/or older child
with each team. Each team will vote on an animal team name and will
create a necklace with a picture of that animal on it to wear while they are
“on safari”. This will help with team identification. Materials for necklaces
might include: Yarn, colored beads or pasta, preprinted pictures of “safari”
animals to be colored and cut out. Students will string the beads/pasta and
pictures onto the yarn, creating their “team” animal necklace.
Step 3. Each team will be assigned a “Safari Center” that corresponds to a
sense. The students will plan an experimental activity to go with the
research selected by the teacher. Materials will be gathered and centers
set up. The Safari Centers will be based on the information gathered on
the KWHL chart.
Step 4. Each team will be given an opportunity to explore all five “Safari
Centers”. A team journal will be kept during the explorations, with pictures
and notes included. As each team completes a center, the members of the
team will receive “safari” stickers to place in their passports. Each team
will take digital pictures of teammates participating in the activities.
Safari Center One-Smell
A) Try to answer your questions about the sense of smell by researching
online, at the following site:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/smell.htm
B) Explore the sense of smell with the following experiment:
What part of the body do we use to smell with? Draw a picture of it in your
journal. Label your picture. Using film canisters filled with products such
as cinnamon, potpourri, vinegar, perfume, garlic and coffee beans, try
smelling and guessing what is in them. What do they smell like? What do
you think they would taste like?
C) Read the book, My Nose Knows by J.W. Cole.
Safari Center Two-Sight
A) Try to answer your questions about the sense of sight by researching
online, at the following site:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/sight.htm
B) Explore the sense of sight with the following experiment:
What part of the body do we use to see? Draw it in your journal. Label it.
On a table, cover up 6 or 7 ordinary objects with a blanket. Take the
blanket off for 5 seconds and then cover them up again. What was under
the blanket? Can we remember them? Let’s look again. What made some
of the items easy to remember? Color? What would make it easier to
remember them?
C) Read the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
Safari Center Three-Taste
A) Try to answer your questions about the sense of taste by researching
online, at the following site:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/sight.htm
B) Explore the sense of taste with the following experiment:
What part of the body do we use to taste with? Draw it in your journal. Label it.
After putting different flavored jellybeans in Dixie cups (two of each color),
blindfold one of the students. First, ask the student to pinch their nose and taste
the jellybean. What flavor is it? Now let go of your nose and try the jellybean
again. What flavor is it? Why is it hard to tell what flavor it is when your nose is
pinched? Do we need to be able to smell, in order to taste?
C) Read the book, The Five Senses by Beth Sidel.
Safari Center Four-Touch
A) Try to answer your questions about the sense of touch by researching
online, at the following site:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/touch.htm
B) Explore the sense of touch with the following experiment:
What part of the body do we touch or feel things with? Draw it in your journal. Label
it. Using four feely boxes (Boxes with tops on them and holes cut out of the side, and
textured items in each of them.) let each student put their hand in the box and guess
what is in the box. What does it feel like? What could it be? How can we find out
what is in the box without looking?
C) Read the book, Feely Bugs, by David Carter.
Safari Center Five-Sound
A) Try to answer your questions about the sense of sound by researching
online, at the following site:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/sound.htm
B) Explore the sense of hearing with the following experiment:
What part of the body do we use to hear sounds? Draw it in your journal.
Label it. Using plastic eggs, filled with rocks, bells, sand, clips, rice,
pennies, sugar or beans, let the students shake the eggs while trying to
figure out what is inside them. What do they sound like? What could they
be? What is your favorite sound?
C) Read the book, Barn Yard Dance, by Sandra Boynton
Step 5. The teams will gather together as a class and discuss what they
learned at the centers. They may wish to use their KWHL chart and fill in
any information that they did not know earlier. A tape recorder will be used
to record their conversation.
Step 6. The class will participate in the following popcorn activity to help
them answer the question, “Are all of our senses important?” Students will
sit with their heads down and eyes closed. Use an electric popcorn popper
to prepare a batch of popcorn. Students will listen to the sounds and
describe what they hear. As the smell of the popcorn begins to fill the air,
students will discuss what they smell. When students have identified the
smell as popcorn, they will open their eyes. When the popcorn is ready,
students will touch the popcorn and describe it. The students will taste
and describe the popcorn flavor. As students eat the popcorn, they will
talk about how they used all five senses to identify and enjoy this snack.
Are there any senses you didn’t need to use, in order to identify the
mystery snack?
Step 7. The students will be given an opportunity to create a poster using
Kid Pix software to create a picture showing what his/her favorite sense is.
This poster will include the body part associated with the sense.
Explanative and descriptive text can be added at a later date. Kid Pix
pictures can be printed and other art materials added to them to enhance
them. For example: Pictures from magazines of items that show a variety
of foods, to be glued to a picture showing tongue/taste.
Step 8. Using the data saved from prior experiences the class will talk
about how to organize their PowerPoint presentation. Data saved may
include:
KWHL chart, digital pictures of center learning and popcorn
activity,
books, journal drawings/text, Kid Pix pictures, taped
conversations.
With the teacher’s help, a Power Point presentation will be created.
Step 9. Plan our special presentation night for our parents. Make
and send invitations telling them what you have planned. Power
Point presentation, Journals, Kid Pix art and KWHL chart should be
on display that evening, as well as our centers.
ASSESSMENT
A rubric will be used to evaluate the individual development of each
student. Improved technological skills, discussion skills, knowledge of
content material, and team cooperation will all be assessed.
MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION, CONCLUSION AND
EVALUATION
The students planned a PowerPoint presentation, (slide show format),
using all materials and data collected from the PBL activities. Data that
was included:
KWHL chart, digital pictures of center learning, popcorn activity,
necklaces,
Passports, books, journal drawings/text, Kid Pix posters, taped
conversations.
After brainstorming an outline for the presentation, students chose to split
the slide show up into six portions. Each of the five teams designed a
different area, with their teacher working on the Kid Pix portion. Each
student was given an opportunity to add text labels to the slide of their own
posters. One team chose to have the KWHL chart shown with extra
comments added to that portion. The second team chose to put digital
pictures of center learning in their section. They chose the pictures and
asked that the taped conversations be used for the background. The third
team chose to show the necklaces they made and tell about why they
chose their animal. The fourth team used some of their journal drawings
and notes. The fifth team showed their passports after they received all of
their stickers and told about the popcorn activity. The sixth portion was
completed by the teacher, using digital photos of the students’ posters and
allowing each child to add their own text labels.
This presentation was shared with parents at a special evening program.
All data was on exhibit as well as our “Safari Centers”.
Our special evening presentation was a big hit and our parents were
so very proud of us.
Now that we have learned all about our five senses, we will know just
how to help our new friend adjust to his new school and class. We
cannot wait to find out what HE knows about his senses and
whether he gets extra help from some of his other senses that DO
work for him.
A rubric was used to evaluate how well organized and appealing the
presentation was. Good team skills were also essential to planning and
implementing this project.
CREDITS & REFERENCES
KWHL Chart
http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/tch.wk.rm.htm
Popcorn Activity
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/lesson-plans/lesson-5162.html
Reference Information
http://www.sedl.org/scimath/pasopartners/senses/welcome.html
Five Senses Sites Used
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/smell.htm
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/sound.htm
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/sight.htm
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/taste.htm
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~andrea1/touch.htm
Center Activities
http://student.biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/nicktext.html
http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/5senses.htm#Sense%20of%20Sight
Graphics
http://www.valdosta.edu/~jwtolle/topic.html
Books on Five Senses
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/104-05221320893569?tag=theperpetualpr00&keyword=childrens+books+five+senses&mod
e=books
http://atozteacherstuff.com/go/jump2.cgi?ID=3943
Senses Graphics
http://www.valdosta.edu/~jwtolle/topic.html
Books:
My Nose Knows by J.W.Cole
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr.
Feely Bugs by David Carter
Barn Yard Dance by Sandra Boynton
The Five Senses by Beth Sidel