Exploring Our Senses

Overview

This lesson plan is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for Kindergarten, specifically addressing the standard: K-PS3-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. The focus will be on helping students explore their senses and the sense organs that make these vital. Through interactive activities, songs, and hands-on exploration, students will engage in sensory-based learning over 4320 minutes (divided across multiple weeks).

Unit Objectives

By the end of this unit, students will be able to:

• Name and identify the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch).
• Name and identify the sense organs (eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and skin).
• Recognize and describe different stimuli that affect the senses.

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Weekly Breakdown

Week 1: Introduction to the Five Senses (540 Minutes)

Day 1: Getting to Know the Senses (90 Minutes)

• Materials Needed:
  Poster with the five senses, pictures of sense organs, markers, crayons, and a smartboard (or similar).

• Activities:

  1. Introduction Circle: Begin with a simple discussion on what senses are. Ask questions like, "What do we use to see?" or "How do we know something is soft?"
  2. Interactive Chart: Create a class poster with 5 large sections, one for each sense. Label them Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, and Touch. Have students help draw pictures for each.
  3. Sense Match-Up: Students will match sense organs to their corresponding sense on individual worksheets (e.g., drawing lines between an eye and "sight").

• Song of the Day: Sing “I’ve Got Five Senses” (to the tune of “Bingo”): "I’ve got five senses I can use,
  That help me learn it’s true!
  Sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing too—
  I’ll name them, so will you!"

Days 2-3: Discovering the Sense Organs (90 Minutes Each Day)

• Focus on naming and identifying sense organs. Use puppets or stuffed animals to illustrate and discuss each organ.
• Activity: Students will create a "My Sense Organs" booklet, drawing each organ and labeling it.

Day 4-5: Exploring Stimuli Around Us (90 Minutes Each Day)

• Activity: Take a short sensory walk around the school, asking students to identify what they see, hear, smell, and touch.
• Record observations in the form of drawings.

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Week 2: Focus on Sight & Hearing (540 Minutes)

Day 1: What Can We See? (90 Minutes)

• Materials Needed: Flashlights, colorful paper, mirrors.
• Activity: Explore how light helps us see. Students will experiment with flashlights and mirrors.

Day 2: What’s That Sound? (90 Minutes)

• Materials Needed: Musical instruments, cups for "telephone game."
• Activity: Students will explore high vs. low sounds and play a listening game (e.g., identifying animal sounds).

Day 3-5: Hands-On Fun (180 Minutes Spread Over 3 Days)

• Create a classroom sound wall, where students add pictures of objects that make sounds they observed.

Song of the Week: "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

“With my ears, I listen close,
High or low, just let me know,
Clap your hands, and stomp your feet,
Sounds around are such a treat!”

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Week 3: Taste & Smell (540 Minutes)

Day 1-2: Exploring Taste (180 Minutes)

• Materials Needed: Small samples of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter foods (check for allergies).
• Activity: Taste test activity. Chart the class's favorite flavors using "happy face" stickers.

Day 3-4: Stinky or Sweet? (180 Minutes)

• Materials Needed: Cotton balls soaked in vanilla, lemon, vinegar, etc.
• Activity: Students will smell different items and classify them as “sweet,’’ “fresh,” or “sour.”

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Week 4: Texture & Touch (540 Minutes)

Day 1: What Does it Feel Like? (90 Minutes)

• Materials Needed: Bags filled with soft, rough, slippery, and bumpy materials.
• Activity: Students use their hands to describe textures.

Day 2-3: Texture Art (180 Minutes)

• Activity: Students create art using different textures, combining cotton, foil, sandpaper, and feathers in their work.

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Weeks 5-6: Applying Our Knowledge (1080 Minutes)

Cumulative Activities:

1. Sense Stations: Set up five tables with a different activity at each station for reviewing the senses. For example:

   • Touch Table: Guess the object by feel (hidden in a box).
   • Sound Table: Identify sounds from pre-recordings.

2. Sense Journal Activity:
   Each student creates a journal with one page per sense. They draw pictures and write simple sentences (with teacher assistance, if needed).

3. Class Project: Students collectively create a “5 Senses Puzzle.” Each piece of the puzzle represents one sense, decorated with relevant drawings or objects.

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Assessment

• Informal Observation: During activities and group work, observe students’ ability to name sense organs, identify senses, and respond to stimuli.
• Final Presentation: Students will share their Sense Journal and explain their favorite sense, providing one example of a corresponding stimulus.

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Closing Song

“Five Senses Goodbye” (to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”):
“See and hear, smell and taste,
Use your hands, don’t let them waste!
Every day, your senses share,
A world that’s here, and everywhere!”

By the end of this unit, students will not only understand the five senses and their organs but will have engaged with sensory learning through diverse, memorable activities!