TITLE: All About Me: My Senses AUTHOR: Mary L. Nisewander; London Elementary, OR GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT: Kindergarten Science, Health, Math, and Language Arts OVERVIEW: The primary focus of these lessons are on young children as individuals, and how they respond to the stimuli in their world around them. The first unit discusses the senses, It introduces the parts of the body that are sense organs and develops the concept that using the senses helps people learn about the world around them. The second unit is health oriented and is designed to help young children understand their bodies by discussing body parts and movement, how to care for their bodies, and how their bodies grow. It also incorporates a lesson on understanding emotions, which encourages students to learn to share their feelings appropriately. NOTE: ONLY LESSON ONE FROM UNIT ONE WILL BE PRESENTED. PURPOSE The unit will provide meaningful, literature-based experiences which assist the students to develop, practice, and apply critical thinking process skills. The students are given the opportunity to use, practice, and apply those processes which are most compatible with their appropriate developmental level. The following basic process skills are presented in experiences which facilitate the childrens' advancement toward higher levels of cognitive maturation, therefore towards more advanced thinking patterns. Basic Process Skills: Observing Classifying Inferring Communicating Measuring Using Numbers OBJECTIVES: All About Me: My Senses Lesson 1: My Senses Identify parts of the body that are senses. Describe what each sense allows the body to do. ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES: VOCABULARY: senses, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, hands. skin. TIME FRAME: 15 - 30 minutes per lesson. NOTE: There are a total of 5 lessons for this unit GROUP SIZE: Whole class and small group. When the students are not in the room, place a hot air popcorn popper filled with popcorn on a low table covered with a box. Students will sit on the floor in front of the table. Plug in the popcorn popper. ASK: How can we find out what is under this mystery box? DISCUSS: Using their senses helps to learn about unknown things. Remove the box for the students to see what is underneath. Give each student a sample of the popcorn. ASK: What does the popcorn feel like? What does popcorn taste like? What sound is made when you eat popcorn? Shared Reading: Tomie de Paola, The Popcorn Book CLOSURE: Review the senses used to experience the making of popcorn. MATERIALS: Hot air popcorn popper Large clean box to cover popper Low table or clean sheet for floor Napkins/cups for popcorn EXTENSION ACTIVITIES ONE: Make more popcorn for the students. Have the students estimate how many kernels it will take to pop for one container full. Record this student information onto chart paper. Have the students assist in counting out the kernels with portion cups in sets of 10. When finished have the whole group count the sets by 10's. Write the numeral on the chart paper, explaining which numeral represents which group/sets of portion cups - hundreds, tens, ones. Pop the popcorn. TWO: Put a vegetable or fruit in a small bag or clean sock. Have the students sit in a circle. Have the students guess what is in the sock without looking inside. Pass the sock around and ask the students to shake and listen to it. Pass the sock around a second time and ask them to smell it. The third time around, ask the students to feel the object. Students should now be able to guess what the sock contains. The final pass around, let each student peek in. Discuss the contents of the sock and how they learned what was in it. Prepare a tray of different fruit and vegetables for students to taste. CHALLENGE: Encourage students to use their senses to sort some fruits and/or vegetables into groups. Students will discuss and share which senses they are utilizing during this activity. Write on chart paper the students responses. They may classify by color, smell, or taste. MATERIALS NEEDED Hot air popcorn popper Portion cups Napkins/cups for popcorn Trays of various fruits and vegetables Several clean trays for classifying Chart Paper Marker Clean sock or small bag RESOURCES References: All About Me, Wendy Pfeffer - First Teacher Press Free to Be ...You And Me, Marlo Thomas et al - Bantam Books Your Body, Linda Schwartz - The Learning Works, Inc. Our Bodies, Sharon Wheeler - Creative Teaching Press, Inc. Learning About My Body, JoEllen Moore and Joy Evans, Evan-Moor Corp. Shared Reading: Sarah Garland, Having A Picnic Tana Hoban, Is It Larger? Is It Smaller? Suzy Kline, Don't Touch Leo Lionni, A Color Of His Own Jose Aruego, We Hide, You Seek Marc Brown, Aurthur's Eyes Rosemary Wells, Benjamin & Tulip CLASSROOM CENTERS Bulletin Board Goal: To provide individual students with the opportunity to show an understanding of the parts of the body that help them sense their world. Materials: Construction paper Yarn Glue Scissors Pictures of objects/living things Procedure: Make a large head picture of the childrens' favorite person or character out of construction paper. Make the features exaggerated. Mount pictures of objects or living things that exemplify using a specific sense. Attach one end of a piece of yarn to each picture. Ask the students to attach the other end of the yarn to a sense used to learn about each object. Science Center Goal: To develop the senses. Materials: Tape recorder Tape with book Headphones Blank tape 6 pairs of empty film canisters 6 pairs of different colored blank self-adhesive dots Feely/mystery box 6 pairs of small objects Tray of fruit/vegetables Mirror Hand lenses Tripod magnifying lense Rocks Plants Nature objects Procedure: Make five mini-centers for children to explore their 5 senses. Hearing Center: Listening to a story tape with or without storybook. Make their own tape recording reading the storybook, then listening to their tape recording. Touching Center: Students try an guess what each object is in the "feely box". Next, through their sense of touch, match each object with their twin. Seeing Center: Look at theirself in a mirror and draw a picture of what they see. View various rocks, plants, objects at the center or classroom with a hand lense, or tripod magnifying lense. Smelling Center: Through their sense of smell, match each spice with their twin. Checking their work by closing the lid tightly and matching the colored dots on the bottom of each film canister. Tasting Center: Students will taste various fruits and vegetables, and describe to a friend how each food tastes or tastes like. TYING IT ALL TOGETHER Activity: Take the students on a field trip of the school. Go past the offices, near the cafeteria before lunch, and around the outside of the building. Stop at each place. ASK: What do you SEE here? What do you SMELL here? How would the _______ TASTE? If you close your eyes, what do you HEAR here? Go TOUCH the___ ____, how does it FEEL? Field Trip Ideas: Visit an optometrist's office. Ask the optometrist to discuss the eye parts/functions, why eye examinations are important, and proper eye care/protection. Speakers/Visitors: Invite a person who knows sign language to visit the class and share with students why some people use this type of communication. HELPFUL HINTS: Curriculum Integration Language Arts Using adjectives have the students describe an experience or event. Encourage use of multiple adjectives in their descriptions. List their experiences on chart paper and ask the students to name which sense would help them to identify what is happening in each situation. List the senses on the chart paper. Art Students will make kaleidoscopes. Using a warm iron and a pressing cloth, melt crayon shavings between two large sheets of waxed paper. Cut out circles that will overlap one end of a toilet paper tube. Secure the circles with tape.