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How Do our Five Senses Help Us Experience the World?

Sarah Hernandez
Kindergarten
Kelly Elementary
1 Week

Table of Contents:

Formatted: Font: 16 pt
Formatted: Font: 16 pt

Title Page
Table of Contents
Background Information Summary- pgs. 3-4
Unit Rationale- pgs. 5-8
Stage 1- pgs. 9-12
Stage 2- pgs. 13-15
Stage 3/ Lesson Plans/Calendar- pgs. 16-34
Appendix (worksheets, pictures)- pgs. 35-43
References- pg. 44

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Background Information Summary:
In order to survive, every living thing needs to rely on its senses to gather information. The five
senses are seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing, and touching. Each of the five senses tells us a great
deal of information about the world. To survive, we need our senses to inform us of the changes
in our bodies and in the environment. Both the brain and the body must work together in order
for the senses to assist in our survival.
Brain: control center of the body
Environment: things that surround a living thing
Sense: the bodys ability to detect info from the world around it
Nerve signals: a message sent to/from the brain

Sight:
The sense of sight involves the eyes, the brain and light. When you look at an object, the
light that is reflected from an object enters your eyes through an opening called the pupil.
After the light enters the pupil, nerve signals are sent to the brain. The image of the object
is sent to the brain as a message by the nerve signals. The brain interprets the message
and sends a message back indicating the object you are seeing.
Pupil: an opening in the center of each eye
Sight: one of the five senses. It involves the eyes, brain, and light
Touch:
The sense of touch involves the skin and the brain. Millions of sensory receptors cover
the skin. These sensors allow us to feel various things in our environment. The sensors
are not all the same type. The different types of sensors enable us to receive different
information such as an object being wet/dry, hard/soft, and rough/smooth. When these
sensors are tampered with, nerve signals go to the brain. The brain interprets the
message and sends a message back indicating the object being touched.
Sensory receptor: microscopic sensors
Skin: the outer layer of the body; involved in the sense of touch
Touch: one of the five senses. It involved the skin and the brain.
Hearing:
The sense of hearing involves the ear, brain, and sound. When a sound is produced, the
ears collect the sound waves that are vibrating in the air. The sound waves travel in the
ear canal and hit the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. The vibrations are sent to the brain
(hearing center) in the form of nerve signals. The brain interprets the message and sends a
message back to you that indicates sound is being heard.
Hearing: one of the five senses; involves the ear, sound, and the brain
Sound waves: vibrations in the air
Smell:
The main body part associate with the sense of smell is the nose. In addition to the nose,
the brain is also utilized. When we smell an object, we smell odors. The odors are
detected in the nose by hairy projections covered with receptors. Once the odors are

detected, nerve signals are sent to the brain. The brain interprets the message and sends a
message back indicating what we are smelling
Nose: the major body part used for the sense of smell
Smell: one of the five senses. It involves the nose and the brain

Taste:
The main body part associated with taste is the mouth, more specifically the tongue.
Located on the tongue are taste buds. Taste buds are used to detect various tastes and
flavors of substances. Once the taste has been detected, nerve signals are sent to the brain.
The brain interprets the message and sends a message back to indicate the substance
being tasted.
Taste buds: receptors on the tongue to detect flavor substances.
Taste: one of the five senses. It involves the taste buds and the brain.
Enduring Understandings:
We experience the world around us using a combination of our senses of hearing, seeing,
tasting, touching, and smelling.
We use both our sensing body parts (ears, eyes, skin, nose, tongue) coupled with our
brains to perceive senses around us.

Important to Know:
What the five senses are
What body parts we use to experience each sense
o Brain, eyes, nose, ears, tongue, skin
How the body parts work together to perceive senses
The importance of nerve signals and receptors in sending messages to the brain
Possible Misconceptions:
Everyone experiences the senses in the same way as everyone else does
o Colors, sounds, tastes
Everyone has the capacity to experience all five senses
o Deafness, blindness, etc
We ONLY use our skin, ears, eyes, tongue, and nose to experience our senses

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Sarah Hernandez
Unit Rationale

W: The primary purpose of this unit is to help students gain a better understanding of the five
senses. This goes beyond just knowing what those senses are, but rather delves into how our
bodies work to create those senses and how they impact our daily lives. I hope to instill in
students that their senses are what allow them to experience the world in the way that they do,
and that without one or multiple, their lives would drastically change. I also hope to give students
a grade-appropriate understanding of how their various body parts work in order to help them
perceive sight, sounds, touch, taste, and smells.

H/E: I think that the best strategy for hooking students of this age (kindergarten), is to allow
them to draw on their own experiences and share those with their classmates and teacher. They
are often eager to relate academic topics that are being discussed to their real-life experiences,
and I think that harnessing that natural instinct is a wonderful way to get students interested in
what they are going to be learning about. Because this unit will be science-based, my hope is to
implement the concepts related to inquiry, in order for the students to uncover and facilitate their
own learning. I believe that student-constructed knowledge is not only more interesting for the
participants, but also provides a deeper, stronger, and longer-lasting understanding of the
material. Giving the students the opportunity to take the lessons in the direction that they find the
most interesting (with calculated yet covert facilitation from the teacher) is a natural way to keep
students engaged throughout each lesson, and the entire unit as whole. For example, perhaps
during the seeing lesson of this unit, one student questions why we have the capacity to see
different colors. Because this information is still relevant to the content being taught, you, as the
teacher, could easily steer your lesson in a direction that accommodates and addresses this
question. Maybe you decide to do some research on rods and cones together as a class that day,
as opposed to sticking with the scripted lesson you were planning on. Perhaps you steer the
conversation back to the lesson you had planned originally, but add another day into the unit in
order to address this question. I also like the idea of creating a questions list that the class can
add to throughout the week. If those questions are not answered during the lessons, be flexible

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enough to add another day onto the unit in order to explore those interests and answer some of
them.

R: During this unit, students will have ample opportunity to review the various observations and
conclusions that they are making as they work their way through developing a solid
understanding of the five senses. These opportunities will be given in order for students to reflect
upon the ideas we are exploring as a class, as well as for them to have the chance to create and
explore their own questions and clarify any personal confusion. As a class, we will work to
revise any misconceptions that the students hold about what the five senses are and how our
various body parts works in order to perceive them. Some of the methods we will use in order to
do this will include group discussion, partner discussion, and individual thinking that can be
shown through pictures, written explanations, verbalization, as well as the implementation of
student-created/driven experiments that will address any of their major questions.

E: In order to evaluate student progress and allow students the opportunity to evaluate their own
understandings, we will be implementing a Five Senses Journal that will require students to
utilize a different sense every day. This will be done in the form of a one page worksheet that
will be implemented into the lesson. Because this journal will be an ongoing process, students
will have the opportunity to improve their methods for gathering data from one day to the next.
They will also be allowed to go back to previous days in order to add more information or
describe additional experiences theyve had that pertain to that specific sense. They may depict
their findings using either words or pictures to accommodate those who are unable to write (most
of them). These journals will serve as both a formative and summative assessment, as they can
be checked daily to see if students understood the previous days lesson, as well as at the end of
the unit in order to see if students understand all of the content provided to the level, I would
hope to achieve. The reviews at the beginning of each lesson (see O for details) will also
provide students with the opportunity to reflect on and make connections to, the previous
lessons. The worksheets that are completed during the lesson will then be bound/stapled together
as a summative assessment to show their newly gathered knowledge.

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T: It is important to give students the opportunity to reflect their knowledge and understandings
in the way that is most appropriate and makes the most sense to them personally. This may be
through pictures (none are able to really write at this point, beyond their names), discussions, or
the creation of further, relevant experimentation that show they are exploring the deeper meaning
of the content. For example, a great way for some student to exemplify their new knowledge
would be to create new questions that build off of said knowledge and show that students have a
firm enough grasp on the concepts to think more in depth about them. Some of the students in
my class have shown that they are more productive and engaged when working on their own, in
their own space. Others thrive when they have the opportunity to discuss with their peers and are
able to stay on task and topic when doing so. Both these types of learners will be given the
opportunity to work in the setting that they are most comfortable in. The content provided will
cater to the various levels of understanding in my classroom, which will allow all students to
progress and see success in terms of their own intial understanding and capabilities.

O: This unit will be broken into five, half an hour lessons that will take place consecutively
during one full week of teaching. I will be teaching this unit during the last week of September.
They will be implemented in the time that is usually devoted to math, as science is not a
regularly scheduled subject in our kindergarten class. The placement of the lessons in the
afternoon, as opposed to the morning, allows me more time flexibility. If we run over, we are
able to cut into free choice/quiet time in order to complete the lesson. The lessons will each
begin with a short review of the sense that we talked about the previous day, with the exception
of the first day of the unit. These reviews will also include a hook for the sense that we will be
talking about next. These hooks will draw on the childrens own previous experiences, as
kindergarteners are more than eager to share when given the opportunity. The introduction time
on that first day will be used in order to discuss the five sense in general, as well as some of the
body parts that we will be using throughout the week in order to help us experience all five of
those senses. This introduction will only touch briefly on those body parts as they will be
covered in more depth throughout the week. The order of the senses will be as follows:
Monday (9/22): Introduction/Sight
Tuesday (9/23): Touch
Wednesday (9/24): Hearing

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Thursday (9/25): Smelling
Friday (9/26): Tasting

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Unit Plan: How Do our Five Senses Help Us Experience the World?

STAGE 1
Essential Questions:

How do our five senses work together to help us experience the world in the ways that we
do?

How do our bodies work in order to help us perceive those senses?

Enduring Understandings:

We experience the world around us using a combination of our senses of hearing, seeing,
tasting, touching, and smelling.

We use both our sensing body parts (ears, eyes, skin, nose, tongue) coupled with our
brains to perceive senses around us.

Learning-Focused Questions:

What are our five senses?

What body parts do we use to experience our five senses?

What body part helps us experience all of them/is the control center of our bodies?

Standards:
Common Core:
Speaking and Listening:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics
and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1.A
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns
speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1.B
Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.3
Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that
is not understood.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.4
Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support,
provide additional detail.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.5
Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional
detail.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.6
Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

PA State Standards:
Listening/Speaking/Writing

1.1.K.C. Expand oral language through the use of an increasingly robust vocabulary.

1.4.K.A. Write, dictate or illustrate to convey ideas for a specific purpose.

1.4.K.B. Write, dictate, or illustrate to communicate information.

1.5.K.B. Generate ideas and identify content appropriate for the topic.

1.6.K.A. Listen and respond appropriately to others in small and large group situations.

1.6.K.B. Speak clearly enough to be understood by all audiences using appropriate

volume.

1.8.K.A. Ask appropriate questions on a variety of topics.

1.9.K.A. Gain information using media and technology resources with adult assistance.

Math:

2.6.K.A. Gather data in response to questions posed to learners.

Environment and Ecology:

4.5.K.A Identify what people use in their everyday life.

Science as Inquiry:

Distinguish between scientific fact and opinion.

Ask questions about objects, organisms and events.

Understand that all scientific investigations involve asking and answering questions and
comparing the answer with what is already known.

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Plan and conduct a simple investigation and understand that different questions require
different kinds of investigations.

Use simple equipment (tools and other technologies) to gather data and understand that
this allows scientists to collect more information than relying only on their senses to
gather information.

Use data/evidence to construct explanations and understand that scientists develop

explanations based on their evidence and compare them with their current scientific
knowledge.

National Science Standards

6.1 Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry

6.1 Understanding about scientific inquiry

6.6 Personal health

6.7 Science as a human endeavor

6.8 Evidence, models, and explanation

Performance Standards:

Students will be able to:

o Locate their skin, eyes, ears, nose, and mouths on their bodies
o Draw a picture based on the description given to them by the teacher or other
student
o Use adjectives to describe things that they hear, see, smell, taste, and feel
o Listen to respectfully while their classmates are speaking/contributing to the
discussion
o Wait their turn to participate
o Pass the mystery boxes around the circle without looking
o Identify good smells and bad smells
o Identify good tastes and bad tastes
o Walk quietly around the school to identify different sounds that they hear
o Sketch the different things they hear in the school
o Demonstrate what vibrations are using their bodies
o Locate the different areas of taste buds

Comment [SK1]: Standards are all

appropriate and make good sense. One thing to
think about is how you might integrate the Arts
and Technology with regard to the standards
you are addressing.

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o Identify where the sound of the tuning fork is coming from in the class room
o Identify which food provided produces which flavor
o Draw pictures to identify which food exemplifies which flavor

Students will know:

o What the five senses are
o That we use our eyes and brains to see
o That we use our skin and brains to feel/touch
o Describing words for different textures, temperatures, etc(sense of touch)
o That we use our ears and brains to hear
o That we use our nose and brains to smell
o That we use tongue and brains to taste
o Where to locate our mouths, skin, eyes, ears, and nose on our bodies
o Why some things smell good and others bad

Bad smells mean the object can be dangerous to our bodies

o Why some things taste good and others bad

Bad tastes mean the object/food is dangerous to our bodies

o That our skin contains nerves that send messages to our brain
o The sounds we hear are caused by vibrations
o That fast vibrations make high pitched sounds
o That slow vibrations make low pitched sounds.
o That the vibrations send the messages to our brain to tell us what we are hearing
o The different types of tastes (bitter, sour, sweet, salty)
o That our body parts send messages to our brains using receptors

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STAGE 2
Performance Tasks: Students will collect the worksheets we complete daily during the teaching
of this unit, to compile into their own 5 Senses Book, in order to inform their parent/guardian
at home about what is being taught and to act as a point of conversation about what their student
is learning. The students will be asked to complete their worksheets to the best of their ability,
using some words but primarily pictures, to depict some of the things they see, hear, smell, taste,
and feel during the different lessons of this unit.

Goal and Role: The goal of this book is to gather information in a neat way in order to convey
to an audience what content is being taught and discussed in our kindergarten class regarding the
5 Senses. Each page will cover one sense and will contain pictures drawn by the individual
student to convey four different things that they can experience using that sense. Some of the
pages will be completed as a group, while some will be done individually. The pages will be
collected at the end of every lesson, so that they can be bound or stapled together to make a book
depicting each sense that was discussed.

Audience: The target audience is parents/guardians or even siblings at home with whom the
student can share their newfound knowledge of the 5 senses, using their book as a jumping off
point to start a discussion.

Product and Purpose: Students will create a booklet consisting of five completed worksheets,
depicting examples of four things they smell, taste, hear, see, and feel. The students must use
either crayons or pencil (depending on the lesson), to neatly draw a picture in each of the four
boxes on paper. If able to, students may also use words to write about their pictures. The pages
will be bound by the teacher to create a book.

Standards/Criteria: Each page in the book should contain four neatly drawn pictures depicting
the four senses (as dictated by the individual lesson plans). The students name should be written
neatly on each page. The books will be informally assessed for completeness (Does each page
have the four pictures needed? Are all five pages done?), Neatness (Can you tell that the student

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made a concerted effort to do it as neatly as he/she can, based off of previous work they have
completed? Are the pictures drawn inside the boxes?), and correctness (Do the hearing pictures
depict things that make sound? Are the taste pictures things that the kids got to try tasting?) If
any of these areas are not up to the standard that the teacher has come to expect of the student
based off of other work, the student will be given the opportunity to redo that particular part of
the project.

Other Evidence:
Pre-Assessment:

The pre-assessment for this entire unit takes place in the form of the brain dump that is
done at the beginning of the first lesson. Hearing students ideas about the 5 senses and
what they think they know about them will give the teacher a better understanding of
what knowledge to build off of and what misconceptions exist in that particular group of
students

Formative Assessments:

Group discussion regarding the parts of the eye and how they operate

The pictures that the students complete during the lesson will indicate their level of
participation and computation

Participation in the Body Game will help determine students understanding of which
body parts work together to help perceive senses and students progress as the unit moves
forward.

Class discussion and answering questions about the sense of touch

Each student will have the opportunity to list an adjective to describe what he/she is
feeling in the mystery box.

Answering questions and participating in discussion, particularly during the walk through
the school building to identify different sounds

Each student will get a chance to vote for the category of smell.

Discussion about the comparison between our brain dump chart and our What Did We
Learn chart

Summative Assessments:

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Drawings and discussion about what the roles of both the eyes and the brain are in our
sense of vision.

The What Do I Feel worksheet will act as a summative assessment that will check not
only the students understanding, but also their level of participation in the lesson.

The What Do I Hear worksheet will act as a summative assessment to gauge both
understanding and participation

What Do I Smell worksheet will act as a summative assessment to gauge both

understanding and participation

The What Do I Taste worksheet will act as the summative assessment for the lesson,
while the wrap up discussion will be the summative assessment for the unit as a whole
(along with the accumulation of their various worksheets, completed throughout the
week).

The 5 Senses Book will be the collaboration of all of these pages.

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STAGE 3
Procedures:

Lesson 1: Introduction/Sight
o Learning Goal: Students will be able to recognize sight as one of our five
senses. Students will be able to identify the brain and the eyes as the body parts
that help us see and how they work together in order to help us see the world
around us. Students will also know that not everyone sees things in the same
way.
o Starting on the carpet, have students do a brain dump about what they know about
the five senses.

What are they?

What words might you use to describe using your five senses?

What body parts do you use to experience your five senses?

o After students have completed their brain dump, play the Body Game as a class

Have students stand up and give them one of the following sentences to
complete:

I hear with my _______

I see with my _______

I smell with my _______

I feel with my ________

I taste with my ________

The class may call out the answer and must touch the body part on
themselves when they do so.

o Tell students that over the course of the week we will be discussing what our five
senses are, what body parts we use to experience them, and how they help us
experience the world around us.
o Today we will start by talking about the sense of sight.
o Ask students what body part we use to see.
o When students answer with eyes, tell them that today we are going to practice
describing what we see with our eyes.

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o Explain to students that we also use our brain to help us see. Our brain is our
control center that helps all of our senses work together so that we know what is
going on in the world around us.

Our eyes send a message to our brain and our brain tells us what we are
seeing

Place the eyes on our Mr. Potato Head (each day, we will add the body
part that we talk about to our Mr. Potato Head)

Add a brain to the Mr. Potato Head

o Tell students that today, we are going to take turns pretending to be eyes and
brains to show how the eyes send messages to the brain.
o Show students the materials they will be using today:

An Eyes sign (picture of eyes that a different student can wear around
his or her neck

Different pictures of common objects (tree, apple, house, pumpkin, car,

dog, cat, book etc)

Crayons

What I See worksheet

o Tell students that to start with, the teacher will be the eyes (wearing the eye
sign), and will describe one of the pictures using only her sense of sight. The
students will all be the brain and will have to figure out what the eyes are looking
at, just like our brains do, using only the messages that the eyes are giving
them.
o As the teacher describes the picture, students will draw what she is describing on
their paper. The teacher will continue until the class is able to guess what picture
she is looking at.
o After the teacher describes one or two pictures, pick a student who will have the
chance to be the eyes.

Teacher must be sure to emphasize that they must use describing words

For example, if given a picture of a tree to describe, they cant

simply tell their classmates its a tree.

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o After you have gone through all the pictures, have students gather on the carpet in
a circle with their papers.
o Ask students to hold up their papers, and note how everyones drawings look at
least slightly different from the rest of the classs.
o Ask students why this might be?
o After a few students have given answers, explain that all of our senses work a
little bit differently because we are all unique

My sense of sight might be different from the student next to me.

Some students may not be able to see very well, but can hear
exceptionally.

All of our pictures are different because they reflect that we all are
different from each other.

o Conclude the lesson by asking students to remind you what we use to see

Eyes and brain

What role do the eyes play? What role does the brain play?

o Ask students to give you the other four senses that we talked about briefly in the
beginning and to guess which one we will be talking about the next day.
o When they correctly guess touch, ask students to start thinking about some of the
words we use to describe things that we feel, so theyll be ready to share
tomorrow.
o Materials:

Chart paper

Marker

Mr. Potato Head (with body parts)

Eyes sign

Different pictures that depict common objects

Dog, cat, tree, house, etc

Crayons for students

Sight worksheet for 5 Senses Book

o Assessments:

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Pre-Assessment: The pre-assessment for this entire unit takes place in the
form of the brain dump that is done at the beginning of this first lesson.
Hearing students ideas about the 5 senses and what they think they know
about them will give the teacher a better understanding of what knowledge
to build off of and what misconceptions exist in that particular group of
students.

Formative: Formative assessments will be done primarily through the

answering of questions and participation in group discussions, though you
will also be able to check students participation through the pictures that
they show at the end of the activity. Student participation in the Body
Game will give the instructor an idea of whether or not students are
understanding which body parts contribute to which senses.

Summative: Drawings and discussion about what the roles of both the eyes
and the brain are in our sense of vision.

Lesson 2: Touching
o Learning Goal: Students will be able to recognize touch as one of the five
senses. They will be able to identify skin/hands/fingers and the brain as the two
body parts that help us feel. They will also be able to use adjectives to describe
different things that they touch.
o Ask students to remind you what we spoke about the previous day
o Make sure they remind you of what the five senses are, that we see using our eyes
and our brains
o Remind them that yesterday, we described objects by just seeing them.
o Explain that today, we are going to describe things by just feeling them, without
seeing them, using our sense of touch.
o Have students stand up and play the Body Game and ask them to remember
what we feel with.
o After the body game, ask students to shout out the answer.

Skin

Place the hands on the Mr. Potato Head

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o Ask students to share some of the words that they have been thinking of to
describe the way something feels

Hard, soft, cold, hot, squishy, slimy, rough, smooth, fuzzy, furry, sharp

o Ask students if anyone knows WHY we feel those things. How do we know
something is cold, warm, soft, curved, bumpy, wet, dry etc?
o Allow students to guess before reminding them that if we see with our eyes AND
our brains, we feel with our skin AND our _____

Brains

Just like our eyes send messages to our brain, our skin sends messages to
our brain to tell it what were feeling.

Our skin is covered in nerves that are responsible for sending these
messages to our brain

o Have the class move into a circle

o Pass around I Feel worksheet of the 5 Senses Book and a marker to each
student
o Pull out the first mystery box (see below for mystery box materials).
o Explain that today, we are going to practice using describing words for the things
that we feel in the box, and will guessing what we think is in each mystery box
o Instruct students that they may put their hand into the box to feel what is in there.

They MAY NOT look inside

o Each student will get a chance to feel in the box and give one word to describe
what they are feeling.
o Their adjectives will be added to a list that is written on the board.

Adjectives may be repeated

o After they have given the class their adjective, they may draw a picture in the first
half of their box #1 on their worksheet of what they think is in that mystery box
o After everyone has had a turn, read the list of words back to the class, and have
some students guess what they think could be inside the mystery box and share
their guesses with the class
o Reveal the contents of the mystery box to see if they were correct.

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o Have students draw a picture of what was actually in the mystery box in the
second half of box #1 on their worksheet
o Move onto the next mystery box and continue to list describing words for each
mystery box and fill out their sheet with pictures of their guesses and the actual
contents.
o When we have described and identified all of the mystery boxes, have students
share which mystery box they enjoyed feeling the most. Which was the most
uncomfortable for them to feel? Why do they think that is?
o After students have shared their thoughts, wrap up the lesson by having students
guess which sense we will be talking about the next day.
o After they guess hearing correctly, instruct students to be on the listen for some
of the sounds they hear around them when they are at home

What kind of sounds do they like to hear? What are some sounds that they
dont like?

o Tell students to be ready to share some of their ideas tomorrow.

o Materials:

Mr. Potato Head (with parts)

What I Feel worksheets for 5 Senses Book

Markers

Chart paper

Boxes

Mystery materials:

Peeled grapes

Sand paper

Cooked noodles

Ice water

Stuffed animal

Paper towels

o Assessments:

Formative: Formative assessments will be in the form of participating

appropriately and answering the questions posed. Each student will have

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the opportunity to list a describing word individually. As a class they will
be playing the Body Game to show their understanding of which parts of
the body contribute to which senses

Summative: The What Do I Feel worksheet will act as a summative

assessment that will check not only the students understanding, but also
their level of participation in the lesson.

Lesson 3: Hearing
o Learning Goal: Students will be able to recognize hearing as one of the five
senses. Students will be able to identify the ear and brain as the two body parts
that most help us hear. Students will know that sounds are a result of vibrations
and will know what the term vibrate means.
o Ask students to remind you about what youve talked about the past two days

Five senses, different body parts, eyes, skin, brain

o Have students stand up and play the Body Game again,

o Have students guess which sense we will be talking about today and ask what we
use to hear.

Hearing/ears

Place the ears on the Mr. Potato Head

o Ask if any students why we are able to hear things? How do our ears work to help
us hear?
o Explain that the sounds we hear are a result of vibrations.

Does anyone know what the word vibrate means?

When something moves back and forth rapidly

Have students stand up and show them with your body, what it means to
vibrate.

Have them do the same.

o After students are seated again, introduce them to tuning forks and explain that if
you look closely when the teacher hits the fork, you will be able to see the
vibrations that help create the sound.

23
o Demonstrate how to use the tuning fork and as you do so, explain that your ear
uses the vibrations to send a message to your brain and your brain tells you what
kind of sound it is and where its coming from
o Have students sit back in their desks.
o Explain that you want them to close their eyes and keep them shut tight. Youre
going to move around the room and strike the tuning fork. When you say so, you
want the students to open their eyes and tell you where in the room the sound
came from.
o After their eyes are closed, move stealthily through the room and ding the tuning
fork.
o After the sound has rung out, move back to the front of the room.
o Ask students to open their eyes and point to the place in the room where they
think the sound came from.
o Repeat a few times, and with different pitched tuning forks

Ask students why they think that some forks make different pitches than
others.

Explain that the pitch of the sound depends on how fast the vibrations are.
o Fast vibrations = high pitch
o Slow vibrations = low pitch

o Have students stand up and instruct them to vibrate their bodies according to
the sound that they hear

Strike a low fork and have them move slowly

Strike a high fork and have them move rapidly

o Explain to students that today we are going to go on a sound scavenger hunt

around the different places in our school
o Hand out 4 Things I Hear worksheets for the 5 Senses Book with clipboards to
everyone.
o Explain that we are going to visit four different places in the school:

Cafeteria

Out front of the school

Gym

24

Office

o Each student will draw a quick sketch of one thing they hear in each of those
places.
o Divide the class into two groups.
o One group will do the scavenger hunt, while the other watches a BrainPop Jr.
video on the five senses, we will then switch so both groups get a chance to
participate in both activities.

If you are the only teacher present at the time, you may do both activities
as whole class activities. Watch the BrainPop video first before taking the
whole class around the school to complete the listening scavenger hunt.

o When both groups have finished the scavenger hunt, gather all the students on the
carpet and have a few share the different things that they heard in the different
places around the school.
o Wrap up the day by having students remind you of what we use to help us hear,
and why we are able to hear the things we do.
o Have them guess which sense we will be talking about tomorrow.
o Ask students to take note of some of the smells that they experience throughout
the day.

What are smells they like? What are smells they dislike? Why do they
think this is?

o Ask students to come prepared to share the next day

o Materials:

Tuning forks

Mr. Potato Head (with parts)

Things I Hear Worksheet

Pencil

Laptop

Projector

BrainPop Jr. Video

o Assessments:

25

Formative: Participation and answering of questions will be the primary

form of formative assessment, particularly during the walk through the
school building to identify different sounds

Summative: The What Do I Hear worksheet will act as a summative

assessment to gauge both understanding and participation

Lesson 4: Smelling
o Learning Goals: Students will be able to recognize smell as one of the five
senses. They will be able to recognize that the nose and the brain are the two
body parts that help us to smell. Students will know that receptors help us smell
and that the term odor is synonymous with smell. Students will know that
some bad smells can be dangerous, and that things smell differently to different
people.
o Begin the lesson by playing yet another round of The Body Game
o Ask students to remind what other body part we use to experience our senses
other than the ones in our body game

Brain

o Ask students to remind you what sense we said we were going to be talking about
today.

Smell

o Who can tell me what we use to smell with?

Nose

Brain

Place the nose on the Mr. Potato Head on the front board

o Just like in our skin, we have receptors in our noses that pick up odors

Does anyone know what the word odor means?

o These receptors send messages to our brains to tell our brain if what we are
smelling is a good smell or a bad smell
o Have students brainstorm two lists:

One list for good smells

One list for bad smells

26
o Draw pictures to represent the things that smell bad and good so the students (who
arent able to read) will be able to read the chart.
o Ask the class if anyone can explain why some things smell good to us, and others
smell bad.

Give examples to the class to help scaffold them to the right answer

If food smells rotten, should we eat it? Why not?

o Because it will make you sick

If we smell smoke, what does that mean is around us somewhere?

Should we stay near fire?
o No, smoke warns us that fire is around and that we are in
danger.

o Explain that bad smells warn us that something might be harmful to our bodies.

Highlight that this isnt always the case, but if something smells funny,
you should ask an adult about it. Its better to be safe by asking an adult!

o Tell the class that today, we are going to do carpet science.

o Have students circle up on the carpet
o Show them the different baggies with the cotton balls/objects containing different
scents/odors in them.

These should include:

Vinegar

Vanilla extract

Cinnamon

Onion

Rubbing alcohol

Water

Chocolate

o Pass around the Good Smell/Bad Smell worksheets and a marker to each
student.
o Explain that each student will get a turn to sniff each odor, and decide, for
themselves, if they think that the smell is a good smell, a bad smell or a neutral
smell

27

Does anyone know what neutral means?

Neither good nor bad, just in the middle.

o Begin by passing around the baggies labeled number 1, without telling them what
it is (though some may be able guess immediately)
o After the student smells the baggie, have him/her circle the happy face, the sad
face or the neutral face based on how they feel about the smell (good, bad,
neutral)
o After everyone has had the chance to smell the contents of baggie number 1,
discuss what they have found.

Was it a good smell or a bad smell?

What kind of describing words would you use to describe the smell?

Why might some people think its a good smell and others a bad?

Were all different and experience our senses differently

Explain how different peoples experiences can change if they

think something smells good or bad.
o Example: maybe one student has a good memory of a fun
time related to on smell, while another remembers a time
when he/she was sick or sad or angry

o After discussion, allow students to guess what they think is inside the first baggie.
o Reveal what was in the first baggie and add it to the good/bad chart from the
beginning of class

Majority rules, have the class vote which category they want it in.

Have a picture printed out or draw the object in the category the class
decides

If the smell is neutral, place the picture on the line separating the two
categories

o Continue with the experiment by passing around the different bags in numerical
order
o After all of the odors have been discussed, have some students share which ones
were their favorites. Their least favorites? Did any of them remind you of
anything, foods, memories, etc?

28
o Ask students what we use for our sense of smell

Nose and brain

o Pass out the Smell Worksheet of the 5 Senses Book

o Have students draw four pictures: two of things that they thought smelled good,
two of things that they thought smelled bad
o Have students tell you which sense we have left to talk about tomorrow.
o Ask students to think about which sense we have left to talk about

Taste

o Have students guess how were going to experiment with the sense of taste
o Ask students to think about the different kinds of flavors they experience through
taste

Give them examples to think about: ice cream, lemon, pretzels, etc

o Tell students that tomorrow we are going to explore a little bit more about how
we are able to experience those tastes.
o Materials:

Mr. Potato Head (with parts)

Good smell/Bad smell worksheet

Markers

Chart paper

Pictures of the odors in the bags

Cotton balls to absorb some of the odors

Snack sized baggies

Vinegar

Cinnamon

Onion

Vanilla

Rubbing alcohol

Smell Worksheet for 5 Senses Book

o Assessments:

Formative: The formative assessments will take place primarily through

discussion, participation and contribution to the class. Each student will

29
get a chance to vote for the category of smell. The Body Game will help
the teacher determine if the students are understanding the senses and their
corresponding body parts.

Summative: What Do I Smell worksheet will act as a summative

assessment to gauge both understanding and participation

Lesson 5: Tasting
o Learning Goals: Students will be able to recognize that tasting is one of the five
senses and that we use our tongue/mouths and brains to taste. Students will
know that taste buds are the receptors for taste and that different taste buds
taste different flavors. Students will know that the different flavors are salty,
sweet, bitter, and sour.
o Begin the lesson by having students tell you what the one sense that we have yet
to talk about is.

Taste

o Have students stand up and play the Body Game for the last time
o Ask students to identify which body parts we use to taste

Tongue/taste buds

Brain

o Explain that, just like all our other senses, our tongue has receptors on it that send
messages to our brains to tell us what we are tasting
o Different taste buds are responsible for tasting different flavors
o Ask the students if anyone can think of any of the flavors that we can taste

Bitter

Sweet

Salty

Sour

o Pull up a picture of a tongue on the projector and have students guess which areas
of taste buds are responsible for sensing which flavors.
o After a few students have guessed, correctly label the different areas as such:

30

o Call students one by one to come up and retrieve a bag containing four different
foods:

Piece of baking chocolate

Pretzel or potato chip

Lemon wedge (wrapped in saran to keep it from contaminating

the other foods

Sugar cube

o Instruct students not to touch their bags until you tell them to do so.
o Hand out the What Do I Taste? worksheet for 5 Senses Book and instruct
students to get out their pencil boxes
o Explain that we are all going to try the same food our of our bags at the same
time.
o Then, without talking to their neighbors, they will draw a picture of the food they
tried in the box labeled with the flavor that they think that food represents

Make sure to review which box goes with which flavor for every
food to clear up any confusion

o Instruct students to take out the first food (all the same one for everyone) and
taste it.
o Have them draw their pictures.
o Continue until they have all the boxes filled with their food pictures.
o Have students come to the carpet to discuss what they found
o Which food did the students think fell under which flavor category?
o Why might some students have foods listed under different categories
than the majority?

31
o What other foods that they have tried before would fall under ____(salty,
sweet, bitter, sour)?
o As a wrap up to the entre unit, have students volunteer to share something
interesting about their week during the teaching of this unit.

What was their favorite part of the week?

Which sense did they most enjoy exploring? Why?

Which was their least favorite and why?

What was something new you learned about your senses and how they
work?

Why are our senses so important?

Why did we have some differences between students perceptions of

senses throughout the week?

o Make sure all students have a chance to participate. Write their responses down
on a chart paper and hang it beside the brain dump paper from the first day of the
unit.
o Ask students to compare the two. What have we learned? What
misunderstandings did we clear up?
o Materials:
o Mr. Potato Head (with parts)
o Snack baggies
o Laptop
o Projector
o Dry erase markers
o Tongue picture
o What I Taste worksheet
o Lemons
o Sugar cubes
o Baking chocolate
o Pretzels
o Pencil boxes (crayons)
o Assessments:

32
o Formative: The formative assessments for this lesson will be done
primarily through discussion and participation. The Body Game will
allow the teacher to see if students are making the necessary connections
between their body parts and their senses.
o Summative: The What Do I Taste worksheet will act as the summative
assessment for the lesson, while the wrap up discussion will be the
summative assessment for the unit as a whole (along with the
accumulation of their various worksheets, completed throughout the
week).

Adaptations/Accommodations:
Most of my students are on very similar levels academically, the main issue we struggle
with in our classroom are disruptive behaviors. In order to account for this, I will have to make
sure that the students who are the offenders will be given the chance to work with the whole
group, but after more than one warning, will be asked to finish the activity or participate in the
discussion from their seats as opposed to on the carpet. Additionally, I have two students who
have a hard time concentrating and completing their work when they are seated at their seats,
close to other students. They will have the opportunity to work individually, at the back table, if
they feel they will be more productive doing so. One of them also enjoys having the timer set for
him as a reminder for how long he has to complete his work. For certain activities I will take
advantage of this strategy and make him the class clock-keeper. As far as the academics are
concerned, most of my class is unable to read or write, and will therefore have to use pictures or
identification in order to express their knowledge.

33
Calendar:
Day of the
Week

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Lesson
Number

Lesson 1Sight/Introdu
ction

Lesson 2Touch

Lesson 3Hearing

Lesson 4Smell

Lesson 5Taste

Learning
Goal

Students will be
able to
recognize sight
as one of our
five senses.
Students will be
able to identify
the brain and
the eyes as the
body parts that
help us see and
how they work
together in
order to help us
see the world
around us.
Students will
also know that
not everyone
sees things in
the same way.

Students will be
able to recognize
touch as one of
the five senses.
They will be able
to identify
skin/hands/finger
s and the brain as
the two body
parts that help us
feel. They will
also be able to
use adjectives to
describe
different things
that they touch.

Students will
be able to
recognize
hearing as one
of the five
senses.
Students will
be able to
identify the ear
and brain as
the two body
parts that most
help us hear.
Students will
know that
sounds are a
result of
vibrations and
will know
what the term
vibrate
means.

Students will be
able to recognize
smell as one of
the five senses.
They will be able
to recognize that
the nose and the
brain are the two
body parts that
help us to smell.
Students will
know that
receptors help us
smell and that the
term odor is
synonymous with
smell. Students
will know that
some bad smells
can be dangerous,
and that things
smell differently
to different
people.

Students will be
able to recognize
that tasting is one
of the five senses
and that we use
our tongue/mouths
and brains to taste.
Students will
know that taste
buds are the
receptors for taste
and that different
taste buds taste
different flavors.
Students will
know that the
different flavors
are salty, sweet,
bitter, and sour

Procedural
Overview

Brain dump
about senses,
body game to
identify body
parts associated
with senses, Mr.
Potato Head,
Brain/Eye
game: the brain
will describe a
simple picture
using only the
image they see.
The rest of the
class (brains)
need to draw
what they eyes
see and
interpret the
image to figure

Body game to
identify body
parts associated
with senses, Mr.
Potato Head,
mystery box on
carpet: students
will give one
adjective to
describe what
they feel, draw
what they
THINK they
feel, then draw
what is actually
in the box

Body game to
identify body
parts
associated
with senses,
Mr. Potato
Head, discuss
vibrations
using tuning
forks, split
class in half
(ideally), half
to watch the
BrainPop Jr.
on the 5
Senses, , then
switch

Body game to
identify body
parts associated
with senses, Mr.
Potato Head,
discussion on
good smells and
bad smells, Test
your Nose
worksheet, have
students decide if
they think the
bags being passed
around (with
onions, chocolate,
perfume, rubbing
alcohol, etc)
smell good or bad.
Complete 4 things
I smell worksheet

Body game to
identify body parts
associated with
senses, Mr. Potato
Head, discussion
on taste buds and
what the different
flavors we can
taste are. Taste
testing activity
with worksheet,
students guess
which food will be
sweet/salty/bitter/s
our, then they may
try them.

34
out what the
eyes are seeing.

Assessment
Overview

Brain dump,
Body game,
Class
discussion re:
the eyes
sending
messages to the
brain,
Brain/Eye
worksheet (5
Senses Book)

Class discussion
re: sensory
receptors and
skin, body game,
question
answering,
adjective giving,
Mystery box
worksheet (5
Senses Book)

Class
discussion re:
vibrations and
sound waves,
body game,
hearing
scavenger
worksheet (5
Senses Book)

Class discussion
re: good
smells/bad smells
and odors, body
game, test your
nose worksheet, 4
things I smell
worksheet (5
Senses Book)

Class discussion
re: taste buds and
tongue, body
game, 4 things I
taste worksheet (5
Senses Book)

35
Appendix

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

Test Your Nose!

Smell each bag. Circle your answer.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

44
References:

The Center for Science and Health Education: The Pennsylvania State University College of
Medicine. 1998.
Chudler, E. (2011, January 1). The Senses. Retrieved September 1, 2014, from
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chsense.html
Courtney Jamieson, Kindergarten, Kelly Elementary School, Lewisburg Area School District.
Senses. (2014, January 1). Retrieved September 1, 2014, from
http://www.brainpopjr.com/health/bodies/senses/preview.weml
Super Hero Senses. (2012, April 5). Retrieved September 10, 2014.
Keepincoolinkindergarten.blogspot.com.

Warner, K. (2013, July 3). Five Senses. Retrieved September 1, 2014, from
http://www.kindergartenkindergarten.com/five-senses/
Picture Sources:
http://josiahcm.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/tastebud-map.gif
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/7e/83/bb/7e83bbe1bb7102366ee37cbc442a3c27.jpg
http://www.clker.com/cliparts/v/k/F/9/J/K/animated-blue-cartoon-eyes-hi.png
http://cartoonlogodesigns.com/images/misc/Smiley%20faces/smiley%20face.jpg
http://www.peterdaviespr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/yellow-neutral-face-1.jpg
http://www.buttonempire.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5f
b8d27136e95/s/m/smiley-frowny-face_17913_.jpg

45