Sara Says

Human Body and the Five Senses Lesson Plan Ideas

This unit is loaded with lots of wonderful books and activities to help teach The Five Senses
Age level: Kindergarten-Second Grade

Below are tried and true books that work perfectly with The Five Senses Unit. You can click on the cover image for more information or to buy the book.

My Five Senses by Aliki Perfect book to begin the unit that is easy for the students to understand and gets them "hooked" and wanting to learn more
The Listening Walk by Paul Showers
Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer
My Hands by Aliki
Forest Friends Five Senses by Cristina Garelli
A Tasting Party (My Five Senses) by Jane Belk Moncure

This is a fun way to kick of the Five Senses unit!
Materials:
5 large posters with each one labeled a different Sense (Smelling, Touching, Seeing, Hearing, and Tasting)
I begin this unit with my students cutting out pictures of magazines of ears, eyes, hands, mouths, and noses. They glue their variety of body parts onto the appropriate poster. This helps them identify the different parts that go with each sense.

Play "Person to Person"
I call out two body parts (example: elbow to elbow) Students race to find a partner and they touch elbows. I then call out another body part (foot to foot) and with the same partner the students match up their feet. Continue until the caller says "person to person" and students must race to find a new partner.

I spend a day on each sense. Here are some fun activities to do with each different sense.

• Take a "sight" hike. With their "5 Senses" Journals they record (write or draw) everything that they see within a 5-10 minute time frame. We rejoin as a group and talk about all of the different things that we saw.
• What's different? I glue or tape 15-20 different objects onto a poster. I let the students stare at the objects for 1 minute. After time is up, I remove one object and the students need to guess what is missing.

• I fill eight socks with a different item in each one (examples: screw, marble, crayon, stick, etc.) The students take turns feeling what is in the sock and recording what they think they feel.

• I fill eight Easter eggs with a different item in each (examples; sand, cotton ball, beans, etc.). Students take turns shaking the eggs and recording what they think is in the eggs.
• Who's voice is that? Choose one student to be the "guesser". He sits at the front of the room with his back to the class. Silently choose another student to approach the student from behind and say hello to the student in a silly or different voice. The guesser tries to distinguish which of his classmates the voice is coming from

• I take eight cotton balls and put a different scent on each one (examples; lemon juice, cinnamon, cocoa, perfume etc.) I put one cotton ball in each cup and cover it with foil. I then poke small holes in the top. The students take turns passing the cups and smelling. They record their guesses on their smell sheet.

• Choose eight things you would like the students to taste. There are a couple of ways you can go about it. You could choose go the powder route (sugar, flour, cinnamon, powdered sugar etc.) or you can choose other food items (chocolate chips, bite size candy bars, pretzels, popcorn, etc.) The students are blindfolded and after they try the mystery item they make a guess.

A fun way to culminate the unit is to air pop popcorn as a class. The students will experience all five senses with the popcorn party!