As a former Pre-Kindergarten teacher and now stay-at-home mommy of 2 boys and a sweet baby girl, many people ask me how they can be implementing educational concepts in the lives of their young children at home before they enter school. Instead of trying to come up with a quick list of ideas off the top of my head to answer these questions, I have decided to put all of my lessons into this blog. I, along with so many other parents, want to be purposeful at home with my children and make the most of the time I have with them.
I hope that this blog can help, encourage, and inspire you to work with your kiddos and
get involved in the learning process! The benefits will be endless,
and the moments you share together will be priceless! As Dr. Seuss once said,
"The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go!"

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Thinking Theme: The Five Senses

Letter of the Week: Ff

Number of the Week: 5

Bible Verse of the Week: "Fear not, for I am with you." Isaiah 43:5

Books:






Songs:
* Do Your Ears Hang Low?
* Apples and Bananas
* Five Senses (Tune: "Where is Thumbkin?")
Five senses, five senses
We have them. We have them.
Seeing, hearing, touching,
Tasting and smelling.
There are five. There are five.
* Sound Song (Tune: "Did You Ever See A Lassie?")
Did you ever hear a bell ring,
A bell ring, a bell ring?
Did you ever hear a bell ring?
Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding.
Did you ever hear the wind blow,
The wind blow, the wind blow?
Did you ever hear the wind blow?
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish.
* The Five Senses Song
_______________________________________
Lesson 1: My Sense of Touch
Objectives:
* To understand what the sense of touch is and how to use it
* To recognize the names of different textures and objects that have those textures
* To use the fine motor skills involved with taping and writing, and of course, touching and feeling!

Materials:
* white construction paper
* child's think tank
* tape
* items around the house that are soft, hard, rough, smooth, squishy, sharp, etc.
(We used a cotton ball, a nickel, a rock, a block, playdough, and a stick)



Procedure:
1. Collect items that have different textures. Have your child touch and feel the objects and name the type of texture it has. (ex: a rock is rough, playdough is squishy, a stick is sharp, etc.)





2. Tape the items to a piece of construction paper and label them with the textures they represent. Write "My Sense of Touch" on the top and hang it on the Think Board so your child can touch/feel these items throughout the week.



Lesson 2: My Sense of Hearing
Objectives:
* To understand what the sense of hearing is and how to use it
* To use your sense of hearing to guess what specific sounds are
* To understand that sounds are different and have specific characteristics (loud, soft, etc.)

Materials:
* computer with Itunes or a CD player with a tape or CD of specific sounds

Procedure:
1. Go to Itunes on your computer and pull up these CDs listed below. You do not have to purchase any songs. A preview of each sound will work perfectly!









2. Have your child listen to the sounds and try to guess what they are. There are animal sounds, sounds from around the house, transportation sounds, etc. This is a fun game for the kids to play!







3. Talk about the types of sounds and how they are different. Ask them how they know it is the sound of a duck or the sound of water running. Help them to realize that they use their sense of hearing everyday to recognize specific things in their environments!

Lesson 3: My Sense of Sight
Objectives:
* To understand what the sense of sight is and how to use it
* To recognize the importance of sight and how difficult it is to move around without it
* To remove the sense of sight and use other senses to find one another

Materials:
* a cloth, bandanna, or small blanket to cover the child's eyes

Procedure:
1. Talk about the sense of sight and it's importance in helping us do our daily activities. Ask your child what they think it would be like to not be able to see. Have them cover their eyes to see what it's like.



2. Next play a little game of hide and seek, but cover your child's eyes so they cannot see. Move around the room to see if they can figure out where you are. Have them use their other senses to find you. Switch and cover your eyes while they hide.



3. Talk about what it was like to not be able to see and how hard it was to find each other without using the sense of sight. Talk about how it was important to use your other senses to help you find the other person.



Lesson 4: My Sense of Smell
Objectives:
* To understand what the sense of smell is and how we use it
* To isolate the sense of smell from the others to guess what different scents are

Materials:
* construction paper
* marker
* items that can be sprayed or rubbed onto paper that have a distinct smell
(we used air freshener, cologne, perfume, and hairspray)



Procedure:
1. Make a circle on a piece of construction paper and have your child spray one of the items into the circle and smell it.





2. Continue this will all of your scents. Label each circle with the correct smell.

3. Have your child close their eyes and smell each scent and guess which one it is.



Lesson 5: My Sense of Taste
Objectives:
* To understand what the sense of taste is and how to use it
* To use the concept of guessing in order to figure out what food you are tasting
* To recognize that we can use specific senses to guess what something is without having to use our other senses

Materials:
* small bowl
* 5-7 different types of snack food that your child eats often - 2 pieces each
(we used goldfish, blueberries, nutter butter crackers, craisins, fruit snacks, grapes, and alphabet cookies)



Procedure:
1. Place food into a small bowl without your child seeing.

2. Tell your child that they are going to use their sense of taste to guess what kind of food is put into their mouth.

3. Have the child close their eyes and open their mouths as you place one food item into it. See if they can guess what it is without looking at it.






He really got into it! :)

4. Once you have finished with all of the food, have your child look into the bowl at the extra pieces to see if their guesses were correct!



Extra Thinking:

* Letter Ff - glue gold"Fish" on the letter F (remember to do upper and lowercase)







* Nature Walk - go on a walk outside around your house or in the park and use your senses to discover different aspects of nature, come back inside and draw a picture of your experience and write about it
* Tasting Apples - buy 3-4 different types of apples and have your child taste each one, talk about how even though they are all apples, they can taste differently, ask your child to choose his/her favorite
* Whistle Game - Play hide and seek using a whistle or just whistle with your mouth. Take turns finding each other using your sense of hearing. (Lots of other extra activities on this site, too!)

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