This week we began our Five Senses unit. The five senses help children explore the world and make sense of what’s around them. We began the week by reading the book "Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, and Smell: Learning About Your Five Senses" by Pamerla Hill Nettleton. This book introduces young children to the five senses in an exciting and colorful way. The activities listed below encouraged the Pre-K kids to use their senses in lots of different ways!
Sensory Box Guessing Game
We LOVE sensory activities in Pre-K! We especially love messy sensory activities. But sensory doesn't always mean messy, and this activity is a great non-messy one! The sensory box guessing game is a good way to practice tactile memory and it is a lot of fun too! Before I called the kiddos over to circle time, I chose some objects without them seeing. I tried to choose different sized objects and with different textures too. During circle time I hid the items and chose one item at a time, put the item in the box and then asked the kiddos to guess what the item was. The kiddos had to rely on a single sense - touch - to identify the objects hidden from sight! With the tricky ones, I would ask questions to guide the children: Is it heavy or light? Is it smooth or rough?
Salt & Sugar Test
The salt and sugar test is a very simple, quick activity to explore how our sense of taste can detect a difference between two things when our other senses cannot. During this activity we gave each child a couple of pinches of salt and the same amount of sugar. I put these on black paper so the children could see the white salt and sugar better than against something white. We did not tell children they had salt and sugar. We asked them to look at both and asked: How does the first one look? How does it feel? We asked the same questions about the other. Can they tell a difference between the two? Can you think of any way to tell the difference between them? We then had the children taste the salt and sugar one by one. (Each child had their own, and we wash hands first!) We then asked if they can name what they tasted, how it tasted (sweet/salty), and whether they could tell the difference between the two.
Water Beads
This week we added water beads, scoopers and tweezers to our sensory table! The scoopers and tweezers enhance hand-eye coordination through motor skills. The kiddos ca scoop, tweeze, and grab their way to a well-rounded development! The water beads with their soft texture and slippery nature also provides a sense of comfort and relaxation while the children play and explore.
Texture Squares
Texture squares as a fun, hands-on way to encourage young learners' awareness of their sense of touch. Plus, as children enjoy examining and talking about the squares, they are building their descriptive vocabulary! We played a variety of games with the texture squares:
-Alike and Different: We set out three texture squares: two that match and one that is different. We asked the children to identify the one that is different and discusses why.
-Feel and Find: We separated the texture squares into pairs and placed one square of each of the pairs into a bag and the other on a tray. The children took turns choosing one of the texture squares and then using their sense of touch to find its match inside the bag.
Reading Buddies
Last week, Pre-K and their Sixth Grade Reading Buddies disguised a turkey for Thanksgiving. This week, we had our book launch, as all of the authors and illustrators were present for the reading of our creation.
Geoboards
Using geoboards can help develop many important early math and literacy skills! Aside from learning basic geometric shapes, creating images and designs with rubber bands on geoboards help little learners develop important fine motor skills. As the children manipulate the rubber bands they are developing hand-eye coordination and muscle control. When they are recreating the images from the shape cards on their own geobards, the children are actually increasing their attention spans and ability to concentrate!
Taste Test Challenge
To help us explore the sense of taste the children participated in a taste test challenge! After the children were blindfolded (they all LOVED this!) we handed them different kinds of foods to taste. We asked questions such as: is it salty or sweet? hard or soft? is it chewy? Most of the kids guessed the food right away! Some of the food items included: pretzels, crackers, croissant, apples and bananas.
Process Art
This week the kiddos worked hard on creating beautiful gifts for their Grandparents for our special event next week. First the kiddos painted their canvas with three colors that mix well together, then the kiddos used scrappers to scrap some of the paint off to create interesting designs. The following day the kiddos glued down beads and yarn using glue mixed with paint to create even more depth and textures!
Art Class - Funny Textured Faces
How do artists use texture in their artwork? Pre-K made funny textured faces using textured materials to create their collages. They planned their ideas while making their own unique artistic choices within the material to represent the features on a face.
Art Class - Magic Modeling Clay & Collage Items
This week in art class the kids were given magic modeling clay and collage items. The kiddos were instructed to form the clay however they like (maybe they wanted to roll it out, turn it into a ball, create an animal, etc). Then they were asked to add different items to the clay. Some of the the items available were pipe-cleaners, colorful wires, buttons and feathers.
Mystery Reader
This week our Mystery Reader was Leela's dad. Thank you for coming in to read to us!
Free Choice
Next Tuesday is Grandparents & Special Friends Day!