My Five Senses

Last Thursday and Friday, we discussed our five senses in great detail.  One of our assistants brought in some plants from her garden so the children were able to differentiate between basil, lavender, and mint, among others.  We placed them in glass bottles, added self-corrected stickers on the bottom, and by Friday we had smelling bottles! 

On Friday, we spoke specifically about our sense of taste and the tongue.  We looked at a diagram of the tongue and discussed sweet, salty, sour and bitter.  Of course, to truly understand this concept we needed a taste test.  We used paper plates divided into four sections.  The children tasted sugar for sweet, salt (of course) for salty, lemon for sour, and unsweetened chocolate for bitter.  That last one was hysterical.  After three cheers for chocolate, and a brief explanation that this is chocolate WITHOUT SUGAR, the children tried the bitter food and were severely disappointed!  Actually, disappointed isn't the word, it was more like disgusted.  I wish I could have posted some of the faces we saw.  We took a vote and zero children like bitter food!

Parents can get children more involved by reviewing the diagram of the tongue here.