EXPLORING FALL WITH THE 5 SENSES

Kindergarten/Grade 1

This week we took our K/1s to the outdoor classroom just off school property. It is along a small stream in the forest with open spaces for both free exploration and structured learning. One day we explored the five senses, and another day the students had to create and build on their own. It was amazing to see how their little minds worked together to solve problems and come up with interesting ways of using the Earth to learn and have fun! A few students built a teeter-totter using a long log with fallen logs and rocks where they experimented with different heights and angles for their teeter-totter. Their opportunity to be outdoors helped them rejuvenate to last as happy and engaged learners right through to the bell on Friday afternoon - a difficult feat for adult learners, let alone little learners!

5 Senses Lesson What better way to learn about how our bodies give us information about our environment than by stepping outdoors and exploring our five senses in the nature of our outdoor classroom! Feel free to reuse this lesson with your own students :) At the beginning of the day we always start with a check-in for how students are feeling and asking a Question of the Day. Today, our question was a great segue into our 5 Senses learning! Smell: We had a cup filled with apple cider and had a paper towel with holes placed over top. Students had a turn smelling the continents

of the cup and were to guess whether they smelled apples or pumpkin. At the front of the room, we had a cup with an apple picture on it and a cup with a pumpkin picture on it and students were to put a popsicle stick with their name on it in the cup with their guess. All students were correct in identifying the sweet apple smell and were ready to explore the other senses! Sight: In the forest the class split into groups of 3 and rotated around stations. One of the stations was exploring the sense of sight. Students were given a paint chip to find the matching colour in the forest. Students were excellent at finding examples in nature! One boy had a blue paint chip, and was challenged to find a natural example in the forest and successful found a rock that looked blue under certain light. This activity also encouraged students to open up their eyes to the beauty of nature and the variety the Earth has to offer! Hearing: The second station was for students to explore the sense of hearing. They each were given a laminated BINGO card with pictures of sounds they would hear in the forest. The students listened quietly to sounds they could hear and marked off the squares with pebbles, and we took a short walk within the classroom to listen to other sounds in the forest. Students enjoyed this activity and asked for copies of it to play at home! Touch: This station focused on using the sense of touch and describing what they felt. We had five bags with various pieces of nature in them - pinecones, seeds, leaves, wet hay, and wood. Students took turns feeling inside each bag and holding their guess in their minds. Then once everyone had felt inside the bag, they shared what their guess was. The students all put together what they sensed with their fingers with what they knew about nature and were able to make accurate estimates of what they felt! Taste: Later in the day during lunch, we gave students a sample of organic apple cider (which they smelt in the morning). Every student tried the cider and could leave it if they didn't like it. A majority of the class really enjoyed the cider and were able to describe how it tasted. Going to the forest during autumn is the perfect time to explore the 5 Senses outdoors! Let me know if you have any questions or comments about this lesson!

Thank you to - Nicki Dugan Pogue; Flickr and maf04; Flickr - for the photos!

#5senses #outdooreducation