My district's pacing guide has us teaching the 5 senses (kindergarten) for THREE weeks! How in the world do I stretch the material out for that long? To make it worse, we're remote so we can't even do any fun experiments/explorations.
Does anyone have any ideas? Or ideas of other fun things we could teach once we've finished the senses instead of carrying on for longer?
Well I was going to be very excited for you until I saw that you are remote. That makes it so much harder! I love teaching 5 senses, but most everything is super hands on.
If you are spending 3 weeks I'd spend M/T on one sense, W/Th on another, and then do something with both or some kind of review on F.
Are you able to send anything home? You could send popcorn to pop or some other kind of snack to try together and talk about all of the senses. Or you could send home something sweet, sour, spicy, etc.
Do a scavenger hunt focused on the sense you are talking about. Find something that feels soft/hard, find something that is loud/quiet, find something of a specific color.
For sound, you could turn off your camera and make a sound and have them guess what it is.
Thank you both for the ideas! I love the idea of the "meditations", and I hadn't even thought of turning off the camera to make a noise!
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Well I was going to be very excited for you until I saw that you are remote. That makes it so much harder! I love teaching 5 senses, but most everything is super hands on.
I know! Senses would be so much more fun face to face.
I’m not an early childhood person...I taught chemistry for 40 years. I just want to encourage you to spend some time on sense of smell. My experience is that most students have a lot of trouble describing different odors. They tend to say “It smells terrible” for almost everything, from ammonia to vinegar to oil of wintergreen. Helping them to learn a more descriptive vocabulary in kindergarten will go a long way. Words like woodsy, earthy, rotten, sweet, fruity, minty, meaty, sharp, citrusy, spicy, acid...are more descriptive. Maybe offer a descriptive word and have them name things with that smell?
Or show them some items and have them pretend they have smellavision and tell you how those things smell. Holiday smells are a great opportunity to describe pleasant smells: Christmas tree, cinnamon, oranges, Thanksgiving dinner, pumpkin pie, candy canes...Kids could play a guessing game where they describe a scent of something on the list and others have to guess what it is...
Simple recipes or crafts like pomander balls (oranges stuck with cloves) might be things kids would enjoy doing with parents or older siblings if you just offer them as extras.
But I am not sure how to post it so it goes to the right pages. Like the PPs, these are best for in-person class but it might give you some ideas so that you can adapt them. She included more than the basic 5 senses so I listed them all.
I love the scavenger hunt idea! Or maybe even a "daily sense report" if they need handwriting practice as well. (On Monday, I saw ____. On Tuesday, I heard ____. ...)
Senses show and tell. They fetch an object in their house, but hide it off camera and describe to their classmates how it feels, smells, etc. The other kids try to guess what it is.
When you do your planning, don't forget to add lessons about the lack of senses. That is important but it will also extend your lessons. Talk about sign language, braille...
When you do your planning, don't forget to add lessons about the lack of senses. That is important but it will also extend your lessons. Talk about sign language, braille...
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11-24-2020, 05:45 PM
