Naturally Sense-sational On-site Activities

Naturally Sense-sational - On-site Activity/Interpreter Led

Grade Level: Kindergarten
Content Area: Science
Time to Complete: 1 hour
Title of Lesson: Naturally Sense-sational

South Carolina State Standards Addressed:

K-1.1	Identify observed objects or events by using the senses.
K-1.3	Identify the distinct structures in the human body that are for walking, holding, touching, seeing, smelling, hearing, talking, and tasting.
K-3.2	Identify the functions of the sensory organs (including the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin).

Lesson Description:

Students will explore nature in the park using tools they have with them at all times, their senses! This program teaches students to use their senses to become more aware of the natural environment around them by doing several hands-on activities as well as hiking through part of the park’s trail system. They will learn how animals use their senses differently than humans, and how animals rely on their senses for survival.

Culminating Assessment:

See post-site activities.

Procedures:

Students are welcomed to Sesquicentennial State Park and introduced to the park educator. Park rules and appropriate behaviors are discussed.

Introduction to Topic: Tool Time

•	Students are asked to get the tools they brought with them for their adventure today.
•	What are these tools? You can’t take them off your body and they help you figure out what is around you.
•	What tool helps you see? Eyes! Hear? Ears! Smell? Nose! Feel? Fingers! Taste? Tongue! Please note: this program does not suggest or require students to use their sense of taste.
•	Students prepare to use each “tool” by, for example, rolling their eyes, listening with their ears, wiggling their noses, rubbing their fingers together and sticking out their tongues.
•	Educator discusses the itinerary for the remainder of the program with students. The class will be outside and use each of these “tools” to explore during their adventure. (15 minutes)

Outdoor Exploration: Sound Circle

•	Students gather in a circle and sit down.
•	The sound circle is great for experimenting with hearing. At the count of three, students close their eyes and silently listen to all the sounds around them.
•	Every time they hear a different sound they count it by holding up one finger. This helps to remember sounds so that students’ experiences can be shared with the group.
•	Listening to sounds lasts 30 seconds at most; however, sharing experiences always take much longer. The sound circle is adapted from Sharing Nature With Children by Joseph Cornell. For more information, see bibliography. (10 minutes)

Magic Smelling Potion

•	Along the trail, educator exhibits, dramatically, a specially decorated bottle containing Magic Smelling Potion.
•	Educator asks which students have cats or dogs and if these animals’ noses are wet or dry. Many animals have wet noses, noses with Magic Smelling Potion. Our sense of smell is not as good as cats or dogs because we, of course, do not have Magic Smelling Potion.
•	Educator passes a baggie containing mint extract throughout the group of students. After the group has had a chance to smell the mint extract, the educator asks students to hold out their hands for the Magic Smelling Potion. Students dab the potion on their noses and pass the mint extract a second time.
•	Who thought the Magic Smelling Potion actually helped their sense of smell? Most students find there is a big difference. This is due to the fact that particles of scent are able to “stick” to a wet surface more easily than a dry surface. This gives the nose a chance to register the scent particles and detect the smell! What is Magic Smelling Potion? Water!

Rainbow Chips

•	Each student receives a rainbow chip (paint chip).
•	They search for this color in nature along the trail and share their discoveries with the group.
•	Once they find their colors they may trade rainbow chips and search for another color or help their friends search.

Whiskers

•	Whiskers is another ambulatory activity.
•	Students brainstorm names of animals with whiskers, feelers or antennae.
•	How do these help animals? Human skin is very sensitive to touch. Animals, however, are often covered with fur or even hard exoskeletons. So animals have projections from their bodies that help them sense their surroundings.
•	For example, a skunk gets around at night. Even when it is too dark to see, the skunk can feel its way along the forest floor with the coarse hairs all over its body.
•	The hard exoskeleton of an insect has little feeling but, by using antennae, it can poke into places that may be dangerous and “feel out” the situation.
•	Try it yourself! Students hold pipe cleaners to their heads or cheeks. When their “whiskers” come into contact with a branch or vine, the resulting vibrations travel down the length of the “whisker” onto the skin. This is how whiskers work!

Bad Taste

•	Some animals just have bad taste!
•	But this is one time when bad taste is “in.” Some animals intentionally eat things that taste terrible so that they will taste terrible to predators.
•	Monarch butterflies eat milkweed, a very bitter native plant. If a bird eats a monarch, it may get sick and learns quickly to avoid these brightly colored insects.
•	Toads taste bad because of their “warts.” Actually, they don’t have warts at all. These bumps are filled with a fluid that is toxic and will cause mammalian predators (the furry kind) to become ill.
•	Students search for these toxic avengers by looking for insects that are brightly colored (warning coloration) or defend themselves by tasting bad! No taste tests allowed!

Can We Talk?

•	Some questions for group discussion as a culmination to the program.
•	What did you learn today that you never knew before?
•	What were your favorite discoveries?
•	Favorite sight, sound, smell, etc.?

Educator reinforces different activities and experiences the students had today with the group; asking, for example, “Who liked smelling with the Magic Smelling Potion?” Or, “What was it like having whiskers?”