Naturally Sense-sational Post-site Activities

Naturally Sense-sational - Post-site Activity/Teacher Led

Grade Level: Kindergarten
Content Area: Science
Time to Complete: 1 to 2 hours
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).

Materials/Equipment/Resources:

Sharing Nature With Children by Joseph Cornell, 1979. ISBN 0-916124-14-2

Trails, Tails, Tidepools in Pails by Docents of The Children's Nature Institute, 1999. ISBN 0-9632753-7-2

Procedures:

The following activities are included to enhance your students’ field trip experiences. These activities are adapted from the book entitled Trails, Tails & Tidepools in Pails by the Docents of The Children’s Nature Institute.

Sniffs and Whiffs

•	Collect smells from your schoolyard.
•	Pack a few empty bottles into your students’ pockets and pouches.
•	Have your students sniff the air. Can they catch a smell?
•	Grab a handful of damp earth and stuff it into a bottle.
•	Pluck a few flower petals and drop them into another bottle.
•	Dunk a bottle into a stream or pond, if possible.
•	Can your students find anything else for their bottles? Peeled bark, crunched leaves and crushed grass have smells, too.
•	Have your students line their bottles up and sniff them one at a time. If they close their eyes, can they tell what they are smelling?

Eye and Ear Helpers

•	Turn empty paper rolls into ear and eye helpers.
•	Have your students cover a paper roll with colored paper. Leave the ends of the tube open. Secure the paper with tape. Poke a hole at one end of one side of the roll. Thread some string through the hole and make a necklace-sized loop. Tie off the loop with a knot.
•	Students can wear their eye and ear helper as they walk. Search for bright flowers or a tall tree. Students can see it with their eyes. Now have them peek at it through their paper rolls. Use eye helpers like a telescope to look at nature friends like bugs, leaves, trees and rocks. If possible, encourage your students to get close and peek at them through the ‘telescope.’
•	Turn the eye helper into an ear helper by placing the paper roll up to one ear. Listen for birds singing, wind blowing, water splashing or crickets chirping. Can your students hear any other sounds?