The Five Senses Package

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Natalie Nichols
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1 The Five Senses Package Inside you ll find activities, worksheets, and vocabulary to enhance your student s awareness of all of their senses. Included Activities Introductory Activity: Warming Up Our Super Senses... 3! Taste Activity: What s for Dinner?... 4! Touch Activity: How Does it Feel?... 6! Sound Activity: Biodiversity Soundscapes... 7! Sight Activity: I Spy With My Little Eye... 8! Smell Activity: What s That Smell?... 10! Smell Activity: Did You Know... 11! Closing Activity: Create Your Own Super Sensing Species Worksheets Targeted PLOs Kindergarten Science: Describe features of local plants and animals Compare common animals Grade 1 Science: Describe the basic needs of local animals Describe how the basic needs of animals are met in their environment Grade 2 Science: Classify animals according to similarities and differences in appearance, behavior and life cycle Make a comprehensive food web of items obtained by a particular animal Grade 3 Science: Illustrate the ways that animals depend on each other All photos and drawings Erika Schmidt, 2014 unless otherwise noted

2 Vocabulary List Review the vocabulary below with your class to better equip you for the next sensory activities included in this package. Ecosystem: A community of living things like plants, animals and smaller organisms in conjunction with nonliving things that live and interact in the same environment as one system. Omnivore: An organism that eats both meat and plants. Carnivore: An organism that only eats meat. Herbivore: An organism that only eats plants. Acoustic Ecology: The relationship, mediated through sound, between living beings and their surrounding environment(s). Biophony: The non-human sounds produced by living organisms in a biome. Pheromones: Chemical marks left behind by a species to defend itself, attract, or communicate with other species. Resources:

3 Introductory Activity: Warming Up Our Super Senses Ideal for Grades: K-3 Appropriate for Grades: K-3 Materials Needed: None Activity Categories: pre-visit, introduction Before visiting the museum or going on a nature walk, have students use their bodies actively to warm up their five senses: Get students to stand up and wiggle out excess energy. Have students rub their hands together vigorously for 10 seconds to create friction and warmth. o Students can think of themselves as superheroes, warming up their super senses with their special powers! Once students have created some warmth, have them place their hands on their closed eyes. Have students take a few deep breaths and then have them open their eyes. o Tell the students they are now seeing the world with super sense eyes! Have students do the same steps for their ears, nose, and mouth. Students can gently stretch their ears, wiggle their nose, and open their mouth wide to activate their super senses. Introductory Resources: Look Who s Buzzing: A Book about the Five Senses (2009) Wendy Wax 3

4 Taste Activity: What s for Dinner? Ideal for Grades: K-2 Appropriate for Grades: K-3 Materials Needed: Writing and drawing materials, activity template Activity Categories: pre-visit, post-visit, ecology, omnivores, carnivores, herbivores In this activity, students will engage with the concept of food chains and diet by creating a meal for an omnivore (black bear), a carnivore (owl) or herbivore (grasshopper). Teachers can draw upon pre-visit resources to scaffold students understanding of the differences between omnivores, carnivores, and herbivores. Students can choose from one of the three species and then create a meal for them based on specimens found in the museum. Depending on the grade level, teachers can encourage students to draw and/or write about four different types of food that the animal or insect would most likely eat. Students can use the dinner plate template to create a meal and then share their idea with a partner or with the class. Full-size worksheets are included at the end of this package. 4

5 Answer Key: Owl: Owls mainly feed on furry animals, including: mice, rats, moles, squirrels, and skunks. They also eat insects, worms, spiders, frogs, small birds, and lizards. Black Bear: Because bears are omnivores, they have a large variety in their diet. This includes: squirrels, rabbits, small rodents, salmon, deer fawn, berries, horsetails, fungi (mushrooms), ants, wasps, bees, and honey. Grasshopper: Grasshoppers predominantly feed on plants, shrubs, and trees. They will eat almost any kind of vegetable, including carrots, corn, lettuce, and onions. They also eat cereal crops, including wheat, barley, and alfalfa. Additional Resources: Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs (1994) by Patricia Lauber Do Cows Eat Cake? (2010) by Michael Dahl 5

6 Touch Activity: How Does it Feel? Ideal for Grades: K-1 Appropriate for Grades: K-3 Materials Needed: Colouring materials, activity template Activity Categories: museum activity, post-visit This is a great, simple activity that can be used after a museum program such as Beasts Big and Small, One Life to Live, or Sketching. It can also be used as a post-visit activity back in the classroom. Students can explore their own kinesthetic sense of touch in order to compare textures of different plants and animals. Explore the museum to find specimens that students can touch remember to be gentle. Draw a specimen that feels... smooth rough hard After touching different organisms, students will fill in their worksheets. In each box, have students draw a specimen that feels: smooth, rough, hard, soft, or furry. Encourage students to write down the names of each organism. For the final square, students can choose their own adjective and then find an appropriate specimen to draw. soft furry Based on these hands-on observations, students can then go around the museum and use their sense of sight to make predictions about whether other specimens will feel similar. They will fill in the second template with their answers. Full-size worksheets are included at the end of this package. Draw a specimen that looks like it feels... smooth rough hard soft furry 6

7 Sound Activity: Biodiversity Soundscapes Ideal for Grades: K-3 Appropriate for Grades: K-3 Materials Needed: Optional - percussion instruments Activity Categories: pre-visit activity, post-visit, acoustic ecology, biophony Acoustic ecology is the relationship, mediated through sound, between living beings and their environment. One specific kind of acoustic ecology is biophony, which is the non-human sound produced by living organisms in a biome. For this activity, students will focus on their sense of sound in order to make connections between biodiversity and the surrounding acoustic environment. After visiting the museum, as a whole class activity or in groups, have students choose one ecosystem based on one collection that they enjoyed. Some examples could include: under the sea, inside a lake, the forest, the desert, or the tropical rainforest. Using their bodies, have students create a soundscape based on the acoustics they would hear in that ecosystem. Encourage students to use their voices and simple body percussions to create the mood of the environment including: the sound of different insects, animals, water cycle, and weather. If accessible, students can also use small percussion instruments to enhance their soundscape. Encourage students to get creative with their soundscape and to present to the rest of the class! Additional Resources:

8 Sight Activity: I Spy With My Little Eye Ideal for Grades: K-2 Appropriate for Grades: K-3 Materials Needed: Writing and drawing materials, activity template Activity Categories: museum activity, post-visit, scavenger hunt This scavenger-hunt style activity challenges students to use their visual sense to identify different specimens found in the museum. With so many specimens in the museum, students can come up with many organisms to fit each category. Depending on the grade level, students can be encouraged to draw one specimen or write down several. To help you get started, there is an answer guide on the next page. Within each collection, indicated by the logo on each of the worksheet boxes, find organisms matching the descriptive clues. This activity can also be adapted as a post-visit memory activity where students can complete the template back in the classroom. Have students close their eyes in order to focus on their visual sense and to sharpen their memory. Full-size worksheets are included at the end of this package. I spy with my little eye, something that... is bigger than my body may be found on the beach provides food for humans is smaller than my pinky finger has sharp teeth is more than 200 million years old 8

9 Answer Key The following are suggestions students will find other answers! Is bigger than my body o Giraffe o Moose o Warthog o Caribou o Hippopotamus o Bovid (cows, bison) May be found on the beach o Barnacles o Green crab o Varnish clam o Echinoderms (sea stars, sand dollars, sea cucumbers) Provides food for humans o Fruits (apricots) o Fennel o Carrots o Oyster mushroom o Herbs (oregano, thyme, sage) Is smaller than my pinky finger o Beetle o Bees o Flies o Grasshopper o Seed bugs o Aquatic insects Has sharp teeth o Atlantic wolf fish o Great white shark o Tigerfish o Catfish Is more than 200 million years old o Paper clam fossils o Mesosaurus reptile o Echinoid fossils o Coral reef fossils o Theropoda Additional Resources: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? (1996) Bill Martin Jr. & Eric Carle Baby Bear Sees Blue (2012) Ashley Wolff 9

10 Smell Activity: What s That Smell? Ideal for Grades: K-3 Appropriate for Grades: K-3 Materials Needed: Scent table materials: different dried and fresh flowers and herbs, scent jars, blindfolds Activity Categories: pre-visit, post-visit This is a great pre-visit activity that can be used to make connections between sense of smell and the environment. Before visiting the Beaty museum, set up a scent table in your classroom based on some of the different plant specimens that can be found in the herbarium collection. A scent table can easily be set up by collecting different plants and herbs found in your garden or kitchen. Some examples that can be found in the museum include: Lavender Sage Cinnamon Sweet fennel Thyme Cinnamon These items should be sealed in an airtight container or jar and should be covered so that students can only use their sense of smell. Opaque spice jars work really well for this. If you use liquids, try soaking a cotton ball or piece of paper towel in the liquid, then place it in a jar. This will prevent spills and keep all of your jars looking the same. You may have students wear blindfolds to enhance their sense of smell. Have students smell the different jars and make predictions about what each scent is. Generate discussion around what the scent reminds students of or how each scent makes them feel. Additional Resources: Mo Smells Green (2009) Margaret Hyde 10

11 Smell Activity: Did You Know Ideal for Grades: K-3 Appropriate for Grades: K-3 Materials Needed: None Activity Categories: pre-visit, post-visit, pheromones Unlike humans, not all animals (mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, worms, molluscs, insects, and others) use their nose in order to detect smell. They use different parts of the body, including the tongue and skin to smell. Some animals and insects also produce pheromones, which are the chemical marks left behind by a species to defend itself, attract, or communicate with other species. Here are some interesting facts about how some species found at the Beaty museum use their sense of smell and, even more fascinating, what they can smell like: Snakes detect smell by using their tongue to pick up scent particles in the air. Sharks are extraordinary sniffers; some species can detect a drop of blood in the ocean from a mile away. Snails detect smells through their skin. A cyanide millipede secretes a cyanide compound to defend itself, which smell like almond extract. A leather star, a kind of North American starfish, has a distinctive smell of garlic. Kiwi birds have nostrils at the tip of their long beak; they tap the ground with their breaks in order to smell food and prey located under soil. Do you remember other smell-related facts from your visit to the museum? 11

12 Closing Activity: Create Your Own Super Sensing Species Ideal for Grades: K-3 Appropriate for Grades: K-3 Materials Needed: Activity template Activity Categories: post-visit activity, wrap-up activity As humans, we use our mouths to eat, our ears to hear, and our noses to smell. As we have learned, other species use their senses entirely different and some even exponentially surpass the ability of human senses. Grasshoppers, for example, detect sound through their abdomen; crickets use their front legs. A dragonfly s eye can contain up to 30,000 lenses, which would be considered superpowers by any human standards. For this closure activity, students will conclude their five senses inquiry by creating their own unique super sensing species. Their species must be able to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, but can do so in any capacity. It can be a mammal, a reptile, an insect, or a combination of many species! Perhaps it has giant nostrils on its feet it uses to smell with, or several eyes on its body it uses to see. Maybe it has the particular super sense of a jewel beetle and can detect fire, or that of a silvertip grizzly bear and can smell prey from 28 kilometres away. Students will give their super species a name and can also discuss how this species would adapt in a particular ecosystem or environment. Full-size worksheets are included at the end of this package. My Super-Sensing Species My species name: Special super sense(s): 12

13 Herbivore: Grasshopper

14 Omnivore: Black Bear

15 Carnivore: Owl

17 Draw a specimen that feels... smooth rough hard soft furry

18 Draw a specimen that looks like it feels... smooth rough hard soft furry

19 I spy with my little eye, something that... is bigger than my body may be found on the beach provides food for humans is smaller than my pinky finger has sharp teeth is more than 200 million years old

20 My Super-Sensing Species My species name: Special super sense(s):

Animals WORKSHEET 3.1 Animals

Animals WORKSHEET 3.1 Animals 1. Are these sentences true or false? Correct the false ones. a) A butterfly is a non-living thing. b) Water is a non-living thing. c) Living things are born, die, reproduce