3. Five Senses Go on Safari.

Lesson at a glance: Scientists use all their senses to observe and collect data. Students will learn how to use their five senses to work like scientists.

Goal: Students will be able to use their four out of five senses (not taste) to make observations about the schoolyard habitat.

Oregon Content Standards:

Science

K.3 Scientific Inquiry: Science explores the natural world through observation.

K.3S.2 Make observations about the natural world.

Other Content Areas

Writing

Materials:

Safari hats (optional)

Clipboard and pencils

Observation Sheets (page 71 of Project Wild)

Time: 30 minutes

Activity:

Preteach:

1. What Do Scientists Do? Big Book

2. Five Senses

3. Scientists observe the natural world with all their senses

Activity:

1. Go outside and have students sit in a circle facing you. Ask students what their five senses are, and have them point to their eyes, their nose, their mouth, the ears, and their hands.

2. Remind students that scientists use all their senses when observing, except their mouth. There are things that are dangerous to eat, so scientists don’t taste things.

3. Have students close their eyes and turn around to face the other direction. Let them listen quietly for a minute, with their eyes closed. When a minute is up, discuss what they heard. Discuss what was natural and what was un-natural in what they heard.

4. Again, have them close their eyes and turn around to face the other direction. Let them smell quietly for a minute. When a minute is up, discuss what they smelled. Discuss what they might have smelled if they were closer to things. Discuss what was natural and what was un-natural in what they smelled.

5. Finally, have students face outside the circle, have them close their eyes and open them. Have students share the first thing they saw and categorize it as natural or man-made.

6. Continue with the Matching Cards Scavenger Hunt.

Extensions:

1. Take a Sound Walk outside. Every once in a while, stop the group and have children close their eyes. Ask them to raise a finger every time they hear a new sound. How many new sounds did they hear? Can they hear better with their eyes closed? Which sounds were natural and which un-natural? Now do a Smell Walk or a Touch Walk.

2. Do this activity again, this time inside the school. Compare which animals live inside and which live outside. Make a Venn Diagram.

3. Have your class write a Wildlife Is Everywhere! book. Have each student draw a picture of an animal they saw and write where they saw it and what it was doing. Bind it together into a book.

Craft Project:

Homemade binoculars. With two toilet paper tubes, masking tape, yarn, and a hole punch, students can build their own pair of binoculars. Afterward making these, go outside and use them to look for wildlife!

Imaginative Play:

Create a jeep out of a large box with paper plate steering wheel construction paper tires, and so on. Have students make homemade binoculars, canteens or water bottles, toy cameras, compasses, pencils, and vests with lots of pockets. Invite children to go on a pretend journey into the wood to find wild animals.