Preschool Co-Op #2: Our Five Senses

This month it was our turn to host the preschool co-op. We worked on learning about our five senses. I had three "stations" somewhat set up. Our first activity was to read My Five Senses by Aliki. This book is too cute, and really simplifies the concept of our five senses for little ones. Then we practiced our sense of smell. I had about 6 film canisters, each with a different scent inside of it. For example, one had coffee, one had a cotton ball soaked in vanilla, another had a cotton ball soaked in vinegar, one had shaved candle pieces in it that smelled like rose, one had garlic powder, etc. The kids found that interesting. You could definitely tell which smells the kids enjoyed and which ones they didn't like at all. haha.

The next activity was about our sense of hearing. I read a book about a boy who heard a mouse in the house. It had a lot of sound words in it. Then we did an activity where I had a few plastic eggs set up with various objects inside that would make different sounds. Lined up on the table were small paper cups that held duplicates of the objects. The kids had to listen to each egg being shook, and guess which material was inside. The objects were: a bell, marbles, rice, and cotton. They guessed each and every one right! They really enjoyed this activity and did really well. Afterwards, I brought out more of the little bells and they each got one to shake and listen to.

Then we moved to the sense of touch. We did a craft activity where we traced the kids' hands and then they glued different precut textures onto the fingertips of their hands. There was cotton, plastic, sandpaper, fuzzy fabric, and a piece of sponge. They seemed to like this activity as well.

Our next activity was for our sense of taste. I brought out paper cups with different items for the kids to taste. One was a lemon (sour), one had sugar (sweet), one had premade and cooled coffee (bitter), and the last was a chip (salty.) They got to taste each one and again, you could definitely tell which tastes the kids preferred. =)

Then we all had lunch and free play. The kids really seemed to enjoy everything, and I'm surprised that their attention held for so long. The reason I had preplanned so many activities was in case they got bored with one activity, then we could just move on to the next, but surprisingly they finished each and every one of them.

Since I was running all the activities, I didn't get to take any pictures. These I borrowed and cropped from another mom.