The 5 Senses.....of Christmas!

This week we had tons of fun exploring our five senses with a festive twist.  On Monday, it was all about using our sense of sight to spy all the new Christmas decorations in the room.  There were snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, a tall white tree, and A little elf, who the students named Pearl. 

The next day, the students used their sense of touch to figure out what was inside the mystery box. They wrote in their journals about what they felt and guessed what it was. There were two things - something soft and something hard. Afterward, I revealed a tiny pair of fuzzy mittens and a metal sleigh. 

The students went on a smelling hunt on Wednesday, The classroom was filled with a cinnamon scent. The students had to use their sniffers to find out what it was. It wasn't the spaceman....

It was scented pine cones!

On Thursday, the students had to hone their listening skills to find the student with the same shaker sound. Each student was given an old metal film canister that had something rattling inside (beads, or pennies, or rice, etc). They walked around, listening to one another's shakers, deciding if they had the same pitch and fullness of sound. It was difficult to find a match- but once they had, we opened up the canisters to see if they indeed had the same item inside. 

Then on Friday, we had the mother of all sense experiments - a candy taste test! The students looked at 3 different candies: Red Hots, dark chocolate mint M&Ms, and sour candy spray - except they weren't told what they were.  They made a guess on how they would taste based on sight alone. We recorded our guesses on a chart and tasted them one by one.

As you can see from the guessing - they were all surprised when the spice, the mint, and the sourness set in!

Sophia's reaction when eating the red hot.

Liberty getting a dose of the sour spray candy

Later that day, the students got a treat they were more familiar with: candy canes. We described the way it looked, felt, smelled, tasted, and sounded. 

Then the students write about the five senses of candy canes in their journals. 

Most of our centers had something to do with the five senses and Christmas as well.  Instead of building in the block center, the students trimmed the Christmas tree. 

In the fine motor/sensory center, the students got to use their sense of touch and smell to cut out "cookies." There is a great recipe I found - 1 cup conditioner and 2 cups corn starch, for a wonderful smelling and super soft play dough. Make it at home on a snow day (which we're bound to have a few of) to provide your child with hours of fun. 

In the word work center, the students used either a special jingly pen or a jumbo sized Christmas pencil to roll and write -at words. 

The students built teen numbers by putting marshmallows into mugs of hot chocolate in one of the math centers.

And in the other math center, the concept of measurement was introduced using Christmas items and pop cubes. The students first measured, then recorded their measurements on a corresponding worksheet.

Finally, in the writing center, the students chose from a bulletin board filled with toy catalogue clippings to write letters to Santa.

The pop cubes, ball ornaments, and marshmallows have also been a great way to introduce 3D shapes. We learned the "3D shapes are FAT not FLAT." There's a whole poem we'll add on to that starting next week. But this week, we watched this music video on youtube to learn the names of five 3D shapes: sphere, cylinder, cube, cone, and pyramid. 

In literacy, we began learning the first of 3 digraphs: /ch/, /sh/, and /th/. This week was all about /ch/. The students learned the "cha- cha" chant to help reinforce the sound.  

With all of this rain, we've had to get pretty creative with our indoor recess. The students have been dancing to "Santa Clones" which is hilarious to watch. Here's the AM class getting down. 

To go along with the 5 senses unit this week, we played "Marco... Polo," except we've been saying "Merry...Christmas." But even these fun games don't beat good old outdoor recess. So let's all pray for nice weather next week!

For the grand finale on Fun Friday (along with all the taste-testing activities) we made cinnamon-dough ornaments. Mrs. Taylor mixed the ingredients in front of the students - lots of cinnamon, some applesauce, and Elmers glue. Then the students chose their cookie cutter and made their own ornament. These should be dry enough to take home Monday or Tuesday.