“Letter A is for APPLES Week” is next!

Hello all,

Five Senses Week was SENSE-ational! Each day of the week, the students practiced using a different sense in some really creative and very fun ways!

On Monday, the teachers introduced each of the five senses – Sight, Hearing, Taste, Touch, and Smell! The teachers explained that by using these senses, we learn and understand everything around us. For their morning work on Monday, the students investigated the body’s sense of sight by creating a pair of colorful binoculars! During the afternoon on Monday, the students continued their sense of Sight exploration as they played a school-wide game of ISpy (using their binoculars, of course).

The sense of study on Tuesday was TOUCH! For their morning work, the students worked in teams at the Mystery Box Station! To help build the students’ descriptive word vocabulary, the teachers placed different textured objects in paper bags. The students had to reach a hand in – without peeking – and describe what the item felt like – i.e. smooth, bumpy, hard, soft, etc. After describing the item, the students were then able to venture a guess as to what the item was. Most of the guesses were on the right track while others were a bit far fetched. For instance, cotton stuffing was mistaken for a cloud and another student kept saying, “It feels like a hand!” 🙂 In the afternoon, the students worked together to classify certain items into the appropriate texture category. The categories included: soft, hard, bumpy, and smooth.

Wednesday was all about a very exciting sense – TASTE! The students could hardly wait to get started on their morning work when they heard that they would be taste-testing a variety of foods including: strawberries, limes, cocoa powder and pretzels. After each taste, the students practiced identifying the various classifications of taste, i.e. sweet (strawberries), sour (limes), bitter (cocoa powder), and salty (pretzels). Some of the words the students used as taste descriptors were actually more like texture descriptors, i.e. “Pretzels taste crunchy”. The teachers explained the difference between fruity taste and squishy texture but it actually proved an important point that all of our senses are meant to work together! Needless to say, the tasting proved to be very enjoyable for the students… well, all except “bitter” that is 🙂 In the afternoon, the students brainstormed a list of foods that fell into each taste classification category.

Things really got “shaking” on Thursday as the students made their very own maracas to explore the sense of sound! The tiny percussion instruments were created using plastic egg shells, tiny spoons, tiny noodles, and some tape! In order to give their maracas a more personal touch, the students used assorted nail paint to decorate and design their maraca to their liking! The maracas were set aside to dry. Once the maracas had dried, the fun (and music) began!

Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Photo Printing

Speaking of music, later in the afternoon the students participated in a musical technology presentation all about their sense of hearing! The presentation was called, “Guess that Sound” and the objective was for the students to correctly identify which instrument and sound effect they heard. With the computer turned around and the volume cranked up, the teachers played several short audio clips for the students – including violin, harmonica, flute, drums, saxophone, trumpet, piano, and guitar. The sound effects featured were a car horn, ambulance siren, a bee buzzing, laughter, loud chewing, and whistling. The students had a blast trying to pinpoint the sound and dancing to the tunes!

Seeing how much the students enjoyed playing “Guess that Sound”, the teachers created “Guess that Smell” for morning work on Friday! With assorted items in little cups with lids, the teachers called the students over in pairs. For the most part, the students enjoyed smelling all of the items- except for coffee! They were all in agreement that coffee grounds smelled quite “yicky” (a combination of yucky and icky). Below is the picture of two students attempting to “Guess that Smell”.

Later in the afternoon, the students created a list of things that smell yummy and things that smell yucky! As you can probably imagine, the yucky list became pretty silly and certainly included coffee! Here is what else the students came up with.

Wow! The students had such a great time learning about the five senses and how they all work together to help us learn about the world around us! As always, thank you for reading and have a wonderful and safe weekend!

-PPA

Reminders:

Next Upcoming School Closing:

Monday, October 14th

Observation of Columbus Day

Upcoming School Events:

PPA Pumpkin Picking and Decorating Party

Friday, October 11th

(2:00-3:00 p.m.)

All PPA students and parents are welcome to attend this event.

Aftercare is not available.

School Picture Day

Friday, October 18th

ALL STUDENTS (regardless of enrollment schedule) should arrive by 8:45 a.m. Individual portraits and class photographs will be taken. Students who do not attend school on Fridays (2 dayers) will be picked up before lunch at 11:45 a.m. Students who attend school on Friday will stay for the full school day.

PPA Halloween Party

Thursday, October 31st