Using all of our senses

This week, we have been exploring nature using all of our senses. First, we talked about what we can see, hear, smell, taste and feel. I asked Betty what we use to see, hear and smell, etc. so that the children could think about the body parts that are used to ‘sense’ the world around them. This led into a song of ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.’ Obviously.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Self-Awareness

Sight

First, we explored the garden using magnifying glasses so that we could look in detail at the things that interested them. Betty took some pictures on my phone of things that she liked the look of and we used our little book of plants to identify some of the plants in the garden. We looked carefully at patterns on leaves and petals and we collected up lots of interesting things, including stones, flowers and a snail shell.

We played ‘I Spy’ using colours – ‘I spy, with my little eye, something green!’  Then we sorted all of the interesting things that we’d found into colours. I labelled some empty plastic containers so that the children could sort them (Literacy - Boom!). They tried to find more things to put in their containers. Finally, we counted the items in each container and discovered that there were more green things in our garden than any other colours.

Physical Development: Moving and Handling

 Mathematics: Numbers

Mathematics: Shape, Space and Measure

Understanding the World: The World

Literacy: Reading

Be warned - Don't leave your favourite pens out after making the labels or the children might use them to do some art and design work! 

Sound

We went into the garden to listen and discuss what we could hear. We could hear an aeroplane so we decided to do some more counting and counted how many aeroplanes we could hear in five minutes. We must live under a flight path because we counted eight.

Next we created our own musical instruments using things we could find in the garden. We formed a band. It sounded terrible.

Here’s some of the ‘musical instruments’ that we made:

• -          tapping stones together,
• -          We put different things into plastic bottles, such as stones, mud and grass to create shakers,
• -          banging sticks together and banging plastic bottles with sticks

Mathematics: Numbers

Communication & Language: Listening and Attention

Expressive Arts & Design: Exploring and Using Media and Materials

Smell

We walked around the garden trying to find things that we liked the smell of. Then, we made some ‘Eau du Jardin’ in the mud kitchen using flowers and herbs from the garden.

Expressive Arts & Design: Exploring and Using Media and Materials

Expressive Arts and Design: Being Imaginative

Mathematics: Shape, Space and Measure

 Taste

We have been fruit picking. I advised the children to ensure that the fruit had been checked and washed before they ate it – advice which they immediately ignored. Aside from copious amounts of strawberries and raspberries, the children tasted tayberries (a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry), gooseberries, red currants, blackcurrants and peas.

We also had a nibble of the herbs in my kitchen which didn’t go down quite as well as the fruit! But, Betty helped me to make a delicious herby soup which we all enjoyed eating. I simply fried some spring onions and peeled, chopped potatoes. Then we added some stock and boiled until the potatoes were soft. We blended up the mixture with a handful of mixed herbs - we used mint, basil, coriander and parsley - and bit of cream.

Physical Development: Moving & Handling

Physical Development: Health & Self-care

Touch

First of all, we talked about different textures that we can find outside. I set a little scavenger hunt asking the children to find something smooth, something prickly, something rough and something soft.

We are really lucky to live near to somewhere that has a barefoot walk but we decided to make our own in the garden! We used empty trays and washing up bowls and filled them with different materials. We used mud, stones and grass. Then we walked on each one barefoot, spending a lot of time talking about and describing how each one felt on our feet.

Language & Communication: Speaking

Language & Communication: Understanding

Expressive Arts & Design: Exploring and Using Media and Materials