Our Five Senses

One of my favorite things to teach is my Five Senses unit. I'm not really sure why it's my favorite, it just is. Here is a rundown of things we did:

Books

Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, and Smell  by Pamela Hill Nettleton
This is actually part of a series called "The Amazing Body" which also has a book for each sense (which, unfortunately are OOP but they are at my local library so maybe you can find them there!). I love the illustrations and the simplicity of its explanation.
Sniff Sniff: A Book About Smell by Dana Meachen Rau
Look: A Book About Sight by Dana Meachen Rau
Yum: A Book About Taste by Dana Meachen Rau
Shhh...: I Book About Hearing by Dana Meachen Rau
Soft and Smooth, Rough and Bumpy by Dana Meachen Rau



My Five Senses by Aliki

Aliki has some great books for the preschool crowd. I love the illustrations in this book too. It's a simple read that provides a great introduction and overview to what the senses are.






Science
Five senses just lend themselves to some great science activities. The kids can really start exploring their world and learning how to express and describe their surroundings.

Taste Test
I had parents bring in a package of Oreos and Chips Ahoy and their generic counterparts. I cut the cookies in half and we had a blind taste test. We also graphed our results. I love how even preschoolers know that there is no suitable stand-in for Oreo. Click here for our graph chart.

Salt or Sugar?

I put salt in one container (in this case a baggie) and sugar in another and we used our senses to see if we could figure out which is which. I don't remember where I found the idea, but I found the idea for a chart here. You can download my chart here.

Sensory Balloons
I filled about 8 pairs of balloons filled with different things -- macaroni noodles, beans, flour, rice, etc. -- and let the kids feel them and try to match them up. They Used a lot of words like rough (salt) and bumpy (beans) and soft (flour). It also gives them a chance to use their critical thinking skills to match them up together.

Art
Touch and Feel City
We sorted cotton balls, craft foam, sand paper, and felt in to buildings based on how they felt. They got great fine motor practice picking the items up and they got to practice using their glue bottles.

Smelly Paint

I mixed flavor extracts/Essential Oils into paint (peppermint for red, cherry for pink, and orange for orange) and they got to paint with it. This is tricky because the extracts are oily and I found that there was a line I was treading between having enough extract to overpower the paint smell and not having so much that it ended up all runny. (In the past I've used Kool-Aid for this activity but found it bubbled up a lot. I like using the extracts/EOs.)

I Have Five Senses

This is an alteration of this Pinspiration. They used large googly eyes, a peppermint candy, Twizzler's Pull n Peel, jingle bells, and sand paper to show each sense. I also had them add hair this year. Super cute!!

So that's what we did this week. Next up: Creepy Crawlies!!

Beginning of School

We start school in the middle of August here in the Midwest. I have no idea why. I don't think we've started after Labor Day since I was in early elementary school (early 90s...). So I have actually been in school now for 2 weeks.

I teach preschool in a childcare setting, so we're open year-round. I'm completely jealous of all you teachers who get a few weeks to organize a room before your new kids come. I get 6 hours. No joke. Our kids go home on a Thursday, we clean till like midnight (I was done at 8:30, thank you very much), have some PD on Friday, and on Monday we start with our new kids. Although, I am thankful that I don't have to pack everything up in May every year. That is nice...

So here are a few of my back-to-school things I did (not student related) to prep and welcome my kids.

My favorite is my bulletin board. I wish I could take credit for it, but I actually found the idea for it in this Buzzfeed article.

I found a cowboy hat in our toy closet and took their photo with the most grimacing look they could give. Some of them did a great job! Then I took their photos and added them to a Wanted poster and thought up clever, outlaw-esque names for them. I cut the letters out on my Cricut.

(Side note... my bulletin board is painted. All of ours are. It's great because I don't have to worry about the hassle of paper or fabric all year!)

It was time to do some rearranging from last year as well. Here is a shot of my room at the beginning of last year. I put together the room from scratch, which is why it seems so EMPTY. I filled it in a lot over the year, but that space next to my desk was bugging me. It really WAS empty. 

So I moved a shelf that was on my stage next to the closet over there and guess what? It.fit.perfectly. I mean, like a glove.

Good thing, too, because the owner of my school made a kitchen and a light table for me and they needed to go on my stage.

(Psst... For a full classroom tour, check out my Classroom link!)

September Currently

Well, I still have yet to make an actual post on here, but I thought I'd just jump in feet first into the teacher blogging world with September's Currently (via Oh Boy 4th Grade). I've seen these in the blogs that I've followed for years, so I'm actually kind of excited to participate for the first time.

LISTENING: Once Upon a Time is one of my favorite shows (I'm a sucker for all things fairy tale) and I'm binge watching in anticipation of the 4th season beginning at the end of the month.

LOVING: My blog design. It's what I spent most of my Labor Day doing and I am very very proud of it. =) 

THINKING: I need to do a post on my first week or two of school. I love the new year and the possibilities it brings. 

WANTING: I inherited my grandmother's car when she died in December. It's a ten year old car with less than 55,000 miles on it; we expect to get a good chunk of cash off of it.

NEEDING: I have most things prepped, but I have a few more things to make sure I have printed; I also have to make sure I have Wednesday prepped because it's my day off. (I teach in a childcare setting; my school is open 6:30-6 and I work four 10-hour days and I'm off on Wednesdays.)

3 TRIPS: I'm going to Spain in March (as long as we sell our extra car!!), hubs and I are headed to New York at the end of the month, and I really would like to return to Costa Rica (we went there last summer on a mission trip).

I guess I should go and get to prepping now...

Hello

Hello! My name is Jessica. I am a Midwest girl, born and raised in Missouri. My husband and I live outside of St. Louis with our two cats; no kids for us yet, but they are definitely in our long-term goals! In the meantime, I have been teaching preschool (2's, Pre-K, and now 4's) since 2010. I love that every day is new, and my kids are so full of life and excitement to learn.

I'm not exactly sure what I plan on doing with this blog just yet, so stay tuned; I'm sure it will be a fun adventure!

Me and my husband Jerome in Florida for our fifth anniversary, March 2014.

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