Primary eNews – Sept 3, 2021

Preschool Senses Exploration
Preschool students began their learning journey this year by exploring the theme “Who We Are” with the central idea “Discovering who we are can help us connect with new situations.” To start with, the students were exploring their personal identity; their name, age, favorite things, and their family. We have talked about how our personal identity is different from others which makes us very unique. 

Another important aspect in discovering who we are is to know about our body and what it can do. We did various activities to help us recognize our body parts; played games, sang some songs, danced, and read books about our body parts. The inquiry continued to some parts of our body that help us to understand the world around us which is our FIVE SENSES!

We brainstormed our background knowledge on senses by answering some provocative questions and watching educational videos related to the topic. The students found out that five senses help humans discover the world around them, they are; eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and hands (skin). The inquiry went further when the students did some exploration using their senses. They went to a dark room to explore their sense of sight, “In the darkness, I cannot see. But when the light is on, it feels good, I can see my room very clear” (Nina). With their eyes, the students played the “I Spy” game to find something that is colorful, big/small, up/down, shiny around their house. 

The students have explored the hearing senses by listening to different sounds and deciding what sound that is and if it is loud or soft. They also did listen and move games with simple musical instruments to see how the ears and brain work together. 

The next sense that they have explored is the sense of smell, they have got some things to smell and discussed it with their family. “It’s cinnamon!” (Tage). The students found out that some smells can be really familiar to them, but some others are just new for them. The students were so excited when they got to taste some foods that their family had prepared with their sense of taste. They were risk-takers and tried the foods with different tastes while closing their eyes. They learned that they might like or dislike the taste of some foods but it’s always good to try it so the brain could learn different flavors. “It’s lemon..sour. It’s chili..spicy..yuckk! (Isabelle). 

Last but not least, the students were exploring the sense of touch. They played a feely bag game, where the family put materials in a bag or box and the students had to take one and feel it. They need to describe how it feels and what it reminds them of. “This is soft, my blanket is soft. (Nina) This is prickly, this brush is prickly. (Isabelle). The students were having so much fun exploring their five senses. 

After all of the explorations, the students were discussing how the senses send information to the brain so the brain could learn new things and help our body to react accordingly. They also found out that senses work together to help them learn about the world. Our body and our senses are AMAZING!

Having a good understanding of the senses and how they help us to learn new information, the students will then use their senses to collect information whenever they are in a new situation. The teachers will introduce different situations that the students might go to and model the use of senses to help them to adapt with those situations.  

Counselor corner

Visit this website weekly for new counseling information.

I have updated the site this week with Digital Citizenship resources for families. There are links for different age groups. Starting from Kindergarten to G12.

All these resources are from CommonSense Media

See you there!