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Tomato Exploration
Create tomatoes in 15-20 minutes using this fun and interactive lesson plan! Learners listen to a book about tomatoes (recommendations listed), and focus on the vocabulary word tomato. They count the syllables...
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Sounds Like Christmas, Exploring Hearing
Students see that the sense of hearing helps us learn from each other through communication. Also, students explain that sound can produce patterns. They engage in a wide variety of activities that focus on the sense of hearing.
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Making Observations and Generating Hypotheses
Students practice how to approach a problem scientifically.  They use their senses to make a detailed description of a natural object and to generate hypotheses about the identity and features of the object hidden within a box.
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Oceans: A Sensory Haiku
Students create an ocean haiku. In this haiku instructional activity, students use their five senses to write a haiku. Students watch videos about the ocean, make a sensory portrait, and create a class haiku.
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Descriptive Writing
Students discuss the importance of using adjectives in writing. They separate into five groups, each group is given a bag with an object inside to describe using just one sense. They write a description of a Hershey's Kiss using adjectives.
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Color Poems
Students describe colors. In this descriptive writing lesson, students brainstorm color descriptions using all of the senses except sight. Students write poems including similes, sensory images, and interesting word choice. Examples are...
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Melt Away
Students explore objects before and after heating using their senses.  In this matter and energy lesson, students experiment with a variety of objects and use their senses (except taste) to make predictions and record observations...
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Summer Activities: Our Amazing Bodies
Learners use the body as a sensory laboratory to explore their five senses, heartbeat, bones, and even size. In this early childhood science lesson, students build science and critical thinking skills as they take part in up to 6...
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The Magic School Bus Goes Upstream
Students learn along with Ms. Frizzle's class. In this Magic School Bus lesson plan, students travel upstream to discover how, like salmon, a homey smell can lead them, too.
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Taste Buds
Students investigate taste buds. In this taste buds lesson, students identify the four basic taste buds and their locations on our tongue. Students participate in an experiment to investigate how our taste buds work.
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My Favorite Thing
Young scholars write about their favorite thing using all five senses, where possible.
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Sensory Details
Students observe their environment and write detailed, sensory-specific sentences about that environment.  This lesson can be extended to include the creation of a personalized story or movie of the experience (student examples are...
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Chocolate Taste-Testing: Introduction to Loco for Cocoa
Students compare chocolates using their five senses and determine the value of the chocolate. In this chocolate lesson, students sample various types of chocolate. Students study the price per ounce of each bar to complete the...
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The Magic School Bus Makes a Stink
Students learn along with Ms. Frizzle's class. In this Magic School Bus lesson plan, students discover the secret to what makes things smell through their own investigations.
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Contaminated Drinking Water
Learners predict, experiment, and draw conclusions about the safety of drinking water. In this ecology lesson, students participate in an experiment to determine if they can taste or see contamination in drinking water. Data is collected...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Fraction Strips
Students explore number sense by participating in a class fraction game. In this number value lesson, students utilize strips of paper with fractions written on them and conduct a trivia game in which teams challenge each other. Students...
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Lesson Plan: Before and After a Moment in Time
Think about a moment, frozen in time. Now take a critical look at the painting, Better, Homes, Better Gardens. This painting works to provide learners the opportunity to analyze art, critique artist's choices, and write a story inspired...
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Anne Frank: One of Hundreds of Thousands
Students conduct research to put Anne Frank's diary into historical context. They use maps, timelines, essays and websites to examine the early victories of the German army, paying special attention to the Netherlands and experiences of...
California Academy of Science
Color Vision Genetics Evolution Simulation
At one point, all mammals carried only two color receptors, but now most humans carry three. An informative presentation and hands-on activity demonstrate how this evolved through genetics. By participating in the activity, pupils...
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Sense-sational
Students investigate the five senses. They participate in the lesson for one week with each day devoted to one sense being sight, taste, sound, smell, and touch. They also cover the concept of being part of a global community where one...
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Penny and Cup Game
Students study the human body and their five senses by participating in a penny cup game. In this human senses lesson, students test their monocular and binocular vision by completing a penny drop experiment.
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I Can See You
Second graders explore living without sight. In this senses lesson, 2nd graders review the different senses and what they use for each sense. Students discuss what it would be like to not be able to see and they read a story about a...
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Can You Guess The Flavor?
Second graders conduct a tasting experiment. In this senses lesson, 2nd graders read The Five Senses and brainstorm different tastes. They work in pairs, one blindfolded and the other recording. The blindfolded student eats one skittle...
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What is it? Sally Smells!
Students explore the attributes of the human nose. In this 5 senses lesson, students participate in a smell guessing game prior to discussing the anatomy of the nose and creating a sense of smell book page.