Science Senses Unit Plan

Critical Inquiry Question

How do our senses help us explore, investigate and understand the world around
us?

Introduction

Students develop an awareness of their own senses and how they are used. They learn
that each of their senses provides information about particular aspects of our
environment; and that, together, the senses enable us to know things and do things that
we would not otherwise be able to do, or at least not as easily. Students learn about the
function of their senses, how they are cared for, how they could be damaged and how
one's own ability to sense things may differ from those of other people and other living
things. Through this topic, students learn to sharpen the use of their senses and
describe as accurately as possible the information that their senses provide.

Outcomes

GLE’s
Students will:
1-9 Use the senses to make general and specific observations, and communicate
observations orally and by producing captioned pictures.
1-10 Describe the role of the human senses and the senses of other living things,
in enabling perception and action.

SLE’s
Students will:
1. Identify each of the senses, and explain how we use our senses in interpreting
the world. How it helps us learn
2. Identify ways that our senses contribute to our safety and quality of life. How it
keeps us safe
3. Apply particular senses to identify and describe objects or materials provided and
to describe living things and environments. Students meeting this expectation will
be able to describe characteristics, such as colour, shape, size, texture, smell
and sound. Apply the senses
4. Recognize the limitations of our senses, and identify situations where our senses
can mislead us; e.g., feeling hot or cold, optical illusions, tasting with a plugged
nose. Limitations of senses
 5. Recognize that other living things have senses, and identify ways that various
animals use their senses; e.g., sensing danger, finding food, recognizing their
own young, recognizing a potential mate. Animal Senses
6. Describe ways that people adapt to limited sensory abilities or to the loss of a
particular sense; e.g., colour blindness, inability to see objects at close range.
Adapting
7. Describe ways to take care of our sensory organs, in particular, our eyes and
ears. Taking Care of our senses

I can Statements
I can statements and enduring understandings will be on an anchor chart in the
class and we will constantly refer back to these throughout our lessons.

I can use my senses to tell, draw or write about the world around me.

I can tell why senses of people and other living things help us.

Important to know or do:

Identify each of the senses, and explain how we use our senses in interpreting the world.
Identify ways that our senses contribute to our safety and quality of life.
Apply particular senses to identify and describe objects or materials provided and to describe living things and
environments.
Recognize the limitations of our senses, and identify situations where our senses can mislead us; e.g. feeling hot
or cold, optical illusions, tasting with a plugged nose.
Describe ways to take care of our sensory organs, in particular, our eyes and ears.

Worth being familiar with:

Recognize that other living things have senses, and identify ways that various animals use their senses; e.g.
sensing danger, finding food, recognizing their own young, recognizing a potential mate.
Describe ways that people adapt to limited sensory abilities or to the loss of a particular sense; e.g. colour
blindness, inability to see objects at close range.

I can ask questions to find out information.

Enduring Understandings:
There are five senses. They are smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing.
Our senses help us understand our bodies, learn what they need and keep us safe.
Our senses help us learn about the people, places, objects and environment around us.
Some people have disabilities that impact their senses.
We experience and interact with the world differently when our senses, such as vision
or hearing, are impaired.

Tentative Timeline
March 5-April 25

Lessons
*Start every class with a riddle that has to do with the five senses

I am green, I am smooth, I am small. I can make loud noises? What am I? Frog

I am red, I am round, I am juicy? What am I? Apple
I am many colors, I am a semi circle, I am big? Rainbow
I am orange, I am hot, I smell smoky? Fire
I am square, I am cold, I can melt? Ice cube

Or
Look at the picture. Tell me about the picture using your five senses (Formative
Assessment) Can students use the five senses to tell about the world around them?

Lesson 1: Introduction to the Five Senses

SLE 1
Essential Question: What are the five senses? How do we use our senses?
Objective: Students will be able to identify the five sense and how we use them.
Information: You use your senses everyday. Without them you wouldn’t know what is
going on. Your senses work together to let your brain know what is going on around
you. They help to keep you safe by warning you of any danger. We use sight to see
the beautiful things around us. We have smell to smell maybe a dangerous gas leak,
smell if something is burning. Hearing to socialize, have conversation with others.
Touch it is important to know if something is hot or cold, sharp etc. Taste what is bad
for us what is good for us.
Senses help you learn about the world.
Activity:
Ask Students: What are the five senses? Which body part does it use?

Create chart as class.

Ask students what are some things you can see, hear, taste, touch….Add to chart
Learn the Five Senses Song by Jean Feldman verse 1
Worksheet Master 1 EPS: How do you make sense activity?
Closure: How many senses do we have? Why do we have senses? What are the five
senses?
Assessment: This will show me that students can identify how we use the five senses.
Students can match our senses with a variety of situations where we use them.
*Go on a Nature Walk-Pinterest: Can do this during PE time as well

Lesson 2: Messages to the Brain

SLE 1
Review: on whiteboards have students draw/write the sense that corresponds with the
body part. What do our eyes help us do? What do our ears help us do? What does our
tongue help us do? What do our noses help us do? What does our skin/hands help us
do?
Sing song: 2nd verse as well as it is about the brain
Essential Question: Where do your senses send information?
Objective: Students will understand that the brain plays an important part in helping us
learn about the world.
Information: Messages along nerves to the brain. Instantly the brain interprets the
messages and then lets your body know what to do. When a message comes into the
brain from anywhere in the body, the brain tells the body how to react. For example, if
you accidentally touch a hot stove, the nerves in your skin shoot a message of pain to
your brain. The brain then sends a message back telling the muscles in your hand to
pull away. Luckily, this neurological relay race takes a lot less time than it just took to
read about it.
Activity: Messages to the Brain EPS 4 and 5
Do brain worksheet
Closure: Where do your senses send information?
Assessment: Can students identify the five senses?

Lesson 3: Danger!
SLE 2
Essential Question: Do our senses help keep us safe?
Objective: Students will be able to identify ways that our senses keep us safe.
Activity
Brainstorm with students real life situations that are potentially dangerous
Discuss safety rules that are important and how our senses warn us of danger
Master 4 EPS/ Sensing Danger page 29
Closure: How does the sense of ______keep you safe? Example: can smell a fire, can
feel if water is too hot… Use examples on page 50 of Assessment Book
Assessment: Master 4 EPS-whether students can identify ways that our senses keep us
safe.

Lesson 4: A Touching Experience

Objective: Students will be able to apply the sense of touch to describe objects
Information: You entire body is used for the sense of touch for example you can feel the
wind on your face, you feel the sidewalk with your feet, you feel your chair underneath
you as you sit down. Skin is our largest of the five sensory organs. Underneath your
skin you have tiny nerve endings that help you feel different things. Called receptors.
When something is touched the receptors send messages along the nerves to the brain.
The brain helps you decode the message and tell you what to do.
Activity
Read book and discuss above information
Brainstorm texture words
2 Centers:
A Touching Experience pg 16-students have bag of items and feel it and guess what it
is.Have students find things in classroom and guess what it is with eyes closed see tpt
Textures I like to Touch pg 21 and Pinterest-hand activity instead of what emily did.
 -Explain that when we describe the texture of something, we describe the way if
feels to our sense of touch.
Assessment: Are students able to describe objects with correct descriptive words? See
checklist.

Lesson 5: Ice Cube Test

SLE 4
Objective: Students will be able to recognize that our senses sometimes mislead us.
Information: When you first get into a pool your receptors send the message that it is
cold. After a short while, you feel as if the water “warmed up.” Your receptors get used
to the temperature and they stopped sending messages about it. The actual water
temperature stays the same.
Ice Cube Test-page 23
Finish Centers from last class.
Closure: Which sense tells you how hot or cold something is?
Assessment: Exit slip: How does our sense of touch try to trick us? Verbal Question

Lesson 6: Sight
SLE 3
Objective: Students will be able tell how their sense of sight helps them learn about the
world around them.
Information: The eyes and the brain work together to give us information about an
object.
Activity: Read book and try some of the things on there
I Spy Scavenger Hunt -tpt
Closure: Which sense helps you know colors? What are some other things your sense
of sight helps you know?
Assessment: Observe whether students can describe characteristics such as color,
shape, size...

Lesson 7: Sight
SLE 6
Objective: Students will be able to understand that not everyone’s senses work well and
ways that people adapt to limited sensory abilities.
Information:
Ask students what problems people could have with their vision? (color blindness,
needing glasses, blind)
May people experience loss of sight and they use glasses to help them see better.
Important to go to eye doctor.
Ask students if they’ve been. Read chart with letters.
Ask students how do blind people adapt to situations? Example: reading
The braille alphabet is based on a rectangle made up of six dots, numbered one to six.
By changing the number of dots and raising them each letter is different.
Activity: Braille page 49 EPS
Closure: Tell students to try blind walk at home. Tell me how it feels like next day.
Which sense do blind people use when they read a book?
Assessment: Exit Slip: Put this question on the worksheet. What is one way people
adapt to limited sense of sight? Do students understand that not everyone’s senses
work the same? Do students understand that there are ways to compensate for this?

Read Aloud
SLE: 4
Optical Illusions: Sometimes our eyes can be tricked. These are called?
You won’t believe your eyes-page 42-optical illusions
Question: Which sense misleads us?

.Lesson 9: Taking Care of Your Eyes

SLE 7
Objective: Students will be able to describe ways to care for our eyes.
Key Questions: What do we have eyelashes, eye brows, eyelids for? Why do we blink?
Activity
Review: Blind walk
Discuss eyelids, eye brows, tear ducts. They act as natural protectors for the eyes
protecting them from dust, smoke, dirt or too much light.

Have students feel the cone around the eye. The eye sockets act as a shield or gaurd
for our eye balls.
Discuss eye protection that people use in sports or jobs such as swimmers,
motorcyclists, hokcey players, welders, carpenters. If possible show pictures.
Take Care of Your Eyes EPS 44
Closure: If you get something in your eye you should…?
Assessment: Students will be able to identify ways that keep our eyes safe Master...by
drawing pictures for each dangerous scenario.
Lesson 10: Smell
SLE 3
Objective: Students can use their sense of smell to learn about things, Students can tell
why sense of smell helps us.
Read book. Discuss
2 Centers
What’s that Smell pg 52; see tpt for more ideas
How do smells keep us safe: worksheet/Good smell, bad smell activity
Assessment: Students will be able to identify good and bad smells
Closure: How does our sense of smell help us?

Lesson 11: Animal smells

Objective: Students will be able to explain how animals use their sense of smell to learn
about the world.
Discuss and watch video page 58 EPS
Closure: Which animal smells with its tongue? Which animal uses its nose like a hand?
Which animal uses its nose to track and hunt? Which animal uses its sense of smell to
help find its baby?
Assessment: Exit Slip: Pick an animal draw and write about how they use sense of
smell. Identify sense and animal chosen and describe how the animal uses that sense.

Lesson 12: What’s that sound

SLE 3

Objectives
Students will be able to understand that the sense of hearing helps them learn
about the world around them.
Activity
Discuss Hearing by reading book
Shake and Tell-pg 64 see tpt as well for more ideas
Loud soft sounds worksheet
Closure: When you hear this where do you think you are?
Assessment: Students will be able to identify between loud and soft sounds. Checklist

Lesson 13: Keeping Our Ears Safe

SLE 6, SLE 7
Objective: Students will be able understand how our sense of hearing keeps us safe
and helps us.
Discuss hearing loss and taking care of our ears: Page 80 EPS
Here or There-pg 71 Will you be able to tell the direction a sound comes from if one ear
is covered?
Can everyone hear?-pg 73:
Practice Sign Language
Closure: Today we learned that some people can’t hear as well and that we should take
care of our ears.
Exit Slip: What is one way people adapt to limited sense of hearing?

Lesson 14: Animal Ears

Objective: Students will understand that animals use their sense of hearing in a variety
of ways.
Animal Hearing pg 76
Closure: Today we learned…

Assessment: 2
Students will be able to identify one way in which an animal uses a sense.
Look at the picture of the rabbit and turtle. Which animal do you think can hear better.
Why?
Answer: Rabbit, because of ear shape and size. .

Lesson 15: Taste

Objectives: Students will be able to apply their sense of taste to describe food.
Students will understand that their sense of taste tells about the world around them.
Activity: Read book
Sweet, Salty, Sour or Bitter-pg 86
Taste Worksheet of the tongue and the four tastes-see emils worksheet
Closure: What are the four different tastes?
Assessment: Students will be able to describe a variety of foods with descriptor words
(4)

Lesson 16: Review

Review Taste
The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses Video
Lesson 17: Review
Review/Sample Test/Catch up
Do flip book

Lesson 18: Senses Test

Resources
Explore Your World: the Five Senses by Adele Ciboul
Edmonton Public Schools Topic D Senses
Science Assessment Manual: Grade 1 Edmonton Public Schools
Scientists in School Program
Song: The Five Senses Song by Dr. Jean Feldman video by Mr. Harry mp4
5 Senses Song
The Science of Senses by Patricia Miller Schroeder-use this book to provide information
at the start of each lesson.
The Senses by Kay Davies and Wendy Oldfield-use this book to provide information
relevant to the lesson at the start of each lesson
Video: Amazing Animals: Animal senses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB-
7IsuZ8Ic

Assessment

Yes Not Yet Teacher Comments

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Lesson 5, Identify
Read situations
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Lesson Identify
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Exit Slip animals
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(SLE 5)

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Lesson 7, Taking
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Observation/Checklist-Students will be observed throughout lessons whether they are listening

and contributing. I will observe a group of students at a time. They will be asked key questions
related to the lesson.
Worksheets/Activities-see chart and lessons
Unit Test-the unit test will assess students on each of the outcomes.

For the center Activities where students apply their five senses I will use this checklist to
observe several students at a time.
The Student uses the following senses:
The student uses the following characteristics for sorting
-shape, size, color, texture, odor, other
The student was able to
-identify the sense being used
-describe the object

Students will be scored a 4 if they could do the above.