view a plan
Dragon Fun Learning the Five Senses
P.E. & Health, Science
PreK, K, 1, 2
Students will become familiar with the five senses from the story “Old MacDonald had a Dragon”.
- A kaleidoscope or interesting photograph (Kaleidoscope craft idea – familycrafts.about.com/cs/toystomake/a/blconnkaleid.htm)
- Whistle or musical instrument
- Piece of sandpaper
- Soft or furry piece of material
- Perfume or sweet smelling flower
- A piece of candy or sugar cube for each child
- Dragon Fun Five Senses Lesson Plan Handout
- The children’s picture book- Old MacDonald had a Dragon by Ken Baker, illustrated by Christopher Santoro
Activity time: 30-40 minutes
Make enough copies of the provided five senses lesson plan picture handouts for each student and then cut out the individual pictures.
Sight– Explain what the sense of sight is in your own words. Let the students look at the photograph or kaleidoscope. Explain that everything they see with their eyes is through their sense of sight. Colors, movement, light, dark, people, animals, and places are all things that they see with their sense of sight.
Sound– Explain what the sense of sound or hearing is in your own words. Blow the whistle or play the musical instrument. Explain that they heard that noise and that they hear all noises with their ears using their sense of sound or hearing. Shouting, whispering, singing, laughing, lions roaring, frogs croaking, all animal noises, noises in the city, noises in the country, and all noises are heard through the sense of hearing.
Touch– Explain what the sense of touch is in your own words. Let them feel the soft material and the rough sand paper. Explain that they use their sense of touch in their skin, fingers, and all parts of their body, to know how something feels. Pain, cold, heat, hunger, soft textures, rough textures, etc. are different things they can feel with their sense of touch.
Smell– Explain what the sense of smell is in your own words. Let them smell the perfume or flower. Explain that everything they smell with their nose is using their sense of smell. Flowers, perfume, skunks, and cookies in the oven are all things that they can smell.
Taste– Explain what the sense of taste is in your own words. Let them taste and eat the sandy or sugar cube. Explain that when they eat, that the taste buds on their tongues let them taste all the different flavors found in food. They taste the sweet, sour, salty, and bitterness of different things with their taste buds.
- Hand out to each student a set of the five senses lesson plan picture handout.
- Tell the students that you’re going to read them a story and that as you read the story aloud, you want the children to listen and look for times when the characters use one of their five senses.
- When they discover one of the five senses being used, they should hold up the picture representing that sense as well as a picture of the item the sense is acting on or related to.
- Read the class the picture book “Old MacDonald had a Dragon” by Ken Baker and illustrated by Christopher Santoro.
- As you read the story, watch to see if the students display the correct five senses pictures and encourage or congratulate them as they do so.
- Some examples of scenes in the story where the five senses are used are:
- Farmer sings E-I-E-I-O (sound)
- Animals moo, oink, baa, or bark (sound)
- The pig smells (smell)
- The dragon tastes the animals; delightful dairy, savor swine, marvelous mutton, and delectable doggy (taste)
- Wool socks keep farmers feet warm (touch)
- The dog saw what happened to the cow, pig, and sheep (sight)
- After reading the story, review with the students what and how the different five senses were used throughout the story.
- The teacher can also discuss some of the other senses not represented in the picture handout, such as the animals/farmer tumbling in a slimy heap (touch/feel or taste), the dragons flash of fire (sight and touch/feel), the dragons tummy ache (touch/feel), dragon burping (sound), or the farmer plucking his guitar (sound).
- Make any needed additional explanations about the senses to reinforce students’ understanding.