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Our five senses of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste are often explored in preschool and kindergarten, but they are also studied by scientists. Reflecting this, today’s sites are a mixed bag, with a little something for everyone from elementary students to high-school students, preschool teachers and perpetual learners interested in recent discoveries.
Brain Pop Senses
The animators at BrainPop are back with five excellent pages devoted to our five senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling. Each page includes a movie, a quiz, an experiment and a activity. Free movie passes are now limited to three per day so you won’t be able to view all five movies in one visit. Unlimited BrainPop access is available by paid subscription for both families and classrooms.
Minutes from ME: Coming to our Senses
Margaret Ennis (aka ME) is a part-time teacher and volunteer at The Franklin Institute Online. In these pages she “shares her ideas for making learning fun, particularly online.” This first page outlines a classroom activity for using our senses to describe the world around us. To access five additional pages on the senses, use the archive link at the bottom of the page. From the archive either scroll down about half way, or use your browser find function to search for “seeing.”
Neuroscience for Kids: The Senses
“The smell of a flower. The memory of a walk in the park. The pain of stepping on a nail. These experiences are made possible by the three pounds of tissue in our heads…the BRAIN!! Neuroscience for Kids has been created for all students and teachers who would like to learn about the nervous system.” This fabulous site starts with dozens of classroom experiments and word search puzzles. For more on the five senses, follow the links to “On the Senses” and “Amazing Animal Senses” that you’ll find in the middle of the page.
SEDL Five Senses
The Southwestern Educational Development Laboratory has created a wonderful five-senses unit for preschool and kindergarten teachers. Focusing on both abilities (such as hearing and seeing) and challenges (such as being blind or deaf), the unit includes lots of participation and activities. Each lesson begins with the reading of a popular picture book (such as “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?” by B. Martin, Jr.) and all seven lessons are also available in Spanish.
Seeing, Hearing , and Smelling the World
In the only one of today’s sites geared toward high school students and adults, The Howard Hughes Medical Institute reports on “new findings [that] help scientists make sense of our senses.” These fascinating articles include titles such as “Breaking the Code of Color,” “The Quivering Bundles That Let Us Hear” and “The Mystery of Smell.”