The (Traditional) 5 Senses

If you are a Waldorf person you know that Steiner identified way more than five senses, but today in my (traditional) class we did the traditional set of 5.

First we identified the 5 senses and made a chart naming them and identifying the organ of the body which receives sense signals for each and sends them to our brain (sight - eye, smell - nose, touch - skin, etc.)

As part of Taste, I passed out muffins and asked children to record in their Science journals what ingredients they thought were in them.

As part of Smell, I passed around 12 jars of herbs and spices and had the children describe their smell (wasabi powder, whole cloves, coriander seed, celery seed, whole red chilies, fennel seed, crushed rosemary, ground allspice, etc.) I tried to present a variety of scents. For spices that were whole, I gave the children the option of using our classroom mortar and pestle to grind them later in the day.

Tomorrow we are discovering the different clusters of taste buds on the tongue. I have watermelon for sweet and chips for salty. I have pure sea salt also, since we discussed how people pan for salt; it is one of the only spices that does not come from a plant. I brought lemonade mix so we can see how sweet and tart come together to make a pleasant taste.

Online lesson plans from Australia: Making Sense of Food (includes a diagram of areas of the tongue)

Next topic is Nutrition: specifically, the role of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in the body, which food groups provide which nutrients, the Food Pyramid, and how to read the nutrition information on the side of prepared or packaged foods to determine the serving size. I brought a package of brownie mix (each brownie contains 10 grams of sugar) and a bag of sugar and we will measure out 10 grams on the balance to see just how much sugar is in ONE.

Monday we will be baking for the Thanksgiving Feast. Tuesday is the feast and a half day of school and the rest of the week is our Thanksgiving vacation!