Dear Branch Families,
What a month it has been! Thanks to our creative and explorative study on the 5 senses, October is a fan favorite in the Branch classroom! Throughout the month the Branchers have been able to engage and explore their various senses, and what a blast! To take a deep dive into our senses, we got busy with many fun sensory experiments and activities. Before long, the Branchers talked about their senses at mealtimes, while at stations and exploring and playing outside! It is safe to say that the Branchers have enjoyed this study as much as the teachers did! To kick off the month, the Branchers took a crash course in the five senses: touch, hearing, sight, smell, and our favorite, taste!
When exploring and discussing ‘touch’ we incorporated a lot of exciting experiments to help further each Brancher’s knowledge and understanding. One fun, hands-on experiment involved two sensory bottles, one hot and one cold. We talked about colors according to temperature. The Branchers came up with red for hot and blue for cold. Before passing each bottle around the circle so they could feel for themselves first hand, we added food color according to each temperature. We then discussed how our sense of touch helps us figure out temperature and texture. Speaking of texture, following up on our agenda was the ‘mystery grab bag’ game. Each Brancher put their sense of touch to the test as they reached their hand into a bag to guess (without looking) what item they grabbed without using other senses. This proved to be a little more challenging, but each Brancher did an excellent job using touch and descriptive words to come up with their answers! The sense of touch wouldn’t be complete without some hands-on art! Textured handprints were next on our to-do list. Each Brancher had their hands painted with a mixture of paint and glue. Once each hand was painted and pressed onto paper, sprinkling on various textures such as bumpy glitter, gritty cornmeal, squishy foam balls, and soft feathers came next. Each handprint turned out amazing and so colorful as well! Incorporating some festive and spooky Halloween texture paint rolling was a must before finishing out the month too!
To dig into our sense of taste, we took full advantage of the season so pumpkin it was! We got our hands dirty by carving and cleaning out our classroom pumpkin. The Branchers were unsure how they felt when helping dig out and separate the seeds from the pulp, but with their sense of touch knowledge, they could describe the texture as they worked together as a team to collect as many seeds as possible. Once the pumpkin was empty and our seeds were gathered, we got busy mixing! We created two different batches of pumpkin seeds: sweet & savory. The sweet consisted of cinnamon and a pinch of sugar and butter, while the savory consisted of garlic, pepper, a pinch of salt, and butter. Once the seeds were roasty toasty, we performed one of many taste tests for the month. It is evident by the empty baking sheet that the Branchers LOVED the pumpkin seeds. Sweet is their favorite. Another taste test we conducted involved sour, tart, sweet, spicy, bitter, and salty foods. The faces that were made during this activity were priceless.
Regarding our sense of smell, the Branch room made DIY playdough! Not just any playdough, though… coffee-scented playdough with a splash of texture! Combining each of the ingredients was a must, so the Branchers got a turn to mix and stir until the playdough consistency was perfect! The play dough was a classroom favorite during stations and made our classroom smell like a fresh-brewed cup of coffee.
Our sense of hearing was next up, and each Brancher put their ears to the test. While closing their eyes, the teacher played various sounds and it was up to the Branchers to guess what it was making each sound/noise. It can be challenging to figure out what something is by only listening, but the Branchers turned up their listening ears and dominated the listening game! Another fun listening (and tasting) activity the Branchers participated in was popping popcorn! Each Brancher smiled from ear to ear with excitement as they waited in anticipation for each kernel to pop!
Our sense of sight brought us a fun game to incorporate in the Branch classroom….I SPY! While sitting down on the carpet, the Branchers were challenged to use their sense of sight to look around at each other and figure out which friend the teacher ‘spied’. According to their patterns, prints, and colors, each Brancher was ‘spied’ by their outfit. The I SPY game became quite a hit, and we have now incorporated it into our afternoon dismissal activity!
What a fun-filled and exciting month we’ve had in the Branch classroom! We are beyond thrilled with the level of enthusiasm our Branchers have for learning and playing! As we say goodbye to October, we welcome November and all it will have in store for us! Our next study is Friends, Family, and Thankfulness!
-Ms. Heather & Ms. Gracen
