#3567. Sense of Touch

Science, level: Kindergarten
Posted Fri Sep 23 06:57:38 PDT 2005 by Mindy Martincic (sassycat494@yahoo.com).
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Johnstown
Materials Required: 2 pans, book (I Can Tell by Touching by Carolyn Otto) five Discovery Bag (crayons, spoon, cup, stuff
Activity Time: 60 minutes
Concepts Taught: five senses, sense of touch

• Anticipatory Set: Introduce the lesson by having two volunteers come to the front of the classroom. One will place their hands in a pan of cool water; the other will place their hands in a pan of warm water. Ask them what the water felt like. Ask the class how the students may have known that the water was warm or cool. Tell them they used their sense of touch to know what the temperature of the water was. Tell them today they will learn more about their sense of touch.
• Developmental Activities:
• Review with students all of the five senses by using pictures
• Tell the students that that the two volunteers used their skin to be able to tell that the water was warm or cold. Tell them there are tiny nerve endings on our skin that send a message to our brain telling it that the water was warm or cold
• Give the students another example, say to them if your friend puts a piece of ice on your neck, the nerve endings in the skin of your neck send a message back to your brain that says: ICE! Your brain decides that you don't want ice on your neck and it sends a message back to your body to move and maybe even yell.
• Give the students the example of touching a hot stove
• Tell them one thing that we don't like about our sense of feeling is that we can feel pain. If we touch something that is hot, it hurts us, and we immediately take our hand away. That is one way our sense of touch protects us.
• Read the book I Can Tell By Touching by Carolyn Otto
• Now the students will make Touch Books. Hand out the five different materials (candy buttons, pine needles, cotton, burlap, wax paper) and booklets and have the students glue or tape each object on each page. Go over each of the five materials that were put on the pages of their book. The cotton is soft. The pine needles are jaggy. The candy buttons are bumpy. The burlap is rough. The wax paper is smooth. Ask them if they know of anything else that feels like some of the materials in the book. For example, a kitten is soft and some rocks are smooth
• If time allows, give each table a Discovery Bag. Tell them to take turns closing their eyes and choosing an object out of the bag without looking. Then have them guess what the objects are. Go over the five objects that were in the box. Make sure each person gets a turn.

• Closure: Ask them what they use to figure out what objects are when they touch them. Ask them why their sense of touch is important