Fragrant Fruits

The children have continued to use their favourite fruits chart and have been taking turns asking their friends what fruit tastes the best.

We had a discussion about what our five senses are and what body part you use for each one.

Taste “- your mouth”, tongue”, “ I lick my lips and taste”
Touch –  “with your hands”
Smell – “My nose”
See – “eyes”
Hear –  “Ears”

We decided we could use another one of our senses to gather information using our chart. The children chose their sense of smell to try and guess what fruit was in the cup.
We prepared the fruit and put them in our paper cups and covered it with a paper towel sealed on with an elastic band.

Everyone gathered their cups and charts and went to ask their friends to smell the fruit and say what their favourite smell and what they thought it was, before making a mark on the chart to record their answer. The children all had different favourites but were very good at identifying the correct fruit just from its smell.

We then all came back to the table and counted up all the marks we had gathered to see which one was the most popular.

“Apple has 9 it is the favourite”

” Orange has the most on my chart”

“ watermelon had none but I like watermelon”

We discussed our favourite smells before making a plan to use a different sense for our next fruit identification, what sense do you think we chose?

Slimy, Squishy Beans

Today in our malleable area the children enjoyed some sensory play with beans supporting brain development, and learning about the world around them.

Through this play the children are developing fine motor skills through tactile play, developing language, improving co-ordination, as well as fine/gross motor skills. Improving social skills such as communication and co-operation.

“I eat beans at home“

“They’re sticky”

We used all sorts of utensils to scoop, fill, pour, mash and weigh.

We used big spoons, small spoons, slotted spoons and watched the sauce “drip drip”through.

“I’m mushing the beans”

“Tap tap tap”

“Scoop, scoop, scoop”

“Wow it’s slimy”

“Look it’s slipping”

“Look squishing up”

We also had a go at balancing the scales with various degrees of success.