Grade level: Grade 4.
Provincial curriculum links: Ontario.
Subject: Science and Technology; Language.
Keywords: Scavenger, Multi-sensory.
Students will create a multi-sensory scavenger hunt worksheet to be used on a scavenger hunt throughout the schoolyard habitat area. This activity could be used to introduce the concepts of biodiversity and interdependence within a habitat.
Topic: English Language
Strand: Oral and Visual Communications 4e52
Specific Lesson Goals:
Students will communicate various types of observations on a worksheet that they have designed.
Topic: Habitat and Communities
Strand: Life Systems 4s1
Specific Lesson Goals:
The above observations will involve the use of the five senses and will be used to introduce the Life Systems strand of study to the class. Students will discover some elements of habitat and community as they actively investigate their schoolyard.
large sheets of paper
pencils
crayons
markers
Provide each student with a large sheet of paper (45 x 60 cm) and a pencil. Ask students to follow directions carefully as they prepare the following worksheet.
Draw a large outline of a head including eyes, ears, nose, mouth and blank spaces that will be used for recording items of touch. Leave as much blank space for filling in sketches of items found in the schoolyard habitat area.
Provide each student with a short scavenger hunt sheet which may look similar to the following:
Find three sounds that you enjoy, and three sounds that aren't so pleasant. Record them on your sheet. Label them.
Record the smells of the following: grass, air, soil, water, your skin, a plant, and two other objects of your choice. Label each.
Find something that feels: rough, smooth, squishy, hard, fuzzy, cold, wet, and warm. Label each.
Find things that look good to eat (but don't eat them!). Draw and label them.
Record how being in this spot makes you feel (happy, sad, excited, bored, curious, etc.).
Take the students to the outdoor area and assist them in finding a quiet spot where they can observe their surroundings and complete their scavenger hunt of the senses.
After about 25 minutes, call the group back together to share their discoveries.
Describe the place you chose to use for your hunt.
Did you have difficulty finding any of the items? Which ones? Why? Did anyone else have similar problems?
If you visited the area during a different season of the year, which items would be harder to find? Which ones would be easier?
Develop a rating scale for students to determine how well they have completed the goals of the lesson.
Students use a meter of string and five skewers or toothpicks to plan their own mini-nature walk. Students choose a section of the habitat area and design a sensory nature walk; each skewer or toothpick is placed to indicate one of the senses which is being highlighted. Students act as tour guides to lead their peers along their sensory nature trail.
Take a walk in the forest. Use "Sensory Experiences" from the Focus on Forests Program (pg. 95), a five-station activity emphasizing the senses.
The Ontario Forestry Association Sensory Experiences from Focus On Forests. The Ontario Forestry Association, 1998, p. 110.
This exercise is adapted from: Lott, Steven. Patterns, Plants and Playgrounds, Educational Activities for School Grounds, Intermediate Grades 4 to 7. Evergreen, 2000.
Submitted by: Evergreen <wheron@evergreen.ca>