Lesson Plan

Learn about the senses: sight and touch

EYFS-10-01

Intent

Lesson Outcomes

  • Identify key senses of the human body
  • Describe what senses can help us to do
  • Name which parts of the body are linked by senses

Working Towards ELG

  • PD: Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing – using the tripod grip in almost all cases
  • PSED: Give focused attention to what the teacher says, responding appropriately even when engaged in an activity, and show an ability to follow instructions involving several ideas or actions

Resources

  • Blindfold
  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Handout

Rocket words

  • senses
  • eyes
  • sight
  • taste
  • touch

Implementation

Starter

Ask the children: can you name these body parts? What can they help us do?

Ask the children to discuss and list reasons why eyesight is important. Can they think about what they would be unable to do without their eyesight?  You could expand into other senses too.

Main Teaching

During this lesson, the children will be learning about important senses: sight and touch.

The questions covered during this unit include:

  • Name the senses and the parts of the body they can be found.
  • What do you know about your sense of smell?
  • What is the collective name given to all of the human bones found in our body?
  • What changes does your body go through from a baby to growing old?
  • What do you need to do to take care of your body?
  • What is the name of the shoe fastener which mimics nature?

Key Questions:

  • Can all the children name their body parts and the senses linked to each part?   
  • Can they ask simple questions about how parts of their bodies are different from one another?   
  • Can some children explain the importance of the different senses?
  • I use my sight to...(see)
  • I use touch to...(feel)

Lesson Expert: Zoologist Mike Linley and dog trainer Alison Burns discuss the senses used by humans and dogs.

Mission Assignment

Blindfolded Drawing

Remind the children how to be safe in this experiment.

Set the children in pairs - one wears a blindfold. The other guides them to a piece of paper and assists them in doing some drawing whilst blindfolded. Encourage the children to take their pencils for a walk across the page first to try it out. Then, their partner can start to challenge them to draw particular images or shapes. Swap over so each child has a turn being blindfolded, and review their drawings afterwards. Ask the children to explain what each sense helps them to do and what it would be like to be without one of the senses.

Impact & Assessment Opportunities

Plenary

What do their images look like and can they draw them better with the blindfold off?

Teacher Mastery: The five senses of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch let us know what is happening in the world around us. Each sense has a different organ that contains specialised sensory neurones. The neurones pick up stimulants from the world and relay this information to our brain. Our brain then deciphers this information into something we can understand and respond to.

Sometimes, this process becomes disrupted. For example, synaesthesia is a condition where a person's senses become mixed. A person with this condition may taste a specific food when they hear a certain word, even though they are not related to each other. This happens because parts of the brain that usually are not connected to each other are communicating with one another.