Curated OER
Sensory Hi-Lo Hunt
Students explore their local environment. In this sensory awareness lesson, students identify various physical factors in their environment using their senses.
Rainforest Alliance
Knowing the Essential Elements of a Habitat
To gain insight into the many different types of habitats, individuals must first get to know their own. Here, scholars explore their school environment, draw a map, compare and contrast their surroundings to larger ones. They then...
Curated OER
Sense Poems
Students explore 5 senses poetry. In this poetry writing lesson, students visualize a special day and brainstorm related vivid adjectives and phrases. Students create mindmaps of the five senses to go with their visualization...
Curated OER
Oceans: A Sensory Haiku
Learners create an ocean haiku. In this haiku lesson plan, students use their five senses to write a haiku. Learners watch videos about the ocean, make a sensory portrait, and create a class haiku.
Curated OER
Trees
Learners explore tree species based on their features. In this tree lesson, students visit a wooded area and work with a partner to describe distinctive features of trees using all of the senses except "sight." A discovery worksheet is...
Curated OER
Ocean Exploration
Learners explore whales. In this animal adaptation and whale lesson, students access prior knowledge about whales from previous lessons, then use background knowledge to predict the eating strategies of a baleen whale and a toothed...
Autism Speaks
Tips for working with participants with Autism
Everyday life can be overwhelming for a student with autism spectrum disorder. An informative presentation guides teachers through definitions of common attributes associated with autism, as well as ways to meet sensory needs to...
Curated OER
Reliving History through Slave Narratives
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
Huntington Library
Light in Painting
How do painters use and manipulate light in their artwork to give emphasis and establish mood and emotion? Pupils will analyze a few examples of landscape and portrait painting in order to explore the how light is used in art,...
Curated OER
My Antonia: Prereading Guided Imagery
What makes a place safe? What makes a setting effective? Explore the safe spaces and descriptive language with a prereading activity for Willa Cather's My Antonia. The teacher describes his or her own safe space and then prompts pupils...
Curated OER
To Market
Students examine the process of cooking a meal. In this cooking background lesson, students explore cooking utensils, recipes, songs, and literature. They go through stations that encourage dramatic play and hands-on exploration of...
Curated OER
Every Dog Has Its Day
Learners explore the use of imagery in writing. In this writing lesson, students create a writing piece that features sensory images without resorting to the use of clichés.
Curated OER
Activity Plan Mixed Ages: Pineapple Investigations
Students use all of their senses to explore a fresh, delicious pineapple. In this early childhood lesson plan, students engage in activities that encourage sensory exploration, problem solving, creative-thinking, language skills, and the...
Curated OER
Exploring Sensory Details in Fiction and Nonfiction Text
Second graders analyze storytelling devices by examining sensory details in literature. In this descriptive writing lesson, 2nd graders define the 5 senses and practice using descriptive vocabulary words in their writing. Students read...
Brigham Young University
Out of the Dust: Guided Imagery
A guided imagery exercise is a great way to get readers thinking about writing. As part of their study of Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse’s 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel, class members listen to a reading of one of the poems...
Poetry Society
Tiny by Mandy Coe
Introduce magic and imagination into your classroom with a poetry activity. Learners read the poem "Tiny" by Mandy Coe and use their magic tickets to visit any place they can think of! The final result is a poem describing where they...
Curated OER
Getting to Know You
Students participate in tactile and visual exploration. In this tactile and visual exploration lesson, students listen to John Archambault's, Grandmother's Garden, and sing the song, "Friends Are Like Flowers." They participate in ice...
Curated OER
Scents And Sense-Abilities
Students explore how the five human senses function. They work in small groups, each group focusing on a specific sense. Each group then creates a 'Sensing the World' poster which combines all of the information gained through in-class...
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Using Our Senses to Observe
Look around and explore. Little ones use their five senses with some day-to-day activities designed to guide observation and apply STEM strategies. Young scientists learn through comparing/contrasting and...
Curated OER
Lesson: Looking Closer: The Artwork of Wangechi Mutu
Social issues of gender and media stereotypes, begins with a multi-sensory experience. Learners view the painting Backlash Blues and make critical comments based on what they see. They then read the Langston Hughes poem and listen to the...
University of Minnesota
Mirroring Emotions
Do you ever give your class the "teacher look"? Without saying a word, they become silent and engaged (hopefully). How do they know what you're thinking? Explore the concept of nonverbal communication and how it relates to our...
Memorial Art Gallery
Learning to Look, Looking to Learn - Peeling Onions
Lilly Martin Spencer's "Peeling Onions" is the subject of a series of exercises that model for learners how to use the elements of art to read a painting. A series of worksheets focus viewers' attention on how Spencer uses...
Memorial Art Gallery
Learning to Look, Looking to Learn - Sunday Morning
Jerome Myers' depiction of the urban landscape in "Sunday Morning" is the focus of a series of activities that asks viewers to examine how an artist uses the elements of a painting to tell a story. The resource packet includes an...