Teaching children about the five senses is a good way to help them understand and discover their bodies. Our senses keep us in contact with the world and help us explore it. The best (if not the only!) way for children to learn how senses work is to experience them through sensorial activities.
Objectives of the activity:
- To develop the sense of taste through the four basic types (sweet, salty/savory, sour, bitter) and the contrast between them
- To enhance their vocabulary
Materials and ingredients:
- 4 bowls
- 1 spoon per child
- pure cacao powder
- lemon
- salt
- panela or coconut sugar (to avoid refined sugar)
Development of the activity:
We put each ingredient in a bowl and starting with panela/coconut sugar, we ask: “what does it taste like?” We then say, “panela/coconut sugar is sweet!” We reinforce by repeating “sweet” at least three times. We can also ask if they like it.
Then repeat in this order: salt, afterwards the cacao powder, which is bitter, and eventually the sour lemon.
When you have been through all of them, you can leave them to it and simply observe them. Do they try once more? Which ingredient do they go for? Do they avoid any of the ingredients completely? Do they also smell them or touch them?
We can add a level of complexity to this activity by using masks to do the blind tasting and letting them guess both, the ingredient and the type of taste they are experiencing.
Whichever way you decide to it, we are sure that you will love their facial expressions!!
