Ourselves & Our Friends Level: Key Stage 1 - Cross-curricular activities

Lesson
Music
Kindergarten - 1st Grade
Music Playtime
Music Playtime

Music Lesson Description

A Poem for Mrs Crocosaurus

... and a fascinating account of the history of the poem by the author, Christine F. Fletcher.

  • If you should meet a crocodile
  • Don't take a stick and poke him
  • Ignore the welcome in his smile
  • Be careful not to stroke him
  • For as he sleeps upon the Nile
  • He thinner gets and thinner
  • And whene'er you meet a crocodile
  • He's ready for his dinner
Mrs Crocosaur

Our Five Senses (Science link)

Provide experiences for all five senses

Hearing: Go on an outdoor listening walk and record some sounds. Play them when you get back and guess what they were.

Taste: Bring in culinary items for tasting (parental permission and advice about allergies essential) in the complete range of flavours e.g. :

  • BITTER – Kale, collards, mustard greens, parsley, endive, celery, arugula, grain beverage
  • SALTY – Sea salt, tamari, miso, sea vegetables, sesame salt, umeboshi plum, pickles
  • SWEET – Corn, cooked onions, squash, yams, cooked grains, cooked cabbage, carrots, parsnips, fruits
  • SOUR – Lemon, lime, sauerkraut, umeboshi plum, fermented dishes, pickles
  • PUNGENT – Ginger, garlic, raw onions, white radish, red radish, scallions, wasabi, spices

Touch: Set out a Touch Table behind a screen. Children have to identify a range of items by touch alone, with eyes closed.

Smell: Set out a Smell table behind a screen. Children have to identify a range of items by smell alone, with eyes closed.

Sight: A supervised, group experiment showing how two eyes help you better judge where objects are.

For the Sight activity, you need:

  • Five coins
  • Small paper cup or rinsed-out yogurt cup
  • A table where two children can sit

What to do

Put a cup on the table in front of you, about 60cm away from your partner. Ask your partner to close one eye. Hold one of the coins in the air above the cup and move it around slowly.

Tell your partner that you'll drop the coin whenever he or she says, "Drop it!" The idea is for your partner — with one eye closed — to judge when the coin is over the cup so the coin will drop into the cup.

Give your partner two tries with one eye closed, then two tries with both eyes open. Which way worked best?

Nathan Hanna 7 Sr5 D24 Jo8O Unsplash

Book suggestion: My Five Senses by Aliki ISBN 006238192X Publisher Harper Collins

My Five Senses Book