September 8-11, 2015
Blindfolded Taste Test
Nutrition Expedition was back in action this week with a special blindfolded taste test! This year, we will be focusing on our body and how it works! Each month, we will learn about a different area of our body, with this month's focus being "The Five Senses".
To demonstrate how our five senses work, and to learn a little bit about how our tongue/taste buds function, I brought in bandannas to use as blindfolds, along with visual cue cards, and 4 foods to represent each of the four types of taste buds (sweet apples, salty pretzels, sour lemons, and bitter dark chocolate). I started out by gauging the children's knowledge about what our 5 senses are; I showed them large flash cards with a different sense on each one (eye, nose, ear, tongue, and fingers) and we discussed what we use each of those body parts for, and how they send messages to our brain to make us aware of our surroundings. We read the story My Five Senses, by Aliki, which is a great and simple book to use to explain our senses. After our discussion, we learned that our tongue is covered in bumpy taste buds that tell our brain what we are eating, how it tastes (sweet, salty, sour, or bitter), and if it tastes good (or bad!). I also showed them drawings of a tongue with each area mapped out.
Then, it was on to the fun part! We put on blindfolds, and I passed out each secret food item. The children were then asked to guess if the item was sweet, salty, sour, or bitter. They also had to use their other senses to guess what the food was by using their sense of smell, touch, and taste! They had an absolute blast with this, and thought it was super silly to wear a blindfold!
The infants loved listening to the story, checking out all of the visuals, and some color cards!
