SENSES

Activity One - Peppermint Beetle

1. Talk with students about how animals use smell to find food, mates, etc.

1. Tell students that there is a “peppermint beetle” that lives in the trees and marks them with a peppermint smell. 

3. Divide the students into small teams and give them flagging tape.

4. Have them investigate to see if they can locate any of the marked trees.

5. When they find one, they should mark it with their team’s tape.

6. When all trees are found, gather students into a group and have them pass
around jars with distinctive smells and see if they can identify them.

7. Talk about the importance of smell to all animals.

 

 

Activity Two - Sounds Around

2. When time has elapsed, pass out paper and pencils and have them draw a sound map. 
Put an X to represent where they are and have them represent relative locations of sounds they heard. 

3. Talk about what sounds students heard and what caused them. 
Were they natural or mechanical?

Activity Three - Pass the Plants Please

2. Docent will pass out the student page and have them color and identify what part of the plant each comes from. 

3. Docent will discuss the answers and explain each.

4. Students will be invited to share in Tree treats.

 

Activity Four - Reach Out and Touch

2. Have the other partner choose a tree and lead the blindfolded one to it. 
Have them guide the blindfolded one in exploration of it-bark, leaves, branches, etc.
Lead them back to the group gathering spot.

3. Have the blindfolded partner try to find their tree.

4. Switch roles and let the other partner explore a tree using the sense of touch
and then let them try to find their tree also.

5. Discuss what they discovered.

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