Sensing Winter

The Nature Preschool at Irvine is learning about senses! We are taking in all the winter wonder through hands on experiences and sensory based learning inside and outside. Our classrooms were filled with spicy aromas this week! The children had so much fun creating spice cards, running the spice market, and acting like chefs while whipping up some spicy play dough! We enjoyed figuring out how many senses we used for each activity! We could smell the spices, feel the dough and see the shapes that were made. That means we were using three of our five senses! Outside we  kept ourselves aware and charted all the different ways we use our senses on the hike. Some of our favorite things were hearing bird calls, touching slippery ice, smelling the branches of a spice bush, seeing hawks soar above the meadow, and of course, tasting hot cocoa to warm ourselves up!

On Thursday, Nature Preschool visited the Baltimore Aquarium! Our senses were overloaded with vivid colors, interesting aquatic life, various textures and so much more! Each time the children stopped at an exhibit, their eyes widened with curiosity! There were so many questions being asked and so much excitement all around! The children got to partake in the Aquatic Critter program where they learned about and touched hermit crabs, snails, and horse shoe crabs! Did you know horse shoe crabs have 10  eyes! The children looked through kaleidoscopes to experience what it would be like to see with that many eyes!

We look forward to more fun exploring our senses in the upcoming weeks!