Grade: K
Lab #: 1, Physical Properties of Matter
(revised 9/06/2014)
Materials (amounts listed are per class):
Material
Class Worksheets
“Texture Handprint (Sense
of Touch)”
Class Worksheets “4 Jars
Recording Sheet (Sense of
Smell)”
Class Worksheets “I Spy
Something…. (Sense of
Sight)”
Class Worksheets “Parts
of the Ear Coloring Sheet
and matching sheet (Sense
of Hearing)”
Class Worksheets
“Recording Sheets (Sense
of Taste)”
Sight Laminated Poster
Pencils & crayons
25 cotton balls
25 pieces sand paper
25 pieces waxed paper
25 pieces double stick tape
25 elbow noodles
Glue
small containers with
holes punched in lids
Orange pieces
Onion pieces
Small bar soaps
Source*
Science Lab Binder
Science Lab Binder
Science Lab Binder
Science Lab Binder
Science Lab Binder
Notes
Will need to make enough copies for
each student in each class. (approx.
25/class)
Will need to make enough copies for
each student in each class. (approx.
25/class)
Will need to make enough copies for
each student in each class. (approx.
25/class)
Will need to make enough copies for
each student in each class. (approx.
25/class)
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Will need to make enough copies for
each student in each class. (approx.
25/class)
Sense of Sight
Sense of Sight & Sense of Hearing
Sense of Touch
Sense of Touch
Sense of Touch
Sense of Touch
Sense of Touch
Sense of Touch
Sense of Smell
Parent Donation
Parent Donation
Parent Donation
Sense of Smell
Sense of Smell
Sense of Smell
Coffee grounds
Plastic Eggs
Coins
Rice
Nails
Marbles
Sand
Clear Jar filled with Salt
Clear Jar filled with Sugar
Small paper plates (labled
w/#1 & #2)
Sugar Label
Salt Label
Plastic spoons
Parent Donation
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Sense of Smell
Sense of hearing
Sense of hearing
Sense of hearing
Sense of hearing
Sense of hearing
Sense of hearing
Sense of Taste
Sense of Taste
Sense of Taste
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Lab Kit
Sense of Taste
Sense of Taste
Sense of Taste
*Some of the items marked as Parent Donation may be available from the prior year. Check the
lab kit before asking parents to donate the items.
Grade: K
Lab #: 1, Physical Properties of Matter
(revised 9/06/2014)
Set up in lab prior to classes arriving:
 Set up the 5 senses stations per instructions in the lab write up
below.
 Make copies of worksheets for each station. Roughly 25 per class
OR enough for 1 per student.
 Pass out worksheets, glue, pencils & crayons
Job(s) for volunteers on the day of the lab:
 Set up lab based on instructions listed below.
 Teachers are responsible for introducing and leading the lab with
parent volunteers assisting with the activities at each station.
 Clean up lab.
Grade: K
Lab #: 1, Physical Properties of Matter
(revised 9/06/2014)
Learning Standard for Lab:
SKP1 b: Use senses to classify common materials according to their physical
properties.
Essential Question: How do objects differ?
Station 1: Sense of Hearing
Part 1: Introduction: Read the following poem to the group
Aren’t Ears Wonderful?
Catching soundwaves in the air.
Sending them along to where
The message gets through to your brain
Faster than the fastest train.
Sorting out what you want to hear
Whether the sound is far or near.
Wonderful music, nature's sounds
Birdsong, laughter and merry-go–rounds.
You wouldn't know when mum says, "Time for bed"
If you hadn't an ear on each side of your head.
Part 2: Diagram of the 3 parts of the Ear.
Explain to the group how our ears are a part of our five senses called hearing. Our ears help us
to better understand our world.
.
There are three parts to your ear



Outer ear
Middle ear
Inner ear
Assistant will present the following
diagram to the students. He/she
will explain that the ear has 3 parts.
Explain to the students that they
will use three different colors to
color each part. Students will color
the first part while the assistant
reads the information presented
about the outer ear. The students
will color the middle ear, and the
inner ear while the assistant reads
information about each part of the
ear.
Outer ear
These are the bits we can see, and also the ear canal. They act like a funnel to catch sound
waves and direct them to the ear drum. (A canal is a pathway for water, but the ear canal is a
pathway for sound)
Middle ear
This is a small air-filled space on the inside of the eardrum.
There are 3 tiny bones inside the ear. They are called the hammer, anvil and stirrup (because
that is what they look like). When the sound waves move the eardrum, these bones move and
pass on the vibration to the very much smaller oval shaped window of the cochlea (the bit that
looks like a shell). The hammer is touching the ear drum so it shakes when the sound comes
through, and the movement goes right through the anvil to the stirrup, which is touching the
window of the cochlea.
Inner ear
The cochlea has fluid in it, which moves due to the vibrations and bends hairs on the outside of
cells lining the cochlea. There are about 17,000 hair cells in each ear, so they really are tiny.
They are not like the hair on your head. Some of these hair cells (the 'inner hair cells') create
an electrical impulse (signal), which is sent along the auditory nerve to the brain. Most of
them (the 'outer' ones), however, are like tiny muscle cells, which react to the vibrations in the
fluid by trembling and shaking; in this way they work like high quality amplifiers and make the
vibrations much stronger and clearer for the smaller number of inner hair cells.
Part 3: Putting our ears to the test!
Students will use plastic eggs filled with the following:
coins
marbles
sand
rice
nails
Each student will shake the eggs and listen to the contents inside. The student will then use
their “sense” of hearing to find another egg that sounds the same. When the student has
found the pair of eggs that sound the same they will record the number of their eggs using the
recording sheet.
After students have recorded their answers check for accuracy.
1 orange egg – rice
2 yellow eggs – coins
3 pink eggs – sand
4 purple eggs – nails
5 green eggs - marbles
Station 2: Sense of Taste
1) Assistant will pose the problem:
Oh No! The labels fell off the salt and sugar jars? Can you
help get them back on the right jars?
2) Assistant will pose question:
What do we already know that could help us? – discuss with
students what they already know about sugar and salt.
They look the same. Sugar is sweet. Etc…..
3) Assistant will have the following chart available at the
lab as a talking guide. Students will not have time to fill
it in but you will have time to talk about it.
Sense of Taste Recording Sheet:
Sense
Sight
Smell
Hearing
Touch
Taste
Jar 1
Jar 2
What did we learn?
4) Students will each have a small paper plate with 1 and 2
marked. The assistant will place a tiny spot of sugar on
one side and a tiny spot of salt on the other side.
Students will lick their finger and place it in the salt –
describe. Students will lick their finger and place it in
the sugar – describe it.
Where do the labels belong?
Station 3: Sense of Touch
1) Give each student a copy of the texture hand print, a
glue stick and one of each of the following items:
a. Cotton ball – soft
b. Waxed paper – smooth
c. Sand paper – rough
d. Macaroni noodle – hard
e. Double sided tape – sticky
2) Ask students to match the items to the appropriate
fingertip.
3) Allow students to glue items once they have them
properly matched.
Station 4: Sense of Smell
1) Prior to children arriving, place the following items in the
small containers with holes poked in the lids.
a. Onion pieces – peel onion to release fresh scents
b. Orange pieces– peel and break orange in to pieces to
release fresh scents
c. Ground coffee – may need to crush grounds to
release fresh scents
d. Bar soap – shave some pieces off bar to release scent
2) Give a copy of the recording sheet with 4 jars to each
child. Have a handful of crayons (yellow, orange, brown,
white & black) available on the table.
3) One at a time, allow students to smell the item through
the holes poked at the top of the lid without looking
inside. Show the students how to fan the air above the
container toward their noses in order to smell the
contents.
4) Have students draw their predictions on their recording
sheets as to the contents of each jar.
5) Identify the actual contents of each container and discuss
the results compared to student predictions. Probing
questions might include
a. Did everyone smell the same thing in each container?
b. Which scent did the most students identify correctly?
Which did the fewest students identify correctly?
Why do you think that is the case?
c. When you smelled the contents of the containers, did
any memories or places come to mind?
Station 5: Sense of Sight
1) Show sight poster and discuss how our sense of sight
works. Talking points might include:
a. The eye is made up of 5 major parts
i. Cornea – the clear covering on the front of the
eye
ii. Iris – the color part of your eye
iii. Pupil – the black part of your eye where the light
comes in. It gets bigger when it is darker to let
more light in.
iv. Retina – gathers information
v. Optic nerve – sends the information to your
brain
b. What happens when someone’s eye sight is
impaired? Do their other senses work overtime to
help them to identify things? i.e. sense of touch may
help people with vision problems to read Braille.
2) Play I Spy. Hand out the 2 I Spy recording sheets to each
student. Ask students to draw items they see around the
room that are red, yellow, blue, green, square, triangle,
diamond and circle.