A Kids Adventure Exploring the Sense of Taste

Here is a full program for a session with young children, teaching them through fun activities about the sense of taste in our amazing world. Tap in to their natural curiosity and help them to discover how some things taste better than others. Inspire them to step out and try new things and see their delight when they link new tastes with pleasurable experiences. Provide for them a safe environment to build happy memories together that will enable them to acquire a wide range of tastes for food that will not only do them good, but enable them to interact with their world.

When I brought this lesson plan to my group of children, I had not long returned from a memorable visit to a wedding in Israel. I was keen to share some of my experiences with the children that had greatly impacted me.

I hope that the proven tips and ideas here will give you an easy, stress free few hours with your group of children. Most of all, have fun!

As an introductory activity, have a selection of liquids in cups for the children to taste. Give each child a teaspoonful after they have been blindfolded. Mark down who guesses the most correctly and let them be the first to have a go at a later activity. The suggestions below could be offered for the taste testing.

But how about you?

1. For Five currant buns in a baker's shop, have a bakers shop and buns attached with velcrose, ready on card. Give the children a penny each to take it in turns to buy a bun, whilst you all sing the song.
2. For Five fat sausages, count down from 5 to none on each verse, remembering to clap your hands together for the bang!
3. For Pat-a-cake, get each child to write the first letter of their name on a board in turn, as you sing and say their letter and name each time.

For this interactive story you will need

• Puppets for a wedding,
• Eastern type food, we had figs, dates, olives, walnuts, melon and apricots.
• Eastern music to play in the background
• Cloth or blanket for the floor
• Dressing up clothes for the children.

Using the puppets and playing eastern music in the background, tell the Bible story of the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine, from John 2. Lay the cloth on the floor and place on it a selection of eastern type foods. Explain that you are going to enact the story they have just heard and invite them to do so using the dressing up clothes and trying the food. Seven characters in the story could be the bride, groom, Jesus, his mother Mary, two disciples and a servant. The rest of your group could be the general wedding guests. Children love acting and will remember the story so much better, so make sure you briefly explain the amazing miracle that took place that day at a wedding feast.

Have a number of plain biscuits, icing and decorations for the children to decorate their own cookies. Encourage them to make some to share as everyone did at the wedding feast in the story. If you have enough time, you could make the cookies first, but this will be more suitable for older children.

If you have enjoyed The Sense Of Taste Lesson Plan, check out others in this series and more, from Joanna14.