Teaching Taste: Craft & Activity

I know I had originally planned to do the Five Senses theme all in one week, but we just had so much going on last week that were only able to do 2. Since we have some stuff planned this week as well, I’m going to finish up the theme (hopefully) by Friday.

So today was all about tasting! We did an easy handprint butterfly craft. It only needed a jumbo popsicle stick, some paint, a marker, and a googly eye. The directions are pretty self explanatory! =)

I had Lorelai craft her butterfly from the side since I wanted to show the little legs. Butterflies taste with their feet, hence the butterfly craft. Here’s a fun little tidbit:

“Taste receptors on a butterfly’s feet help it find its host plant and locate food. A female butterfly lands on different plants, drumming the leaves with her feet to make the plant release its juices. Spines on the back of her legs have chemoreceptors that detect the right match of plant chemicals. When she identified the right plant, she lays her eggs. A butterfly will also step on its food, using organs that sense dissolved sugars to taste food sources like fermenting fruit.” Source

After the craft I put together a taste station. I did these three combos: salt/sugar, lemon/strawberry, sour cream/yogurt. Lorelai tried the salt first and described it as “yucky”. She guessed the sugar, lemon, and strawberry right away. Sour cream was called, “smooth” and she couldn’t guess the yogurt at all. We only had plain organic yogurt, so no sugars added at all. I also didn’t want to add anything spicy ~ I know my child, she would freak out.

Overall, it was pretty fun. Lorelai really enjoyed the activity and learning about her taste buds!