Touching

Principles

Touch is one of our basic senses. We can identify objects by the way they feel.

Materials

• textured objects such as sandpaper, silk, burlap, clay, metal, paper
• any other readily available textured materials in the classroom

Words to Discuss

• hard
• rough
• smooth
• soft

Science Experience

• Lay the objects out so the children can handle them and talk about them.
• Talk about the way each object feels. Introduce vocabulary.
• Put the objects in a bag. Let each child put his or her hand into the bag and select an object by feel.
• Ask the child to describe the object. "Is it hard? Soft? Rough? Smooth?" Let the child guess what the object is without looking at it.

Explanation

Talk about hands and how we use them. Explain that our fingers can touch, hold, and pick up objects. The skin all over our bodies feels things like texture and temperature. When a child picks upsandpaper, his skin feels that it is rough. When he picks up an ice cube, his skin feels that it is cold and wet.