Exploring the Sense of Taste

The Sense of Taste

Taste is the third sense we have focused on so far, and we sure had fun with this one.  I feel like we could spend months on the five senses and not tire of the fun.  Our taste exploration was pretty straight forward.  I put sugar, cocoa powder, salt and lemon slices in dishes for the boys to sample.  I didn't intentionally put the sugar first, but that was how it ended up in front of them.  I think they tasted it more than once.

I asked them to describe what they were tasting.  JZ (5) thought long and hard and said, "Sugar."  I prompted him a bit to get him to describe the sugar.  He finally called it sweet.

Next came the cocoa powder.  Since the sugar had been so tasty they both dove right into the cocoa powder.  I don't think it was what they were expecting.  We decided it was bitter.

J-Bug (3) pointed to the cocoa powder and said it was kind of yucky.  Then he proceeded to eat more sugar.

JZ tasted the salt next.  I think his face says it all.  He coughed a few times and asked for water.

We talked about how salt doesn't taste good on its own, but then we named a few of our favorite salty foods like popcorn and sweet potato fries.

I cannot tell you how tickled I am that I caught the exact moment he tasted a lemon on film.  Seriously, you can't pose these moments.  I don't know if it happened to be a particularly potent lemon or what.  He has tasted lemons before, but his reaction to this one was priceless.  Once he regained his composure he described the lemon as sour.

Another experiment we did that I didn't have a chance to take pictures of was tasting foods while plugging our noses.  If you haven't tried it before you should.  It's amazing how God created all our senses to enhance the others.  The sense of taste is greatly altered when you can't smell what you are eating.  Be sure and browse the other posts in this series, 5 Ways to Explore the Sense of Sight, Exploring the Sense of Smell with a Game, and Exploring Our Senses with Fruits and Vegetables, and stay tuned for more hands on ways to learn about the five senses.

For more ideas for hands on learning follow me on Pinterest.