As part of our Kindergarten topic on ‘The Senses’, we found foods with very distinctive smells like coffee, lemon, cinnamon and vinegar. We put them into containers on our investigation table and the children were free to smell each one and describe what it smelled like. They had to guess what they thought it was. There were a few funny faces and wrinkled noses as you can see from the photos.
We then went on to learn that our taste buds help us to taste all sorts of different food. The bumps on our tongue are home to our taste buds. Did you know that you have about 10,000 taste buds on your tongue, and they help you to taste the four types of tastes of salty, sour, bitter, and sweet? We learnt that the front of our tongue helps us to taste sweet things, the back of our tongue helps us to taste bitter things and the sides of our tongue help us to taste salty and sour things. Just like the picture below…
To test our taste buds, Ms. Shara cut up different foods for us to taste. She was very careful to choose foods that everyone could try. In the photographs you can see the food she chose. We had green, yellow and red peppers; red and green apples and lemons.
Would you like to taste some lemon? It’s very sharp and s-o-u-r!
Close your eyes and taste it! Can you bear to face it!
Lemon is so s-o-u-r! Do you agree!
Would you like to taste a green apple? It’s crunchy, crisp and cool,
so delicious! Close your eyes and taste it!
Eat it up don’t waste it! It’s so yummy! Do you agree?
Do you think the Kindergarten children enjoyed all the different types of food? I am not so sure they did. See for yourself in our crazy face photos!
Before you give taste buds all the credit for your favourite flavours, it’s important to remember to thank your nose. Receptors inside the upper part of your nose contain special cells that help you smell. They send messages to your brain.
Here’s how it works: While you’re chewing, the food releases chemicals that immediately travel up into your nose. These chemicals trigger the receptors inside the nose. They work together with your taste buds to create the true flavour of that yummy slice of pizza by telling your brain all about it! So the next time you chomp on an apple or slurp up some soup, thank your tongue and your nose! Without them, life wouldn’t have any flavour.
We are also learning about festivals and celebrations like Diwali, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas during which people enjoy all sorts of special food and share them with their family and friends. Whatever you celebrate this term, we hope you have a really wonderful time.