Keep this beat light and curious. Invite the class to close their eyes for a few seconds, then open them. Ask: What could you still hear? What could you still feel? Do not name all five senses yet; let wonder lead.

Before the lesson: check the class allergy list and send a short note home if needed for the fruit taste. Set up three core carousel stations around the room, with the other two ready as stretch if time allows (see the carousel step). Print the Investigation Journal page. Open the diagram-labeller interactive on the IWB ready for later. Prepare three feely bags (or trays) so each carousel group has its own touch set.

STEM eyes: link to noticing in the classroom: Which sense do we use most when we look around this room?

Teach the five senses one at a time before the carousel. Keep the board short: show only the lead-in, the soft/hard ball question, and the tiny cue that three more senses are coming. Reveal each sense–body pair aloud while children point on their own bodies, rather than posting a full glossary wall.

Reveal order (point and say together):

• Eyes help us see: sight.
• Ears help us hear: hearing.
• Nose helps us smell: smell.
• Tongue (inside the mouth) helps us taste: taste.
• Hands and skin help us feel: touch.

Use the table below as your reference only; do not project the whole table.

Worked example (model aloud with one object before the carousel): Hold up a pine cone or conker from the feely-bag tray. Think aloud: I wonder what this feels like without looking. I predict it will feel bumpy. I test by touching it with my eyes closed. I observed it feels rough and pointy. I think my sense of touch told me that — my hands found out, not my eyes. Hit all four beats so pupils hear a full notice cycle before they rotate.

Misconception to head off: some children think we only have one sense at a time. Gently show that we often use more than one together (we see and hear a bird).

Ask: Which sense would you use to know if soup was too hot before you tasted it? (sight of steam, smell, and careful touch of the bowl — not a wild first taste).

Drive the diagram-labeller on the IWB in explore mode. Pupils do not need devices. Invite volunteers to drag, or drag yourself from class calls.

What appears on screen: a child-body diagram and five sense labels — sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. As each label lands, name the body part clearly: sight → eyes, hearing → ears, smell → nose, taste → tongue (inside the mouth), touch → hands and skin.

Say aloud for taste: Taste uses the tongue inside the mouth. That keeps the precise body part clear even though the label is the sense word.

Key questions: Which sense do we use to hear a bell? Which sense smells lunch? Which sense feels if a pebble is smooth?

Differentiation: less confident pupils point on their own body while a partner names the sense. Confident pupils can give a second example from the classroom for each sense.

Before the Lesson

Set up stations around the room with clear space between them. Place a simple name card at each (Touch, Hearing, Smell, Sight, Taste). Default plan for 1st Class: run three core stations (Touch, Sight, and either Smell or Taste after the allergy check). Keep Hearing and the spare station ready as stretch if groups finish early. Split the class into three small groups. Treat the 15 minutes as: brief teacher model, two solid rotations (about 3–4 minutes each), then whole-class handwash and reset. The third station is a bonus only if time appears — do not force a full three-stop circuit. Use a gentle chime or clap to signal move-on.

Hearing tip: if you include Hearing, place sound jars in a quieter corner away from chatter, or run a brief whole-class sound moment at the front so jar comparisons are not lost in room noise.

Station set-up (gather only — nothing to make)

• Touch (core): prepare three feely bags or pillowcases (one per group), each holding a sponge, a wooden block, a piece of soft fabric, and a pine cone or conker. If bags are short, lay the same four objects on three trays so several children can feel at once. Pupils feel without looking, then may peek. Every child should get a genuine turn to feel in the rotation window.
• Sight (core): a tray of interesting safe objects (a leaf, a shell, a patterned fabric scrap, a shiny spoon) and two or three magnifiers. Pupils look closely and say one detail they notice.
• Smell or Taste (core — choose one after allergy check): Smell: three or four small lidded tubs, spice jars or clean yoghurt pots holding lemon peel, fresh mint or mint tea bag, ground coffee or coffee beans, and a tiny piece of unscented or lightly scented soap. Lids stay on until a sniff; no tasting. Taste: one small clean cup per pupil with a washed fruit piece (for example apple or banana). Pupils taste only their own cup. No sharing. Have water ready.
• Hearing (stretch / quieter corner): four sealed clear jars or tubs with lids, one each of dry rice, dry pasta, cotton wool, and paperclips. Pupils shake gently and describe loud or quiet, and what it might be.
• Spare stretch station: the sense you did not choose as core (Smell or Taste), used only if time allows.

Model before groups move

Briefly model one station action at the front (for example one feel in the feely bag with eyes closed, then name the sense and one finding). Point to the station card and say: The card tells you the sense. Try it. Then say what you found out. Then send groups off so every pupil knows the first move.

Teaching Tips

Stand where you can see all stations. At Taste, supervise closely. Remind: We use gentle hands. We do not taste anything except our own fruit cup. Smell pots are for sniffing only.

Key questions while circulating (anchor two findings per child): Which sense are you using? What did it tell you? Which body part did the work? Could another sense help too? Leave each child with at least two named sense-and-finding pairs they can reuse on the journal page.

What good looks like: a child names the sense, points to the body part, and says one clear finding (for example Touch — it felt bumpy).

If a station runs out of interest: invite a second object description, or ask them to compare two jars or two smells.

End-of-step reset (build into the 15 minutes): stop stations, wipe any fruit juice spills, pupils wash hands (especially after touch and taste). Then run a light whole-class oral harvest before journals: invite two or three children to name a sense and one finding so the whole class hears reusable language. Sit ready for the journal page.

This is the paper recording beat, straight after handwash and the short whole-class oral harvest while findings are still fresh. Hand out the Investigation Journal page only after two or three volunteers have named a sense and one finding aloud, so every pupil has language to reuse even if circulation missed them.

Pupils draw or write simply: the sense, and what it found (for example Hearing — the rice jar was loud and rattly). Pictures and labels fully count.

Do not describe invented boxes or column names on the page. Say only what to record: which sense, and what they noticed.

Support: sentence starters said aloud — I used my sense of… I found out… Scribes or drawing are fine for emerging writers. Point back to the class harvest examples and any pairs you heard while circulating so nobody has to invent from a blank memory.

Challenge: add a third sense, or note when two senses worked together.

Circulate and listen for sense names matched to body parts. That is the learning check for this step.