Teach through the Senses!

We are headed back to the classroom! And we once again have the opportunity to engage our students in ways digital couldn’t.  Now that we get to shake the rust off, we might be asking ourselves the age-old question, “How do we keep students engaged?”

For me, I teach through the senses whenever possible.  I’ve found that the learning experience is far richer when my students feel like they are part of the lesson. I know that not every day can be a trip to the zoo, but transitioning your lessons to include more hands-on learning is the key to success. 

For instance, when teaching likes and dislikes in Mandarin, I place foods with strong smells (coffee, orange, vanilla, mint, etc.) into film canisters and have my students (ages 2 - 6) guess the smell and repeat in Mandarin whether they liked it or not (“Wǒ xǐhuān.” “I like it.”) or not (“Wǒ bù xǐhuān.” “I don’t like it.”). That lesson appears in September, and throughout the rest of the year, teachers and parents regularly tell me that their children still express their likes and dislikes in Mandarin.  My classes are 20 minutes long and I can only review so much. So I believe there is a specific reason that these expressions especially resonate with them. This lesson masterfully interweaves the senses, adventure and repetition. Let me show you.

The activity is 15 minutes long and it’s made up of  5-7 rounds. Each round offers students a new food vocabulary word and the opportunity to guess what that food is. Then, students express in Mandarin whether they like the scent or not. Right away, you can see how I engage the senses. Focusing on the sense of smell is not a common sense we use in the classroom, and to deprive them of their sense of sight, which they always have, is exciting in itself. The adventure is the journey through the rounds and seeing who can uncover what each scent is.  Their smiles of surprise and their squints of displeasure (no one ever likes vinegar, haha!) when it comes to the scents are rewarding as it is, but then you hear them confidently relaying what they like and dislike in Mandarin and it’s simply the best.  From a teaching standpoint, you can see the repetition of vocabulary.  Children, and people in general, need consistency when they learn. So although the scent changes with the round, the process through each round is the same. This grounds the students while the adventure of the unknown activates their curiosity and their senses. This makes the learning process seamless, even if it’s in Mandarin!

So next time you’re lesson planning, start to ask yourself what senses you will be implementing. Will you teach farm animals by listening to the sounds they make, or will you teach through touch and have students guess what objects (aka target vocabulary!) you’ve placed in paper bags. The choices are endless and it will leave you and your students senseless with joy!