I Can TOUCH!
“I Can Touch” Unit: God Made Me- My 5 Senses
LESSON PURPOSE: GOD GAVE ME HANDS & FEET TO TOUCH!
MATERIALS: Learning & teaching toys: fall things, play dough or Mr. Potato heads. Craft materials: see below.
SONG IDEAS: Hockey Pockey / Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes / If You're Happy & You Know It.
BOOKS: Piggies by Audrey Wood, My Hands by Aliki My Feet by Aliki
AS CHILDREN ARRIVE: Sensory Play
Fall Sensory Bin: Bin filled with corn kernels, pine cones, leaves, nuts, apples, pumpkins, squash. Magnifying glasses, funnels, cups. Let children explore!
Mr. Potato Heads: Children can create a variety of Mr. Potato heads!
Play Dough: children can explore with play dough through touch.
SCRIPTURE: We are God’s hands & feet! God loves us and lives in us.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. -1 Corinthians 12:27
WELCOME: SONG, PRAYER, TP Greeting
REVIEW & TRANSITION: Our senses are a gift from God! Who can tell us what 2 things we learned about last week? (Our Nose is for smelling & our mouth is for tasting!) What kinds of things did you smell and taste this morning? Give me Five: We also learned that good listeners have looking eyes (make binoculars with hands), listening ears (large ears with hands) and zipped lips (motion zipper). Let’s sing our 5 senses songs!
“I use my eyes to see. I use my eyes to see. Hi, Ho, Did you know? I use my eyes to see!” “I use my ears to hear. I use my ears to hear. Hi, Ho, Did you know? I use my ears to hear!” “I use my nose to smell. I use my nose to smell. Hi, Ho Did you know? I use my nose to smell!” “I use my mouth to taste. I use my mouth to taste. Hi, Ho Did you know? I use my mouth to taste!”
ATTENTION GRABBER: Choose 1
Mystery Box: Our hands help us to feel different textures! Soft, hard, smooth, bumpy. Can you guess what item you are feeling inside the box? (without looking) Demonstrate describing the item. (I feel something that is round, smooth & rubbery- it’s a ball!) Then give children turns to guess what they are touching. (Great items: stuffed animal, ball, toothbrush, pinecone, feather, string, legos, car.)
INTRO: Today we’ll learn about our hands & feet!
VIDEOS:
Can't Stop The Feeling- Dance Movement Video
READ ALOUD: Piggies by Audrey Wood, My Hands by Aliki My Feet by Aliki
*TEACHING POINT 1: God Gave Me Hands!
SONG: “I use my hands to touch. I use my hands to touch. Hi, Ho, Did you know? I use my hands to touch!” (The Farmer in the Dell)
TEACHING with DISCUSSION:
God gave us our Hands so we that we can feel & touch, explore the world around us! Let’s see your hands! You have a left hand & a right hand! How many fingers do you have? Let’s count them! Our hands can tell many stories: Hello & Goodbye (waving), Sounds good (thumbs up!), I don’t like that (thumbs down), Great job (high five!), Nice to Meet You (handshake), Love you (blow kiss), Let’s Play (Peekaboo!). Our hands also extend out to our arms with which we can give hugs to others! *Practice the actions with our hands! (Some people who can’t hear use “sign language” to communicate with their hands and those who can’t see use “brail” by reading with their fingers..)
What else can we do with our hands? (Eat, brush our teeth, get dressed, play, climb…) We touch many things every day with our hands! We feel textures with our hands: soft, hard, bumpy, smooth, hot, cold... How do we keep our hands clean? We wash our hands with warm soap & water after playing outside, coming home from school or storm, petting an animal, using the bathroom. (Optional: Sense of Touch/Hands- Do a “book walk” here just flipping through pages and talking together about the pictures).
Give Me Five- When being a good listener- our hands are still, folded quietly in our lap. We respect others and our teacher by keeping our hands to ourselves. If we’d like a turn to speak, we can quietly signal this by- raising our hand! We also use gentle hands when we play with our friends! We take turns and share with our hands to be a good friend!
GROUP ACTIVITY: Children can explore with their hands. Choose 1:
Sing a Song! If You’re Happy And You Know It!
Sort Toys: Take turns sorting toys in a circle in to two hula hoops: soft vs. hard toys.
Pumpkin Dissection: Have children feel and describe the outside. Teacher then cuts it open & let’s children feel & describe the inside of the pumpkin! Squishy, slimy.
*TEACHING POINT 2: God Gave Me Feet!
SONG: “I use my feet to walk. I use my feet to walk. Hi, Ho, Did you know? I use my feet to walk!” The Farmer in the Dell
TEACHING with DISCUSSION:
God gave us our feet! Let’s take off our shoes & socks! Oh no, are they stinky feet? Show me your feet! Are they ticklish? (Tickle feet with a feather). Our feet our sensitive to touch. Our feet carry our whole body from place to place! We take good care of our feet by wearing shoes, washing our feet, taking care of our toe nails. How many toes do you have? (Optional: Sing “1 little piggy…”) What do you like to do with your feet? (walk, run, hop, jump, skip, leap, twirl, tip toe, kick…) Practice the different movements! What do you like to feel between your toes? Grass, sand, cozy blankets, water. (Optional: Read a story about feet.)
Give Me Five- When being a good listener- our legs are crossed. During class, we use walking feet unless our teacher wants us to dance, jump or run.
GROUP ACTIVITY: Children can explore with their feet! Choose 1:
Sensory Walk: Have children step on to different textures with their feet. For example: soft blanket, carpet, grass, bubble wrap, play doh. If outside and willing to get more messy: walk in tubs of: water, shaving cream, sand, rocks, pom poms.
Movement Song Ideas: Hockey Pockey/ Shake My Sillies Out / Walking, Walking
Marching, Marching, Marching Marching. Hop, hop, hop. Hop, hop, hop. Running, running, running. Running, running, running. Now we stop! Now we stop!”
Freeze Dance: Let’s use our feet, hands & body to play freeze dance to music!
CONCLUSION:
So, who can tell me what we learned today? Pair Share- about favorite part of lesson. God gave us our bodies- hands & feet and our sense of touch to bring us joy! We can express ourselves through using our hands and feet! We can also touch and feel textures around us.
TITHING & PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Parent, thank you for giving us our hands & feet to touch and feel everything around us. We’re so grateful to be able to do so many wonderful things with our hands and feet. We will do our best to keep them clean and make good choices with our hands & feet. Amen. Aju!
CRAFTS! Choose 1 or more of the following options:
Hand Prints & Footprints Painting: Make hand prints & footprints with paint. Individual art or 1 large one as a class to hang up when dry!
Sensory box or sheet: Decorate a tissue box with a different texture on each side, make a texture collage on a sheet of paper.
Fingerprint Printable: “God made me special. No one has fingerprints like mine.” Make fingerprints with stamps on the magnifying glass worksheet.
Fall Sensory Bags: Fill zip loc bags with red & yellow paint, glitter, fake leaves- cover the top with tape. Watch colors mix as you squish the colors together.
SNACK IDEAS:
Enjoy the lesson! Feel free to submit photos to lgavin@unification.org Love seeing lessons come to life and each community!
