Science: Sweet or Salty

Cynthia (nanny): To kick off our 5 senses unit we did a sweet/salty food test. As I gathered the food, we talked about sweet and salty foods that they knew. 

They were able to tell me what was sweet, but needed an example for salty. As they tasted each item we decided if it was sweet or salty and added it to our graph. 

Just like in our sink or float graph I made sure to let the girls graph the info so they really felt a part of the experience. 

We will add this graph to our display wall so they can review and make connections to graphs we will create in the future. 

Arielle (mommy):

We also did a tasting experiment.   First we discussed the sense of taste and how we use our tongues to taste.  We then discussed the meaning of sweet and salty with the examples of candy and potato chips.

I laid out the different snacks and also cut the packaging so we could have something tangible for our graph.  

As Lil tasted the snacks she decided whether they were sweet or salty, selected the packaging for the item and added it to the correct column on our graph.

When she was done making the graph, I had Lil count the items in each column, then make comparison statements about more and less ("there are more sweet foods than salty foods").

Since we used environmental print (words that are familiar and recurring in a child's surroundings) for the graph I decided it would be a great time to make a book.  Environmental print is awesome for pre readers because it gets them excited about reading and shows them they can already read!  

Now that we have created this book, Lil can feel successful reading the print from the familiar packaging and the pattern text.