Invasive Species Council of British Columbia

For Educators

Unit: We Care for the Land and Prevent the Spread of Invasive Species – Activity 1: Notice Nature with All Your Senses

Grade: 4 to 6

Duration: 15 minutes - 1 hour

Setting: Outdoor

Subjects: Physical and Health Education, Science

Physical Activity: No

Caring for the land starts by slowing down and noticing the natural world around us. Here are simple guided activities that can be done anywhere outdoors. These activities increase sensory awareness, help to build self-regulation, build confidence, and create a deeper connection to nature.

This is the first activity in the Grade 4-6 Learning Resource, We Care for the Land and Prevent the Spread of Invasive Species. Please see the Overview for this resource for more information, including the lesson sequence.

Learning Objectives

By participating in this activity, students will:

  • increase their awareness of the natural world around them
  • build mindfulness skills and mental stamina to be still and quiet as an observer of the natural world around them
  • be able to describe and document smells, sights, sounds, and textures of living and non-living things outdoors
Inquiry Questions
  • What can I learn about nature through my senses?
  • How does connecting to nature change how I behave and feel?
  • How do people and other animals (or plants!) sense and respond to the environment?
BC Curriculum Links

Physical Health Education Curricular Competencies: assess strategies for promoting mental well-being (Grades 4-6)

Science Big Ideas

  • All living things sense and respond to their environment (Grade 4)

Science Curricular Competencies

  • Explore and pose questions that lead to investigations (Grades 5-6)
  • Experience and interpret the local environment (Grades 4-6)
  • Express and reflect on personal/ shared or others’ experience of place (Grades 4-6)
  • Make observations in familiar or unfamiliar contexts (Grades 5-6)
  • Demonstrate curiosity about the natural world (Grades 4)
  • Make observations about living and non-living things in the local environment (Grades 4)
  • Collect simple data (Grades 4)
  • Communicate ideas, explanations, and processes in a variety of ways (Grades 4-6)

Materials

  • To make outdoor seats (sit-upons; See link in Additional Resources section): cardboard, newspaper, plastic bags, duct tape.
  • Optional tools for sensory exploration: magnifiers, collection containers (plastic containers, clean egg cartons) for temporary collection and viewing of plants, fungi, insects, rocks, etc.
  • Optional nature journals to record observations
  • Paper and pencils- for Texture Hunt and Sound Map
  • Rope – for Blind Trail
  • Paint chip samples- for Rainbow Chips
  • Cups- for Forest Perfume
Background Information

Outdoor learning and building a connection to nature has not only intellectual benefits but also numerous benefits to health and wellness. These benefits include emotional regulation, increased focus, stress reduction, and improved physical health. There are also numerous studies showing the benefits of nature connection to student learning, including sparking curiosity; enhancing communication and critical thinking; increasing collaboration with peers; and increasing student interest and engagement in science. Being outdoors in the fresh air helps us notice what’s around us and start to build a connection to the non-human world. It is important to realize that we are a part of nature, not separate from it. The laws of nature apply to humans too! By building a connection to the land, we can start to care about it and give back. This includes preventing the spread of invasive species—one of the greatest threats to biodiversity.

Invasive species are living organisms, such as plants, animals, fungi, or microorganisms, that have been introduced, intentionally or by accident, into an area outside of their native range. Without their natural pathogens and predators, they are capable of taking over habitats, negatively affecting the economy, and harming human health and safety. Invasive species are considered the second greatest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss. For more information on invasive species and their impacts visit What’s the Big Deal (ISCBC) and see Background on Invasive Species[SW1] .

Preparation

Find a Location and Establish Routines

  • Find an easily accessible outdoor space that you want to visit with your group regularly. Check for safety concerns. Nature is everywhere! Vacant lots, playing fields, and the trees, shrubs, and gardens in a neighbourhood are rich outdoor learning spaces. If possible, select a place that has a variety of plants that have been left alone or are minimally tended. You will be surprised at how much life there is even on a paved area if you look carefully.
  • If outdoor learning is new to your group, share with students (and parents/guardians) that you will be bringing the learning outdoors. Discuss appropriate clothing and footwear, sun safety and hydration. Establish routines so students become familiar with the outdoors as a place to learn and explore while following directions, rather than recess time where students are used to free play. Practice your routine regularly so that it becomes as second nature to students as their indoor learning routines. Some suggestions for getting started are:
    • Start with short periods of time spent outdoors and simple guided tasks. Take advantage of times when the students are already outdoors, like after recess and lunch. Gather the group and switch to outdoor learning time by presenting a structured lesson or activity.
    • Have a ‘home base’ from which students can explore within clear boundaries and within your sight. Have a specific call or whistle to draw them back to the ‘home base’ and to get everyone’s attention. Have a clear signal to designate when it is listening time and practice getting focused quickly.
    • It can help to have a particular lineup sequence or buddy groups to help establish routines for safety, and for you to quickly know if someone isn’t with the group.
    • Develop short rituals to help ground everyone and signify the start and end of an outdoor activity. This could include meeting in a particular place outside, gathering in a circle, rhythmic clapping, taking some deep breaths together, or offering a territorial acknowledgment and gratitude for the land. Even if outdoor time is very brief, include a closing ritual, such as a gratitude circle, a moment of silent reflection, or a ‘pair-share’ of something that was noticed, learned, or meaningful.
  • See the Additional Resources, Outdoor Learning Tips and Tools section for more suggestions.

Make and Gather Outdoor Learning Tools

  • Involve students in preparing for and getting invested in their outdoor learning experiences by making their own tools and supplies that will enhance their experiences in nature. Make sample outdoor tools, such as a sit-upon, in advance to show students.
  • Have students gather materials from home recycling bins (cardboard, newspaper, small clean containers) or collect from the school.
  • See the Additional Resources section for more information on how to make your own outdoor tools.
Procedure

These sensory activities can be done each time you go outdoors with your students. You may discover something new each time, whether you always go to the same location or compare experiences and findings in different locations. Spend a bit more time exploring and discovering by including observations in nature journals (sketches, measurements, written observations, bark or leaf rubbings, etc.), or by temporarily collecting items and looking at them more closely using magnifiers.

Sensory Warm Up Circle (10 min or longer)

Sensory warm ups may be brief and can be part of how you initiate an outdoor learning routine before doing more exploration. Or a sensory warm up can be more in depth and the entire focus of your exploration. In either case, sensory warm ups help to ground and settle us, increase mindfulness, and hone us into our senses, allowing us to notice the world around us and connect to the non-human world more deeply. Do this regularly and compare and contrast your experiences each time! 

  1. Gather everyone in a circle and let them know we will be waking up each of our senses to better observe and explore the environment. Remind them that many of the greatest discoveries about our world start with observations, and that most of the time we are too busy in our thoughts or not tuned in to the natural world around us to notice what is there.
  2. Ask them what are our five main senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste). Are there any other senses?
    • Humans also have other lesser known senses, such as proprioception (awareness of the position and movement of the body, which helps with balance and coordination). We also have the ability to sense temperature and air currents, hunger, and thirst.
    • People with synesthesia can experience sensory “crossovers”, such as seeing sounds as colors, associating certain sights with smells, or tasting colours.
    • Other animals have different senses than humans. For example, some snakes (pit vipers, boas and pythons) have special organs that detect infrared radiation, creating a thermal image that allows them to “see” the heat produced by warm-blooded animals. Because of this, they can hunt their prey in total darkness. Salmon and many birds can sense the Earth’s magnetic field and use this to help navigate in long migrations. Bats and orcas use echolocation to hunt and navigate- they emit high-pitched sounds and use the reflected sound waves (the echos) to determine the size, location, and movement of objects including their prey.
  3. Go through each sense individually, waking each one up as you go.
    • Touch: have everyone rub their hands together vigorously until they feel heat energy being generated between their palms when they pull them apart slightly. Do this until everyone has “woken up” their fingers.
    • Hearing: Have everyone put on “deer ears” – cup hands around their ears so the area for capturing sound is enlarged. To demonstrate how effective larger ears are, have everyone take their “deer ears” off as you keep speaking, and then put them on again, noting how much louder your voice or other sounds become. Try having the group put the “ears” on backwards to hear sounds behind them. Now have everyone close their eyes (to block out the dominant sense of sight) and count the number of different sounds they hear in a 20 – 30 second time frame. Younger students might want to hold up their fingers for each sound. Ask people how many sounds they heard, and to describe some of them.
    • Smell: Have everyone close their eyes and focus on their sense of smell by taking a breath through their mouths and then two big breaths through their nose. Have different people in the circle describe what they smell. Now have the group turn to face out of the circle and repeat the smelling exercise; ask for any different scents.
    • Taste: If it is raining, have everyone taste a raindrop, or some seawater if you are on the beach, but otherwise save the tasting for lunchtime! Some plants are poisonous (or have poisonous look-alikes) or can cause allergic reactions.
    • Sight: Close your eyes and count to 10. Then open them. Try a bird’s eye view and a snail’s eye view by looking up at the sky or at tree branches, then crouching down to look at the miniature details around your feet. What did you notice that you had overlooked before?  How many different colours can you see?
  4. Debrief and discuss the experiences as a whole group or using Think, Pair, Share (Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education).  What was something that students noticed? What surprised them most? What would they like to learn more about? How does this place or experience compare to other places or outdoor nature experiences they’ve had in the past?

Deep Dive into Senses (15 min per sense)

After doing the Sensory Wake Up Circle, whether on the same day or on another outdoor session, you can explore the surrounding environment focusing deeper on one sense at a time. Try one or more of the following quick and engaging sensory activities. Try using nature journals to record experiences, and use other tools, such as containers or magnifiers, to help guide exploration. Be sure to debrief the activity with some sharing and discussion. See Discussion Routines in outdoor learning from the Beetles Project (University of California, Lawrence Hall of Science) for some suggestions to structure discussions. Some examples of activities to dive deeper into the senses include the following.

  • Texture hunt. Incorporate language arts and have your group come up with a list of as many adjectives that they can to describe textures, such as rough, smooth, slimy, spiky, rubbery, gooey, cold, wet, jagged, etc. Write each word on a separate index card or small piece of paper and randomly distribute the cards to individuals or small groups. Have students explore and try to find something matching that description. Once they find a texture match, have them swap their card for a different one.
    • Discuss: What did you find that matched the texture descriptions? Were there any textures that you were not able to match? What surprised you about this activity? What role does the texture serve that living organism? How might it help in its survival? (For example, thick leaves, hairs, or spines help prevent being eaten by herbivores such as deer or insects.) Note that many invasive plants have features that prevent them from being eaten by herbivores or that allow them to spread and outcompete native plants.
  • Rainbow chips. Is every colour of the rainbow found in nature?  Get paint colour samples from a hardware store and distribute them. Have students try to find the closest colour match that they can to a plant or natural object.
    • Discuss: What colour was most difficult to match? Easiest? How might the experience be different at another time of year?  What role do colours play in nature and how do animals sense and respond to different colours? (Some examples: Hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers; plants are green due to chlorophyll, which allows them to photosynthesize and make energy from sunlight; prey animals are often camouflaged to blend in with their environment, whereas others may have bright colours – often red- to signify that they are poisonous; people wear “high vis” vests to stand out for safety reasons using colours that are rare in natural environments.)
  • Forest perfume. Give each student a small cup. Gather small amounts of natural materials that have fallen or are on the ground (leaves, soil, conifer needles, petals). Use a stick to crush and stir the concoction and to release scents. Smell your perfume and describe it; give it a creative name (for example, “Rooty fruity” or “Pine Potion #9”.)
    • Discuss: Compare your perfume to others’ – can you tell them apart? What is the role of scent in nature and how do living organisms sense and respond to scent? (Some examples: plants have chemical compounds that release scents and which help them to attract pollinators and deter herbivores. Some invasive plants, such as Himalayan balsam, are so fragrant and have so much nectar that they draw pollinators away from native plants.)
  • Sound maps. Give each student a piece of paper and pencil. Mark an X or a symbol to represent themself in the middle of the paper. Have everyone listen in silence to the sounds nearby. For every sound, make a symbol or quick sketch on the page representing that sound, including the type of sound it is (bird call, traffic, dog barking, wind whistling in the trees, etc), where it is coming from related to their position, how loud it is, etc. This activity can serve as a little introduction to nature journalling and a reminder that drawings don’t need to elaborate. (See Activity 3.Nature Journal Discoveries[SW2] ).
    • Discuss: Compare sound maps. Did everyone hear the same sounds?  Were there any sounds that you couldn’t recognize? How many sounds were made by humans or human-made machines? How many were made by other animals or the natural environment? How do different animals sense and respond to sound? (Sound travels as a wave and has different frequencies. Some animals can emit and perceive sounds that are beyond our range of hearing, such as dogs, bats, and elephants. Birds have different calls to keep a flock together and to warn of predators. If you hear many crows or gulls calling, look carefully and you may find an eagle or owl nearby!)
  • Blind trail. Sighted peoples’ experience of the world is dominated by vision. When we close our eyes, we are able to enhance our other senses, such as touch and hearing, and experience the world differently. Create a “trail” by tying a long rope to a series of nearby trees. Have students blindfold each other and then start at one end of the trail, slowly and carefully following the trail through the trees by holding on to the rope. Alternatively, you can create a trail by having two students who are not blindfolded each holding an end of the rope. Blindfolded students hold on to the rope and are slowly and carefully guided through an area. Another option is to do this activity as a trust-building exercise with partners, where a blindfolded student is taken on a gentle guided walk by another student who doesn’t have a blindfold on (then switch). In whatever way you choose to do this activity, encourage students to do this in silence and to notice the smells, textures, and sounds around them.
    • Discuss: What did it feel like to do this activity? How did you sense the world without being able to see? What did you notice that you might not have noticed had your eyes been open? What do you think it would be like to be blind? Consider what it might be like to be an animal that experiences the world predominantly through senses other than sight. (For example, a black bear can smell food from several kilometers away. Salmon can detect chemicals at extremely low concentrations- one part per million- to smell their way back to the stream where they were born. Bats and orcas use their keen sense of hearing and echolocation to detect and hunt down their prey. The feathers around the face of a barn owl directs sound like a satellite dish straight to their ears, enabling them to locate and catch their prey in complete darkness or even under deep snow!)
Reflections and Assessment
  • If you were to give up one sense, what would it be and why? How does our ability to sense the natural world help in our survival? How does it compare to other living organisms’ ability to sense and respond to the world?
  • Wrap up the activity with a gratitude circle, a moment of silent reflection, or Think-Pair-Share of something that was noticed, was meaningful, or was most surprising. See the “Discussion Routines” document in the Additional Resources section for ways to deepen student engagement and discussion.
  • Have an “Exit Pass” to the teacher or to a buddy to share: 2 things you noticed, 1 thing you want to learn more about.
  • Have students write the things they’d like to know more about on a displayed piece of chart paper. This can be a “Wonder Wall” that can be added to throughout the unit. You can cross wonders off as the class finds answers through lessons or inquiry.
  • Have the students make some journal entries illustrating what they learned or sensed.
  • 20 Fun and Easy Strategies for Assessing Learning Outdoors  
Accessibility and Adaptations
  • Bring the outdoors indoors. For students that have limited mobility or on days when weather conditions prohibit time outdoors, bring small natural objects (a variety of leaves, twigs, cones, rocks, etc) indoors.
  • Energetic students can be given specific roles, jobs, or responsibilities, such as carrying supplies, which can help focus their energy in a positive way.
  • If possible, choose a time of day to go outdoors when students are better able to focus, such as right after lunch/recess or physical activity. Or consider bringing a healthy snack outdoors.
  • Students who are visually or hearing impaired can be role models and leaders for the group, as their perception of sounds, textures, and/or visual cues may be enhanced compared to sighted or hearing students.
Extensions
  • Do a sensory hunt and exploration using digital photography. Take photos of natural objects representing each sense, such as a thorny stem for touch, fir or spruce needles for smell, berries for taste. Present as a slide show.
  • How do other living beings perceive the world differently than we do?  Do some research to compare and contrast human senses to that of another animal, such as a bear, salmon, dragonfly, or eagle. Even consider how plants can sense and communicate. What systems does each organism have that helps it to sense and respond to its particular environment and to survive? 
Connections to First Peoples’ Perspectives

For Indigenous people, awareness of the natural world was traditionally a matter of life and death. People needed to be acutely aware of the weather, seasonal changes, plant growth and animal behaviour in order to know how and when to hunt, fish, and harvest, to travel, and other day to day or seasonal activities. Honing sensory awareness is also part of some Indigenous games. Try this!

Rattler:  Participants form a circle around a participant who is blindfolded and sitting down. A “rattling ball”, or a ball with small rocks, pebbles, beans, etc. contained inside, is tossed around by the participants who are forming the circle. The blindfolded person tries to catch the ball. Once the ball is caught, a new participant is blindfolded and takes the spot in the middle.

In the past, the player with the “rattle”, a ball made of hide and pebbles, was the “snake”, and the blindfolded person was the “hunter”. This game allowed children to improve their survival skills and their ability to hunt small game.

(A Blackfoot game, submitted by Belinda Crowson, The Galt Museum, Lethbridge, AB from Indigenous Games for Children, from Indigenous Communities across Canada)

Additional Resources

Outdoor Learning Tips and Tools

Sensory Awareness Activities

Field Identification Tools