SINGAPORE, 24 MAY, 2018: Kindergarten students in Mountbatten celebrated the Sense Booth Week last month, learning about the five sensory organs of the human body through demonstrations and experience in a three-day outing which ended with the children learning more about these essential aspects in a fun and interactive manner.

Booths set up at the event held activities which would demonstrate the workings of the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing, as curious students participated with zeal to understand various concepts. 

In the first Touch booth, students got to experience how objects have different textures, like softness, roughness, smoothness etc. Objects like cotton, fruit wrappers, marbles, feathers, a rough matt, a piece of satin cloth etc were used to provide the wide tactile experiences. Students used hands and feet to experience the sense.  

The next booth was the Taste Booth which was lined up with snacks of varying flavours by teachers. Sweet raisins, sweet honey, sour lime and bitter gourd were used to give them a sense of varied tastes. As the students tried a variety of treats, some savoured the sweetness of honey, while others frowned at the taste of sour tamarind. The teachers explained how the different parts of the tongue help us to sense varying tastes.

Moving on to the Hearing Booth, the students listened to different types of sounds ranging from conch to whistles and bells. The children played varying musical instruments such as drums, sound boxes, bells and cymbals to make sounds of their own. They keenly observed the different tunes and pitches produced by the diverse instruments and attained sufficient knowledge in understanding the sense of hearing better.

With unwavering enthusiasm and giggles, the students visited the Sight Booth and engaged in activities such as pinning the monkey’s tail, understanding braille alphabets and looking at fingerprints using a magnifying glass. The visual-oriented activities piqued the curiosity of the children as they learned more about sight.

The week came to a conclusion as students visited the Smell Booth and immersed in the distinct aromas of perfumes, soap, flowers, garlic and incense sticks. They gained a better understanding of the varying types of smell present in different objects. While the scent of perfumes and flowers were well loved by the children, disdain was evident in their faces when they were asked to smell less pleasant smells like garlic. As the educative week came to an end, students were equipped with a new-found understanding of all their five senses. It has expanded their perception of themselves and the world around them.