Island Grown at Home

Tuesday, July 7th, 2020

Five Senses Scavenger Hunt

What can you learn about the outdoors by seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, and touching?

Sight- Use your sight to observe any changes in your yard and garden

Can you find any insects or birds?
Are there any new colors?
Does anything look different than yesterday? What about last week?

Hearing- Take a moment to be still and quiet and count how many things you hear

Airplanes
Breeze in the trees
Birds
Wind chimes
Cars on the road

Touch- How many different textures can you find?

Moss
Grass
Different types of leaves
Flower petals
Soil

Smell- Lots of plants have interesting smells. Do you think they smell similar to how they taste?

Herbs- Lavender, sage, mint
Flowers- Lilies, nasturtiums, roses

Taste- We all love to taste food from the garden! How many of your plants are ready for a taste test?

Herbs- Mint, basil
Edible flowers- Johnny Jump-ups, nasturtiums, bachelor buttons
Peas
Lettuce
Kale

Activities

Explore your Five Senses

Sight

Make a photo book of objects you find in your yard or home
Play "I Spy"
Put food coloring in a jar of water, and add white flowers or celery sticks. Watch as the color absorbs into the plant after a few days!

Hearing

Experiment with making instruments out of different objects in your kitchen or in your recycling bin.
Take a walk in your neighborhood and make a list of all the different sounds- sirens, dogs barking, birds singing, car engines
Put small rocks, beans, and sand into plastic eggs or small containers with lids and shake them. Do different sized objects make different sounds?

Touch

Use a bowl to make a sensory bin with beans, sand, or shaving cream
Find objects with different textures around your home and sort them by texture- soft, rough, smooth, and squishy
Use glue to write your name on a piece of paper, then sprinkle sand on the letters to make sensory name art

Smell

Add herbs or essential oils to playdough or paint
Put small amounts of spices from your pantry in little containers, then try to guess what they are

Taste

Yogurt painting- mix food coloring with a little yogurt and let small children use it to "paint"
Make a smoothie together- taste teach ingredient on its own first, then taste the finished product. Can you still taste each ingredient?
Do a taste test of different colors of the same food, like tomatoes or apples. Does each color taste the same or different?

Resources

More Resources

More fun five senses activities for kids

How to plant a sensory garden

What can you still plant in July?

Plant of the Week

Milkweed

Milkweed gets its name from the sticky white sap that seeps out of its leaves and stems. It also makes beautiful flowers, and is an essential food source for Monarch butterflies. Monarchs lay their eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. When the eggs hatch, the larvae are able to feed on the milkweed without damaging the plant. The toxic chemicals present in the milkweed sap protect the Monarch caterpillars by making them unappetizing to predators.

Find all Plants + Bugs of the Week

Recipe of the Week

Celebrate July with this Harvest of the Month recipe from Chef Gabrielle Chronister !

Mushroom Walnut "Meat" Balls

4 oz (about 1 cup chopped) crimini, portobello, or button mushrooms

1 cup raw walnuts

1/3 cup cooked brown rice

1/4 cup raw rolled oats

1/4 cup fresh parsley, loosely packed

1 garlic clove

2 tbl nutritional yeast

1 tsp sea salt

Place walnuts in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside.

Next, process mushrooms until chopped and add to the bowl of walnuts. Set aside.

Place remaining ingredients in the food processor and pulse until just combined. Add mixture to the bowl of mushrooms and walnuts and mix with a spoon or by hand. Roll into balls and cook in an oiled skillet on medium/high heat until heated through, browning all sides.

Enjoy as is or over pasta/zoodles with your favorite pesto or red sauce.

Recipe Card