Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Tuesday Teachings - Taste

Well, we have moved thru two of the senses and we are now going on to the sense of Taste. Obviously taste is very subjective but we all have things we love or hate.



Our first experiment will be about sweet or sour.
Let the kids make lemonade with you.

Supplies needed:
3 cups cold water
1/2 cup sugar
juice of four lemons
one lemon sliced in rings and then halved

Put the water, sugar and lemon juice in a pitcher and stir well to dissolve the sugar.

Pour each child a glass of lemonade and take a slice of lemon and give to them. First have the child suck on the lemon slice. How does it taste? Is it sweet or sour? Do you like the taste?

Now let the child taste the lemonade. How does it taste? Does it taste like the lemon? Is it sweet or sour? Do you like the taste?



Now we move on to sweet or salty.
Now hand each child a plate with pretzels and apple slices on it. Talk about the difference between sweet and salty then let the kids eat the pretzels and the apples. Which one tastes sweet? Which one tastes salty? Which one do you like best? What are some other things you like to eat that are sweet or salty?



Moving on to hot or cold food.
Now you will give each child a plate with a quarter of a grilled cheese sandwich and a quarter of a regular cheese sandwich on it. Which one is hot and which one is cold? What other foods do you prefer to be cold? What other foods do you prefer to be hot?

Blind Taste Testers
Now you will want a sampling of foods that your child will be able to identify by taste alone. You may want to try crackers, apples, bananas and some of the foods above. Have the kids gather around the table and ask them to close their eyes and open their mouths. Put a small piece of the food in their mouths and ask them to chew and open their eyes. Can they identify the food? Give them hints if necessary. Do they think the food is sweet, salty, sour, hot or cold? Do they like the food?

A good extension of this project will be to talk the kids into trying new foods to see of they are sweet or salty or sour. It is all in the name of science and they may just find something new that they like.

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