Orange Sensations!

Today we explored the colour orange through our sense of taste, touch and smell. We made orange jelly boats and carrot cake, tasted melons, oranges, tangellos, apricots, apricot delight, twisties and cornchips. We discussed sweet, savoury and salty, and talked about textures- things that were crunchy, chewy, soft or smooth.

Our Occupational Therapist, Michelle, has been encouraging us to help the children think about different textures in their mouths and how it makes them feel. Do they like the deep pressure associated with chewing things, crunching objects such as carrot or do they prefer soft soothing sensations such as jelly and bananas. Knowing the answer to this can help us assist the children to find things that calm them.

Simple activities such as taste testing also provide us with an opportunity to teach so many concepts and oral language skills all at once, in a meaningful context, and it's an opportunity for the children to enlighten us on what they know or observe.