Tongue and Taste

This is a very popular project. The kids, ever optimistic, expect chocolate chips. Somebody else will get the lemon.

Objectives

Children participating will be able to describe food as sweet, sour, and bitter
and they will be able to identify food by taste alone
Children ages 4-5 can answer questions classifying food types by taste Lang. IA
and ages 2 ½-2 can name common foods Lang. IB

 
 
 

Materials

A tray with various small portions of foods (oranges, bananas, cracker, lemon, peanut butter, grape juice, lettuce, celery, raisins, chocolate chips, bitter chocolates, etc.); blindfold; various pictures and illustrations of the tongue and taste buds.

Procedures

l. Have children sit in a semi-circle. Put the tray of food within reach but out of sight of the children. Ask the children how they taste food. Show pictures and illustrations of the tongue and taste buds and describe their functions.

2. Choose one child to be blindfolded. Show the other children what (s)he is going to taste, but remind them not to tell the guesser.

3. Let the blindfolded child try guessing what food (s)he is getting just by smelling. Then let the guesser taste the food. Ask if (s)he still thinks it's ...(orange)... Take off the blindfold and let the child see what kind of food (s)he just ate.

4. As all the food is tasted and identified, ask each child if the food (s)he has is sweet, sour, salty, or bitter. Ask the other children if they agree. If there is disagreement, have all the children taste a small portion and discuss the taste.

5. Refer to the anatomy pictures and review the function of the tongue and taste buds as the children try different samples of food.