Children investigate Midtown Sacramento and their school community by using seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching to notice how places, people, and traditions are connected. Through a school scavenger hunt, neighborhood visits with a bakery, community garden, art studio, and local restaurant, and a hands-on bagged popcorn booth, they practice describing what they observe, listening to others, and sharing ideas with care. The experience helps young learners build a sense of belonging, grow confidence in using feedback and reflection, and apply early science, language, and social skills in meaningful community settings. It leads to a Five Senses Fair where families, neighbors, and the school community can experience the children’s discoveries and celebrate how the senses help us connect.

Students identify and describe the five senses as they explore school and Midtown Sacramento, using words, gestures, drawings, and simple comparisons to share what they notice. They practice listening, taking turns, asking questions, and giving kind feedback as they work with classmates and community partners at the bakery, garden, art studio, and restaurant. Students build critical thinking by sorting and comparing sensory experiences, testing ideas during the popcorn booth practice, and revising labels, sounds, and steps based on peer feedback. Students develop a sense of belonging and confidence by connecting sensory discoveries to familiar places, reflecting on what they learned before and after the project, and sharing their thinking with families and the school community at the Five Senses Fair.

Across the project, children will create sensory journals with drawings, photos, and dictated words to capture what they see, hear, smell, taste, and touch during the school scavenger hunt and community visits. They will also make simple class products such as texture rubbings, color collages from the art studio visit, plant observation cards from the garden, and a shared chart of sounds, smells, and tastes noticed at the bakery and restaurant. The culminating product is a hands-on popcorn experience booth for the Five Senses Fair, where students curate bagged popcorn for families to listen to, smell, and feel, with child-made labels and prompts. At the exhibition, students use these products to share one favorite sense-based discovery about Midtown Sacramento and their community.

Kick off the project with a school scavenger hunt where children use picture clues to find things they can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch around campus. At each stop, invite students to pause, notice with one sense, and share a simple observation with a partner, such as “I hear birds” or “I feel rough bark.” End with a circle conversation using the question, “How do seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching help us discover new places and connect with our classmates and community?” Record their ideas on a class chart so they can revisit and grow their thinking across the project.

Host a Five Senses Fair in the school gym for families, neighbors, and the school community, with child-led stations for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching inspired by Midtown Sacramento. At the popcorn booth, students invite guests to listen to, smell, and feel bagged popcorn, then share one favorite discovery using simple sentence frames and picture labels. Include displays from the bakery, community garden, visual arts studio, and cultural restaurant visits, such as photos, student drawings, texture samples, and recorded observations that show how children connected their senses to local places. End with a short sharing circle where students name one sense they used, one kind comment they heard, and one thing they would try next time.