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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}R.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 187px; float: right;" />The Senses curriculum is one of the simplest curricula taught during our internship Every kindergartener in my group could list all five senses upon arriving at Au Sable. But the point was to teach them how to&nbsp;<em>engage</em>&nbsp;all their senses. This is a little trickier. My initial thought was &ldquo;of course I use all my senses to take in my environment, this is nothing new.&rdquo; However, sometimes big kids need kindergarten reminders too.</p>
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	In the Senses program, one of the teaching stations had the students put blindfolds on and use only their sense of touch to match pairs of natural objects (pine cones, rocks, pine needles, sticks) in front of them. We then conduct a little experiment. With the first group, I had shown them what was on the tray before blindfolding them, thinking &ldquo;oh, seeing what they will be feeling will help them.&rdquo; The second group, I simply blindfolded them and explained they would be doing a matching game only using their sense of touch, thinking, &ldquo;I hope this is enough of a description.&rdquo;</p>
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	The second group, who didn&rsquo;t see the materials before hand, took only about a minute or two for every student to have successfully matched their materials as opposed to the first group, who took much longer and struggled to match their materials. The second group didn&rsquo;t have the visual images in their mind of what they would be matching, therefore they weren&rsquo;t trying to picture it. They were simply able to use their sense of touch to accomplish the matching.&nbsp;</p>
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	This demonstrated that each individual sense is strong when engaged independently and in order to fully experience something it is best to &ldquo;shut off&rdquo; certain senses and only use one at a time. By closing my eyes, I am able to hear my surroundings more clearly because my ears are more engaged without sight. When smelling a flower, I often close my eyes in order to fully experience the sweet smell.&nbsp;</p>
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	These exercises made me aware of the fact that I often don&rsquo;t fully engage myself in my surroundings, and thus miss out on all there is to offer.&nbsp; Mentally being in the moment (not the past or future) is essential in experiencing a location through our senses, yet is difficult for most people because life tends to get over-crowded with responsibilities that cause us to focus more on the future and less on the &ldquo;here and now.&rdquo; By learning about senses with my kindergarteners, I became aware that I need to practice being in the moment and open myself up to fully engaging my senses in order to experience my environment.</p>
<p>
	This morning I chose to be in the moment and stand by the pond to fully experience my surroundings by focusing on using each individual sense. I closed my eyes to hear the wind blowing through the trees and lifted my hands above my head to feel the cool air dance along my skin and play with my arm hair.&nbsp; I smelled the moldy, dirt smell that comes after a spring rain and gives a sense of being a part of the Earth and reminds me of the taste of dirt from when I was a kid gardening and playing the mud. By opening my eyes, I can see the power of the wind as it wipes the tops of trees in circles and causes waves on the water surface.</p>
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	Important lessons learned at a young age become important reminders later in life.</p>
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