Last year, I noticed that my students really struggled with sensory details. They struggled to fully grasp the concept and properly employ the skill. As I looked for ways to make the concept more concrete and accessible, a common thread I discovered in my research was the need for students to actively engage their own 5 senses in real time while discussing and trying out the use of sensory details.
Some suggestions included setting up stations where students could engage each sense independently or snacking on apples, which made it possible to engage all 5 senses at once. I appreciated both of these ideas. In order to fit such an activity into our limited schedule (especially given how long it can take students to do relatively simple tasks), I determined that engaging all of our senses with one activity would be best. However, I felt that to maximize the authenticity and meaningfulness of the experience, I needed to offer students a sense of novelty.
My sister introduces me to new and exciting snacks regularly. She is willing to try all kinds of snacks, and she always has her eyes open for them. It so happened that as I was pondering what I might offer my students for our sensory experience, my sister introduced me to flavored pickles - I mean wildly flavored, like strawberry, grape, and fruit punch. After sampling the various intriguing flavors, I knew right away that this was what I wanted to offer my students. My sister advised me that the product was not inexpensive, especially for the number of students I’d be providing for. If you’re a teacher, you already know that most of the fun novel experiences we bring to daily classroom life are funded out of our own pockets. Since teacher pockets aren’t deep, we have to get creative. A little research yielded a Kool-Aid Pickles recipe that would cost a lot less.
Making rather than buying our Kool-Aid pickles not only reduced the cost, but also increased the meaningfulness of the experience, because students were invested in trying something new that they had made. Additionally, waiting for the flavor to set built up their anticipation. They asked pretty much every day if the pickles were ready yet, and when the answer was finally yes, they were so excited.
I had to be very careful about setting expectations ahead of time, so that we would not be so lost in novelty that we missed the whole point of the experience. I frontloaded the order of steps and let students know that we would not move to a new step until I confirmed that everyone had completed the last step. We would engage a sense, stop to think about it, and jot down adjectives and comparisons about it. Students had to jot down their thoughts independently to start, but after a few minutes, we shared out and added to a class list, which was helpful for those who needed additional support.
The step-by-step approach proved to be helpful, not only because it gave us time to focus and be present for each moment of the experience, but also because it left room for students who were nervous about trying it to try it slowly, or observe others trying it. Some of my students had never even tried regular pickles before. Our principal joined us, and students got to watch her give it a try as well.
All in all, we had a wonderful time, and it did in fact provide students with a meaningful experience to better grasp the concept and practice the skill of using sensory details. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from my students:
“My tongue curled up when I ate it. It looked like a little kid’s balloon to me.” -MS
“It looked like a red ruffle. It smelled crazy strong and interesting.” -BS
“I chewed it - it was loud and crunchy and slimy and also pretty good in my opinion.” -KW
“It tasted more Kool-Aid than pickle.” -TH
I’m getting ready to start this lesson with this year’s students, and I’d love to invite you to try it too. Feel free to use my handout with your students or children. For optimal flavor, I recommend Cherry and Tropical Punch Kool-Aid, and increasing the amount of sugar to taste. Have fun!
