The Five Senses
Explore the five senses in detail: sight uses eyes to detect light, hearing uses ears to detect sound, touch uses skin to feel pressure and temperature, taste uses the tongue to detect flavours, and smell uses the nose to detect odours
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name all five senses and match each to the correct body part
- Describe what each sense detects (e.g. eyes detect light, ears detect sound waves)
- Give an example of using each sense in everyday life (e.g. smelling food cooking, feeling hot water)
1 · Read
You have five senses. They help you learn about the world. Your eyes see light. Your ears hear sound. Your skin feels touch. Your tongue tastes flavors. Your nose smells odors.
Ben walks into the kitchen. His nose smells warm bread baking. His ears hear the oven timer beep. He touches the pan. His skin feels that it is hot. He pulls his hand back fast.
Sight and hearing work from far away. Taste and touch need something close. Smell can work near or far.
Five senses, five body parts: eyes see, ears hear, skin feels, tongue tastes, and nose smells.
More to read
36.1 Sensory Processes
Your body has five special senses. They tell you about the world around you.
Sight is one sense. You see with your eyes. Your eyes catch light so you can see colors and shapes.
Hearing is another sense. You hear with your ears. Your ears catch sounds, like music or a dog barking.
Smell is a sense too. You smell with your nose. Your nose notices odours, like cookies baking.
Taste is a sense. You taste with your tongue. Your tongue tells you if food is sweet or sour.
Touch is the fifth sense. You feel with your skin. Your skin can tell if something is hot, cold, soft, or hard.
Your senses send messages to your brain. Your brain helps you understand what you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.
Summary
Your senses help you learn about the world. There are five of them: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
Each sense has its own job. Your eyes help you see. Your ears help you hear sounds. Your skin helps you feel things, like a soft blanket or warm water. Your tongue helps you taste food. Your nose helps you smell things, like flowers or dinner cooking.
All of your senses work together. They gather little bits of information all day long. Then your brain puts the information together. That is how you know what is happening around you.
Summary
Your head does a lot of important work. It holds your brain. Your brain is the boss of your whole body.
Your head also holds the body parts you use for your senses. Your eyes help you see. Your ears help you hear. Your nose helps you smell. Your tongue, inside your mouth, helps you taste.
Your skin covers your whole body. It helps you feel touch, pressure, and temperature. So even the skin on your head helps you sense the world.
Your brain takes in all the messages from your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. That is how you know what is going on around you.
27.3 Taste and Smell
Taste and smell are best friends. They work together when you eat.
Your tongue finds tastes. It can tell sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and a savory taste called umami.
Your nose finds smells. Tiny bits of food float in the air and go into your nose.
When you chew food, the smells travel up to your nose from inside your mouth. That is why food tastes so good. Your tongue and your nose are working as a team.
Have you noticed food tastes bland when you have a stuffy nose? That is because your nose cannot help your tongue. Without smell, you miss a lot of the flavour.
Explore more
2 · Watch
به انگلیسیTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Optional connections
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.