Il tatto (touch)

Ciao a tutti!

We have been continuing our exploration of il senso del tatto (our sense of touch) this week. The Prep-Grade 2 students have been investigating how we can use our sense of touch to get information about our surroundings rather than using our eyes. The children identified numbers made from pins stuck into cork boards using only their sense of touch. They then did some activities and games to practice i numeri (numbers).

See if you can sing along at home to this song to practice your numbers. Try teaching your family to count in Italian too!

 

1	uno	11	undici
2	due	12	dodici
3	tre	13	tredici
4	quattro	14	quattordici
5	cinque	15	quindici
6	sei	16	sedici
7	sette	17	diciassette
8	otto	18	diciotto
9	nove	19	diciannove
10	dieci	20	venti

 The Grade 3-6 students have been learning about how our sense of touch works, with receptors in our skin sending messages along nerves to our brain. We did an experiment called “two-point discrimination” to investigate the sensitivity to touch of various parts of our body. We compared our finger (il dito) to our leg (la gamba), and found that our fingertip is much more sensitive than our leg because it has a higher density of nerve endings (receptors).

Try it at home!

1.      Open up a paper clip and bend it into a U-shape so that there are two points about a cm apart.

2.      Close your eyes and have a partner push one (uno) or two (due) prongs of a paperclip against your fingertip. Say whether it was uno or due prongs. Repeat about 10 times and see how many you correct.

3.      Repeat with your leg and see if your finger (il dito) or leg (la gamba) is more sensitive.

4.      Try this with other parts of your body like your back, foot etc.

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Next week we will begin studying l’udito (hearing). Non vedo l’ora! (I can’t wait!)

Stephanie.