People have five senses. The five senses are hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching.

We hear with our ears.
Image credit krakenimages on Unsplash

We hear with our ears

Sounds travel to our ears in waves. The ears change the sound waves into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain. The brain tells us what we are hearing.

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We see with our eyes

We see with our eyes.
Image credit Lavi Perchik on Unsplash

The eyes work like a camera. They take in light from the thing we are looking at and make a tiny picture of it on the back of the eyeball. Nerves inside the eyes take a message to the brain about the picture.The brain tells us what it is we are looking at.

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We smell with our nose 

We smell with our nose.
Image credit: Caroline Hernan on Unsplash

When we breathe, air goes into our nose through the nostrils. Inside the nose there are lots of tiny hairs. They catch bits of dust that are in the air. Damp, sticky stuff called mucus traps more dirt and germs as they enter the nose. Nerves inside the nose take messages to the brain about the smells that come into the nose in the air. The brain tells what we are smelling.

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Nose

We taste with our tongue

Tiny bumps on our tongue are called taste buds. Image credit: Nathan Hanna on Unsplash

The tongue is covered with up to 8,000 very tiny bumps called taste buds. Taste buds on different parts of the tongue taste different things; sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

Chemicals in the food we eat make the taste buds work and nerves in the tongue send messages to the brain which tells us what it is we are tasting. Smelling food also helps us to taste our food.

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Tongue

We touch and feel with our skin

We feel with our skin. Image credit: Yulia Dub on Unsplash

Nerve endings in the skin send messages to the brain that tell us about what we are touching, such as whether it is warm, hot, cold, painful, soft, prickly, rough, sticky. 

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Skin

 It’s a good idea to get information from more than one source!

Read about the five senses:

https://sciencewithkids.com/science-facts/facts-about-the-senses.html

Watch a video about the five senses and how they work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSOvevsM3aY