"Coconut and Pandan Discovery" • Creative Thinkers Preschool
“The sense of smell can be
extraordinarily evocative,
bringing back pictures as
sharp as
photographs of scenes that had left the conscious mind.”
-Thalassa Cruso
photographs of scenes that had left the conscious mind.”
-Thalassa Cruso
The lesson was planned so that the children could use their 5 senses to explore the world around them.
Benefits
At the end of the activity, the children will be given the opportunities to:
- Associate scents with feelings
- Explore the uses of coconut and pandan leaves
- Identify the scents of coconut and pandan extracts
- Experience weaving
Preparing the Sensory Area
The teachers stored the scents of coconut and pandan by adding a few drops of coconut and pandan extract onto clumps of cotton wool and placing them in separate transparent plastic containers.
The teachers placed the scent containers at the sensory area together with pictures and the fresh leaves. This enabled children to explore the items using their senses of sight, touch and smell.
Exploring the Scents
The children were introduced to the scents. They described how the scents made them feel and also drew a picture to depict their feelings.
Tasting the Flavours

The children were exposed to various food items such as the pandan chiffon cake, kaya agar agar cake and ondeh-ondeh which had pandan or coconut flavours. The children tasted the flavours and shared with one another whether they like the taste.
Exploring Other Uses of Coconut and Pandan

The children learnt that there are other uses to the coconut and pandan leaves e.g. weaving the leaves to make a basket. Using strips of coloured paper to replace the leaves, the children had fun weaving these and creating different patterns. They were proud of their work!
Contributed by: Sakinah Dollah (Principal-Teacher)
Creative Thinkers Preschool