Exploring our sense of Sight

Exploring our sense of Sight:
Here's a recap of the activities that I did with my preschool class and my own personal children at home. Thanks for stopping by! 

Outdoor Activity - Each child received their very own Binoculars. I made these ahead of time by using hot glue to attach two toilet paper tubes together.


Winter Scavenger Hunt using pictures of things we can find outside in our courtyard we used our sense of SIGHT to find: squirrel, bird, snow, ice, icicle, tree, fence

Eye Themed Snack - a fun little snack one of the parents came up with-- dehydrated apple ring with an apricot and raisin!

Art - Self Portraits using a 3 sided mirror



Guided Activity - "Secret Message Hearts" - ahead of time I cut out heart shapes and with a white crayon wrote each child's name onto them. Then they used water colors to reveal the hidden message. I had extra heart cut-outs and crayons available for them to design their own too!


Puzzles / Games - several different I Spy books & games available; Kaleidoscopes; Sunglasses, 3D glasses,  glasses with no lenses for pretend play, View-Master

Science Center: “Sight Station”- illuminated magnifying glass and I-Spy pictures; microscope with simple slides, Paint chip book to view various shades of color, unbreakable mirror, hand-held magnifying glasses.

I was planning on having the children make their own "red vision tubes" but somehow have run out of toilet paper and paper towel tubes. How can that be?!?  I made just one to share by covering a paper towel tube with red cellophane over one end.
Water Table - rainbow colors using several plastic containers filled with water & liquid water colors. What do we SEE when the colors mix together?

Sensory Table- an "I Spy" sensory bin for the kids to play with each other. "I see something yellow and small." I also added the bingo cards from an "I Spy ABC Bingo Game" and foam alphabet letters from a puzzle. I thought kids might like to LOOK for matching pairs or to sort by color!


Writing Center - Valentine Card Making using Cookie Cutter Prints - pour a small amount of pink and red paints into pie tins. Offer a variety of heart cookie cutters. Show the kids how to dip the cookie cutter and press onto a paper. Remind them this is not finger painting, but encourage conversation "What do you SEE with your eyes after you press the cookie cutter down?" 

Closing Circle- pass around the red vision tube. What part of our body helps us to see? When we look through the tube why do we see red? Why do people wear glasses?

Read aloud: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?


Home Connection:  a fun at home activity that reinforces our "Sight" would be to print this Dora themed vision chart. It's like the test a doctor gives but instead of the letter E it's the Dora characters in varying sizes. http://www.nickjr.com/printables/dora-eye-chart.jhtml


Books for the sense of sight:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin & Eric Carle
The Eye Book by Dr. Suess
Seeing by Sharon Gordon
I Spy Books
My Very First Book of Colors by Eric Carle (ties into our author study, matching color to an object uses the sense of SIGHT)
My Very First Book of Numbers by Eric Carle (ties into our author study, matching fruit to a number uses the sense of SIGHT & sort of TASTE)


Other on-line inspiration for teaching about the sense of sight:
http://www.myoatmealkisses.com/2012/02/sense-of-sight.html