Exploring the Sense of Sight

Core Learning Experience + Supplies and Equipment

  • ​Set out a collection of items related to sight or seeing, such as color paddles, binoculars, telescope, magnifiers, pair of glasses, and some items that can be looked at through these lenses. Have the children explore and discuss what they see. Ask what part of the body they used to see these items. Cover your eyes and try to see them with your nose, your ear. Possible?
  • Have the children look at others’ eyes, or in a mirror. Talk about colors, lashes, lid, eyebrow, iris, pupil, veins, tear duct. Draw a diagram of a big eye, and label it with the parts, and “read” them.

Possible/Expected Discoveries

  • We use our eyes to see our surroundings and to see colors and to read books. Our eyes can give us a great deal of information to think about. For example, our sense of sight can help us to decide whether to cross the road, or if the food we are going to eat looks fresh or rotten.
  •  What if you did not have the sense of sight? Could your other senses give you the information about your surroundings that you need? Discuss each one.
  • Some people need glasses or contact lenses to help them see well. Some people cannot see very much, or nothing at all. Do you think they could read a book?   Do you think they could hear music? Do you think they could taste a strawberry?
  • People who don’t see well even with glasses or lenses can use Braille by touching the words with their fingers to read books and newspapers.
  • Why do you think we have 2 eyes, and not one or 3? Accept all answers, then explain that each of the eyes sees objects just a little bit differently, so things look round or 3-dimensional instead of flat. The different perspectives help us to decide how far or close things are.

Extended Learning and Other Curriculum Areas

  • ​​Use paint color cards from the hardware store. Make a color matching game with different shades of a color.
  • Play 123 Look and See. Put a group of items on the table or floor. While the children cover their eyes, take one or two items away, and they guess what is missing. In the beginning, keep items in the same spot, and as the skills develop, move the items to different places, or use a BIG set.
  • Fill some clear glasses with water at different levels, have the children order them from full to empty, or empty to full. Which of your senses helped you to that job?
  • Have the children each make a directed drawing of an eye, and try to name the parts.
  • Throw balls, beanbags or rolled socks into a bucket. Throw close; further away. Our eyes help us decide how hard to throw the ball.
  • Play I Spy (colors, initial letters, etc)
  • Explore different kinds of mirrors, and reflections. Use a flashlight and color paddles. This topic could expand into another study.

Activity Packs and Printables

Websites

Books

​Look Again!  by Tana Hoban