There are so many wonderful ways to explore our sense of sight….

Outdoor Activity – make pretend Binoculars by using hot glue to attach two toilet paper tubes together and add a string. Though these binoculars do not make objects appear closer, they do help children focus in on objects. Can you spy a squirrel nest? Can you find a pine cone still hanging in the tree?

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

Eye Themed Snack – a fun little snack one of the my preschool parents came up with years ago– dehydrated apple ring with an apricot and raisin!

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

Art – Self Portraits using a 3 sided mirror. Children would look at themselves and then draw the details of their faces.

 

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!

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

Eye to Eye: How Animals see the World by Steve Jenkins

I Can Read with My Eyes Shut by Dr. Suess

I Spy Books by Jean Marzollo

Look!: A Book about Sight by Dana Meachen Rau

Seeing by Rebecca Rissman

Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young

The Eye Book by Dr. Suess

 

Check out my pinterest board for even more ideas about teaching about the 5 senses!