Sense of Sight

Today we discussed the sense of sight. But before we got into the nitty-gritty of what eyes do, we did circle time and for one of the songs I had them sing "Do As I'm Doing". I thought it would be a good song to emphasize that they needed to use their eyes to see what to do. Well, it was crazy! The kids were hilarious - they had so much energy! Everyone had to have a turn at picking something to do, of course, and 6 out of the 7 kids picked SPINNING (or a combo with spinning included). They were like tops zipping around the room. I think it got out a few wiggles, so it was a good way to start out the day.

This photo doesn't do their spinning justice - they were really whipping around!

After we calmed down a bit, we talked about the parts of the eye and looked at some eyes on the internet. We had some good comments about what not to do with your eyes (Gavin - don't blow on cinnamon or it will get in your eye and sting; Don't flash bright lights in your eyes or you'll go blind - I can't remember who said that one). And we talked about what pupils do, how people have different colored eyes (but not purple, red or yellow), how we shouldn't touch our eyes, what eyelids and lashes are for, etc.

We read a good book called "The Look Book", where you see a small part of a picture, and try to guess what it is, and then on the next page you find out what you were looking at. The kids were so excited when they got it right.

Since the preschoolers are always ravenous, even if they got fed a 7 course breakfast 5 minutes before arrival, we worked in a snack. This snack used a number of senses (well, in fact, all of them). The most fun one used, though, was the sense of sight (with taste coming in a very close second - okay, maybe first). Here they are all just staring, sort of bored-like, at the popcorn machine turning it's arms around.
Then, POP! POP, POP, POP! They just laughed and laughed and thought watching the kernels pop was great fun.
There was a lot of shouting at the popcorn popper and squeals of delight.

Here everyone is very busy shoving handfuls of popcorn in their mouths. Ellie looks like she's contemplating the sublime taste of the melted butter on the popcorn, while Matthew just says "give me more!" (he didn't really say that - it just looks like he's enjoying it!). I know I enjoyed the real melted butter on it - I usually just make the microwave stuff which doesn't hold a candle to this.
This wasn't a planned activity, but I handed out wipes so that they could clean up their hands after the popcorn and before we worked on our craft. Well, they spontaneously started washing the table and really getting into it! They were laughing and scrubbing and I finally had to make them stop so we could go on with the activity. I was sorely tempted to have them start in on scrubbing the floor!
We experimented with magnifying glasses, colored glasses, binoculars...

and a microscope. We looked at cheek cells and the kids thought they looked really neat.

Gavin is looking for bargains.

We then did an activity where the kids colored around a picture of themselves that went into a frame. The other side of the frame held a mirror, so they could see themselves in two different ways.
I then got a fun call from my kids' school saying that my oldest child had a stomach ache and I needed to come and pick him up. Lara saved me by popping over and directing the gang in writing exercises while I dashed out for a few minutes. Life is never dull! Thanks Lara!

This is a shot during free play time. Some of the kids were playing "cat and dog". Ellie and Dan are the animals and Maylie and Simone are telling them what to do (roll over, wake up, come back!). It was so funny to watch that I had to take a picture.

This is a Richard Scarry book about cars and trucks. There's this little character called "Goldbug" that you have to find on every page. Here Rachel and Gavin are searching him out.

It was a fun day learning about how important eyes are.