Preschool Activities about Sight and Sound

Students will learn about how our eyes and our sense of sight help us discover the world around us with these fun activities.

• Our Eyes Begin this activity by showing your students a diagram of an eye. Explain that our eyes are the part of the body we use to help us see. Point out different parts of the eye. Tell them that the colored part of their eye is called the iris. Then ask them to predict which eye color is the most common in their class. Give each student a small picture of an eye and tell them to color the iris the color of their own eyes. You might want to pass around some small mirrors for the students who aren't sure of their eye color. Then collect the pictures and make a class graph to show the different colors. Discuss the results.
• What's Missing? Play a game that encourages your preschoolers in the practice of looking carefully at things. Gather the class around in a circle. Place several items in front of you. Have the students look at them for a minute and close their eyes. While their eyes are closed, take an item away. Can they guess what is missing? Students also play this game in pairs or small groups.
• Nature Walk Head outside on a nice day and have your students talk about what they see. Encourage them to look carefully at their surroundings. You might even give them a list of things to look for like insects, seeds, birds, etc. When they come back inside, provide paper and crayons for them to draw some of the things they saw.
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear Read the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr and Eric Carle. Then make a class book using the children's names. Give each student a piece of paper with "__________, ____________ What do you see? I see a ______________ looking at me." Depending their age the students can write their own names or you can fill in their names and what they see. Let them illustrate the page and bind all of the pages together into a class book.

Try these fun preschool activities on the five senses to teach your students about hearing.

• Sound Bingo Make a recording of different sounds that the children will be familiar with - a dog barking, a door closing, bells, drums, etc. Then give a student a bingo card with picture of the different sounds on it. Play a sound and have the students cover the picture that goes with it.
• Vibrations Teach your students that vibrations cause sound. Stretch a piece of thin rubber like a balloon or rubber glove across the top of one side of a PVC pipe elbow and attach it with a rubber band. Then put a few pieces of rice on top of the rubber and talk into the pipe. Vibrations will cause the rice to "dance" on the rubber. You can also demonstrate vibrations by letting your students run their fingers along the teeth of a plastic comb or by having some students lay down with one ear on the ground, while other students jump around.
• Crickets Read Eric Carle's book The Very Quiet Cricket and let your students listen to real crickets. In early fall you might be able to go outside to listen for them. If not, you can play recording or bring a few crickets in to listen to and set them free when you are done. Talk about how and why crickets make their sounds.

Your students are sure to have fun learning about sight and sound with these fun preschool activities.