If you are new here, WELCOME! Each Wednesday throughout the year, we’ll share playful learning suggestions from the #TeachECE Early Childhood Team. This week’s activities are centered around a FAMILY theme for young kids! Come play to learn with us as we explore eye colors in preschool!
EYE COLORS IN FAMILIES: Preschool Science Explorations
Background Information for Parents and Teachers: For many years human eye color charts were used to predict what eye colors children would have based upon the eye colors of the parents. Brown eyes were thought to be dominant over blue and green eyes; green eyes were dominant over blue. We now know that the genetics of eye color tends to be more complex than simple genetics would indicate. There are many shades of eye colors – children can also have eyes with two different colors. For our purposes with preschool children, we will concentrate on explorations with three basic eye color types: blue, brown, and green.
Eye Color Explorations for Preschoolers
MY OWN EYES: Family Eye Colors
Invite the children to explorations by passing around a hand mirror and asking the kids to look at their own eyes. Ask the children if they know what color of eyes they have. Some preschoolers are aware of their own eye color, but others are not. Invite the children to share whether they think their eyes are blue, brown, or green. Some children may have been told they have hazel eyes or more than one eye color. Show the children the eye color cards (linked above) and ask them to point to the eye color card that best represents their own.
Matching Eye Color Game: For a game to play, print several copies of the colored eyes. Laminate the eyes for durability and have the kids place the cards face down on a table. The kids should turn over 2 cards at a time to see if they find a matching pair of colored eyes. If they do not find a pair, the cards are turned face down again and play continues to the next child. All pairs should be kept until all the matching eye color cards have been located.
THE EYES IN MY FAMILY: The Eyes in My Family
Invite the children to look at parents and siblings to see what eye colors run in their immediate family. If possible, ask parents to send a family photograph that shows the eye color of each family member. Preschoolers can then color one eye from the printable for every family member. Print “The Eyes in My Family” booklet (linked above) and invite the kids to draw each member of their family. On the first line provided, assist the children in writing the names of family members. On the second line of each page, have the children color and glue the eye color card (print Eye Colors in Families and School) that corresponds the eye color of that family member.
THE EYES OF MY FRIENDS:
Invite each child to color in one eye (on the printable linked above – Eye Colors in Families and School) to represent their own eye color. Classmates or friends should also color in one eye that corresponds to their own eye color. Make a class graph or a pie chart to indicate how many eyes of each color are represented by classmates or other friends.
NAME THOSE EYES – PRESCHOOL GAME
Crop a digital photo of each child to only show the eyes. Print each photo and laminate for durability. Hole punch the corner of the eye cards and thread onto a binder ring or key ring. Show the children the cards and ask if they can guess what child/family member the eyes belong to. It’s a fun game to play with kids! Ask parents, too, if they can recognize their own child by EYES alone!
For MORE ways to play and learn with a FAMILY theme in Early Childhood, please take a moment to visit the suggestions below!
Another cool activity. My kids are all sad cause they have my eyes instead of their dads. I have plain old brown and he has grey. This will be an activity I would like to try .
It would be so fun to look through the eye cards of all the kids in a classroom and find your own (or your child’s). Love it!
My kids were just having a discussion in the car the other day about eye color so this is perfect!
What neat activities! A great addition to family theme lesson plans!
What a fun idea! You come up with the best activities. Excited to share with my kids.
I LOVE the idea of making a class book of eyes! How fun!