Week 1: Sight
Eyes. Are. AWESOME!
Our sense of sight is really important for both animals and people - for a lot of us it’s how we navigate our world! This week we’ll learn all about how different creatures see or how they use their eyes.
The lesson outlines for each day are below. On Monday, be sure to tune into the Facebook Live Video, but all activities are optional. Try them all, try just some, it’s up to you!
Here’s the PDF download for all of the lesson details of this week.
Need extra ideas to keep kiddo busy? We’ve got you covered. Check out our Safer and Funner pages for more.
Monday
Kicking off camp, connecting with nature, and thinking about eyes.
Eye spy some eye parts! Can you find these parts on your own eye?
Facebook Live Video: Carolyn kicks off camp with a video introducing sight. Watch it live on our Facebook page at 1pm (the feed will start automatically).
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/W-jhqiHflDw
Watch on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MadisonAudubon/videos/204257194904925Art: Start a nature journal. You’ll need about 20 pages (if you’re folding computer paper in half and stapling it, use at least 10 sheets). If you’re a big fan of writing and drawing, feel free to add more pages. Don’t forget to decorate it! Make a nature journal that gets you excited to record your observations and ideas.
Learn more about nature journaling: Visit our webpage about it, read these lesson plans, or watch Nature Journaling for Kids (32 minutes), a video lesson by Carolyn about getting started.
Activity: How easily can we trick our eyes? Check out these classic optical illusions— do the results surprise you?
Connect: Find a special place that you’ll return to throughout camp, and do a Sit Spot. This is where you find a special place in nature to sit, look, listen, relax, and enjoy. Need more help getting started? We have tips on our website or you could watch this video of Carolyn teaching you how to do a sit spot (4:41).
Scavenger hunt: It’s time for a rainbow hunt: look for things with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, white, or gray on them. If you want more of a challenge, try to spot things that are in-between colors, like reddish-browns or blue-greens. Bonus: hunt for real rainbows right after a rain shower (or make one yourself with a hose or spray bottle)!
Nature journal prompts:
Eye Investigation! After finishing your nature journal, get close to a mirror and look closely at your eyes. Did you notice anything you haven’t seen before? Using this photo we labeled above, draw your own eye and label the same parts. Think about the function of each part. Next, take a look at these different animal eyes below. Do you recognize the same parts? Paint or draw your favorites!
Draw and label some of the things you saw on your scavenger hunt.
What are some ways that you would change your eyesight if you could? How would it make your favorite activities easier?
If you were on a hike or nature walk with someone who has a visual impairment, how could you make it more accessible for them?
Image description: A grid of 24 different animal eyes shows the amazing diversity that eyes can have! Eyes are different colors, shapes, and sizes. Some eyes have different shaped pupils, some animals have more than two eyes. Eyes are amazing! Image Credit: Burge.
Tuesday
The World As others see it
Image description: A bird’s eye view of a wetland in the fall. Bright sunlight shines on a winding river and fall leaves are a riot of oranges, yellows, browns, and greens. There are white puffy clouds in the distance. Image Credit: Decaseconds, Flickr Creative Commons
Image description: an ant’s eye view of grass! Short grass like you would find in a lawn is very tall in this picture, you can see the whole plant reaching overhead. Photo credit: Simon Coggins, Flickr Creative Commons
Creative: Draw and color a flower, then draw and color the same flower the way you think a bee would see it. Remember, bees can see UV and humans cannot. Because of this, flowers have colorful patterns that are invisible to the human eye! Use your imagination to draw what they might look like to bees.
Watch:
Learn about how a snake can see in the dead of night in See Like a Snake | Animal Superpowers by Nat Geo WILD, and then take a peek at which birds are the brightest under blacklight in Which Bird Should You Take To a Rave? by BBC Unplugged.
People see the world differently too! There are many different types of visual impairments affecting the way people see. Some people have low vision, others can’t see color, and still others can’t see at all. Learn more about what one type of low-vision is like in this video (better for older kiddos or when watching with a grown-up) See through my eyes: a low vision simulation (8:30).
Activities:
Go outside and try to see the world like different animals! Lay on the ground and peek through blades of grass like an ant might. Climb a tree or get to the top of the playground and get a bird's eye view. Find a dark place. What can you see? Would a different type of animal see something different?
With a grownup nearby, take a hike while blindfolded. Pay close attention to what you hear, smell, and feel. Do you notice different things when your sense of sight is removed?
Scavenger hunt: Predators (animals that eat other animals) often have eyes that face forwards. Prey animals (ones that could be eaten by other animals) often have eyes on the sides of their heads. Look for an animal that is a predator, then look for an animal that is prey. Try to identify them using your field guide!
Bonus: find an animal that could be both predator and prey, depending on the other animals they interact with. Are humans usually predators or prey? How do you know?
Super bonus: try to find a predator/prey pair (one animal that might eat the other).
Nature Journal Prompts:
Draw the world through the eyes of an ant, then draw it through an eagle’s. What is different about the way they view the world? Do things look bigger or smaller than how YOU see them?
Choose an animal and draw or describe how they see the world around them. What surprised you about how they see? How is it different from the way you see?
Wednesday
Bright colors
Animals that are brightly colored want to be SEEN! Maybe they are trying to attract a mate, maybe they want to let predators know they’re poisonous. Sometimes the whole animal is bright, and sometimes only a part of the animal is bright. Bright colors are important for animals!
Image description: Eleven images of simplified sparrow faces are paired with the species name. Each sparrow face is simplified into basic shapes: circles for eyes, triangles for the beak, and boxy rectangles for facial stripes. The simplified images help make identification easier. Can you draw a bird like this? Pick your favorite bird in your field guide, grab your nature journal, and draw! Image Credit: Richard Edden.
Optional screen time: Learn about the Rainbow of Birds and why birds might have feathers of certain colors with Steve from BioBush. Then, watch impressive feather displays performed by the Birds of Paradise in New Guinea from the docuseries Our Planet.
Dance like a crane: Learn all about how Sandhill Cranes use dance to communicate and then make up your OWN dance! This lesson needed more words to explain it, so it has it’s own page: Dance like a crane.
Get moving: Be a Bee! Look around your home for colorful items to be your flowers (if you have actual flowers you can use them!) Next, find a home base zone that will act as your hive. Bees load up their corbiculae (the upper area on their hind legs) until they’re heavy with pollen and then fly it all the way back to their hive. As a bee, use your hands as wings to buzz around to each flower, rubbing the pretend pollen on your legs and carrying it back to your hive! Bees work fast, so try and see how quickly you can visit all your flowers!
Scavenger hunt:
Look for a bird with black feathers, a bird with red feathers, and a bird with yellow feathers. When you spot them, try to identify them using your field guide.
Look for an animal that wants to be seen! What kind of bright colors do you see?
Nature Journal Prompt:
Draw or write about a bird with at least three colors in its plumage.
What colors would you be if you were a bird? Why?
Creative:
Flip through your field guide and find a colorful bird. After taking a look at these illustrations of bird faces by Richard Edden, draw the bird you chose in the guide and color it. Tip: It is easiest to start with a big circle for the head and a smaller triangle for the beak, then adding the bird’s coloring and pattern. You could draw the whole body if you want!
Look through your clothes. See if you have some that are the same color as a bird in your field guide. Then, do your best impression of your bird twin!
Use your favorite art supplies or things around your house to make yourself look MORE like a bird. Maybe you will use construction paper to make a bird mask, maybe you’ll find a red hat to make yourself look more like a Sandhill Crane. Maybe you have a bright blanket: tie one edge around your neck like a cape and hold the other two corners with your hands. Now you can flap your bright wings! What will you imagine?
Thursday
Camouflage
Image description: A gray Eastern Screech Owl perches in a hole in a tree with gray bark. The texture and color of the bird’s feathers look almost the same as the tree bark! Image credit: Baker County Tourism, Flickr Creative Commons.
Watch: Are you good at finding animals that are camouflaged? Test your eye-spy skills with these videos, and learn about some amaaaazing animal camouflage!
Get moving: Find two different colors of paper, or color white paper: you’ll need green and one other BRIGHT color. Super explorers, you have green and blue in your kits! Rip the paper into many pieces that are about the size of your thumb. Count the number of pieces you have and make sure you have the same amount of both. First, scatter the green paper into the grass. Time how long it takes you to collect all the pieces. Next, scatter the bright pieces of paper in the grass and time how long it takes you to collect them. Which color took longer to collect? Think about how this might be similar to predators trying to hunt camouflaged prey versus bright prey.
Creative: Look through your clothes and find an outfit that would camouflage you somewhere. Then, have someone take a picture of you camouflaged in that place. Can you use your camouflage everywhere? Are there any spots where your clothes make you stand out instead of keeping you hidden?
Scavenger Hunt: We’re going on a bug hunt! Find three bugs that are camouflaged and three that are not. If that was too easy for you, try to find three camouflaged things that aren’t bugs.
Nature Journal Prompts:
If you could camouflage in any habitat or place, where would you choose and why? Draw a picture of yourself hiding there!
If you could make three changes to your body to make it easier to camouflage, what would you change and why? Draw yourself with your new camouflage!
Friday
Creatures of the night
Image description: A female deer is grazing at night: her head is bent down touching the grass and she stands facing the camera. The image is dark and grainy, the grass and background is almost totally black.The photo was taken at night, and the deer’s eyes glow greenish-white in the light of the camera flash. Image credit: James St. John, Flickr Creative Commons.
Optional screen time: Learn more about nocturnal animals and how they see in How do animals see in the dark? (00:04:22) by Anna Stöckl and Ted-Ed.
Creative: Creative: Lots of animals have eyeshine: felines (cats), canines (dogs), deer, sheep, goats, cows, and horses. Choose an animal that has eyeshine and draw and color their head. Then find something reflective: aluminium foil or reflective tape will work great! Cut two reflective circles, one for each eye, then glue them to your art. Take your art to a dark place and shine a light at it. Can you get it to shine?
Activity: Check your peripheral vision! In a bright place, hold your hands out in front of you like you’re giving someone a thumbs-up. While keeping your head straight forward and looking straight ahead, slowly move your hands out to your sides without bending your arms. Stop moving them when you can’t see your thumbs anymore and remember where your hands are. What colors do you see around you? Next, do the activity again in the dark. It takes around 20-30 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark, so try and wait a while in the dark before you try again, without using screens. Were your hands closer together or further apart on the second try? Are the colors you saw before just as bright?
Scavenger Hunt: I Spy with My Little Eye(shine): Try and spot the eyeshine on the animals in your neighborhood, especially pets at home! Be kind to your pets: don’t use a light that’s too bright and only shine them briefly. If you are able to look for eyeshine outside when it gets dark, make sure you don’t shine lights at nocturnal animals. It can be bad for their eyesight. Sometimes when you’re out hiking you can see spider eyes reflecting in your flashlight from the trail!
Nature journal prompts:
What would you use night vision for? Draw a picture of yourself in a nighttime environment using your nocturnal eyes!
Write about your experience testing your peripheral vision. Did anything surprise you?
Write about a time when you needed to see in the dark. Could you see well enough to do what you needed to do?
Sit spot: With a grownup’s permission, do a sit spot outside after the sun sets. If you need to do a sit spot inside, make sure the lights are turned off so that it’s nice and dark in the room. Does it feel different being there at night? What do you notice?
Header photo: Great-horned Owl eyes by Tim Lumley (Flickr Creative Commons)
