Sense of sight activity for kids with colored ice cream images

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I recently introduced my kids to the topic of our five basic senses. After doing an overview of the five senses, we are spending some time exploring each of the senses in more depth. Today I am sharing a sense of sight activity for kids.

Our sense of sight is entirely dependent upon our eyes. For humans, the sense of sight may be the most important of the five major senses. Compared to many animals (e.g., dogs), we have underdeveloped senses of smell and hearing. However, we enjoy better vision.

In Montessori education, a common task in the sensorial area of the classroom is to have children sort colored objects in order from lightest to darkest. Along these lines, I prepared an ice cream color grading printable to have my kids practice this work.

Note: For more activities and printables on each of the five senses, see my Five Senses Unit Study page.

The sense of sight, also called vision, requires to the lens at the front of our eyeballs to focus an image on the retina at the back of our eyes. The photoreceptors on the retina transfer the image along the optic nerve to the brain. The brain then interprets the image, allowing us to see.

If you are looking for a good book to help explain the science behind vision to your kids, I recommend The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses by Joanna Cole.

However, The Magic School Bus book was too advanced for my kids. Instead, we read The Five Senses: Sight by Maria Rius, which uses very simple text.

We also read The Sense of Smell by Ellen Weiss, which provides more details than the Ruis book but was still simple enough for my preschool-age kids to enjoy.

We then did a kid-friendly activity using our sense of sight.

I printed some pink and blue ice cream cones from my Ice Cream Color Grading printable (see below for download link). I asked QBoy to put the ice cream cones in order from lightest to darkest. He had no difficulty with this work.

I then asked XGirl to do the same. This was a bit tricky for her.

I found that if I just gave her two ice cream cones at a time, she had no trouble deciding which one was lighter and which one was darker. But when I gave her all five cones at once, the task was too challenging for her to do independently.