2. Eyes for Seeing
God gave us our eyes to see His Creation.
“Eyes for Seeing” Unit: Getting a Sense of God
LESSON PURPOSE: God gave me eyes so I can see His creation.
EDUCATIONAL FRAMEWORK: Heart for Creation
MATERIALS:
Sense of Sight Experiments - paper, pencils, blindfold, varying objects (see below)
Picture of a sunset
Looking Glasses Activity - cardboard tubes, markers, hot glue gun, yarn, magnifying glass
SONG IDEAS:
See Through Children’s Eyes
This Little Light of Mine
PICTURE BOOKS:
“Look! A Book about Sight” by Dana Meachan Rau
“The Looking Book” by PK Hallinan
SCRIPTURE:
“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord made them both.” -Proverbs 20:12
“The eyes of the mind and the eyes of the body unite into one when we find love.” -Rev. Sun Myung Moon
AS CHILDREN ARRIVE: Choose 1:
Coloring Sheet: Leave out several coloring sheets and crayons.
Drawing: Encourage children to draw something they see outside!
Magnifying glass: Allow children to observe some objects using a magnifying glass. (ideas: a leaf, a flower, sand, rocks, a ladybug, grass, etc.)
INTRODUCE the Lesson (Engage)
WELCOME: SONG, PRAYER, TP Greeting
REVIEW & TRANSITION:
Who remembers what we learned last Sunday? I’ll give you a clue. (Wiggle your fingers.) We learned why God made our hands and how to pray using our five fingers. I hope you’ve been praying this week! Today we’re going to talk about why God made our eyes.
ATTENTION GRABBER: choose 1
Sense of Sight Experiments by Itsy Sparks
Have the children write their name on a sheet of paper. Then, put a blindfold on them and ask them to try writing their name again.
Put several different objects with varying colors and sizes on the table in front of you. (Object ideas: cup, water bottle, flower, pencil, juice box, etc.) As a class, use your sense of sight to describe each object. Then, blindfold the children and remove one object. See if they can guess which object is missing! Repeat a couple of times. (**There is a digital version of this game in the Powerpoint if you cannot gather all the objects together.)
INTRO: Our eyes are so important! God created our eyes so we can see all of His creation.
ACTIVITY: choose 1:
VIDEO:
Human Eye Learning Video - 4 minute educational video by Peekaboo Kidz
Optical Illusions - several experiments by popular show Brain Games (suggestion: only do first experiment with this grade group)
READ ALOUD STORY:
“Look! A Book about Sight” by Dana Meachan Rau
“The Looking Book” by PK Hallinan
TEACH the Lesson (Explain/Explore)
*TEACHING POINT 1: God gave me eyes to see God’s Creation.
INTERACTIVE LESSON:
Our eyes are made of over 2 million parts. They can process 36,000 bits of information every hour and can see 1,000 different colors! Our eyes are amazing because God made them.
Show a picture of a sunset. Children, do you know what this is? (It’s a sunset!) Yes, sunsets are one of my favorite things about God’s creation. I love how some nights the sky is pink and purple, and on other nights the sky is red and blue. But would you rather look at a picture of a sunset or see the real sky become a sunset?
When you look outside, what do you see? (If you have a window, open the curtains.) We see blue skies, white clouds, green grass, pink flowers, black birds, etc… There is so much color in the world! Sometimes we forget to really look at God’s creation. If we don’t take time to explore everything around us, we miss out on a lot of amazing things. Without our eyes, we would not be able to appreciate God’s creation!
*TEACHING POINT 2: God gave me eyes to see people!
INTERACTIVE LESSON:
God also created something very special and unique. God created you! And you! And you! God created people. We are His most precious creation because He made us to be just like Him. If we have hands, does God have hands? (Yes!) If we have eyes, does God have eyes? (Yes!) Yes, God looks like us because He is our parent and we are His children.
Our eyes help us see our family and people we love. Our eyes also help us see the beauty in all people. Turn to the person next to you. Try to find one thing you have in common and one thing that is different. (ex. Same hair color, different heights) Then tell this person, “You are unique, like me. We are unique because we are God’s children.” Just like God created many different kinds of flowers in this world, God created each of His children to be beautiful and unique. Without our eyes, we could not see the beauty in God’s creation.
Discussion:
Why did God create our eyes?
What are some things we need our eyes for?
What would it be like if you were blind and couldn’t see?
Pair-share: What is your favorite thing in God’s creation? Why?
APPLY the Lesson Evaluate
GROUP ACTIVITIES: Choose 1 or 2:
Make “Looking Glasses”: Give each child 2 cardboard tubes. Have them color/design them using markers. Hot glue the tubes together and tie a piece of yarn on the end. They will look like binoculars, but call them “looking glasses”. Encourage the children to find things in God’s creation that is interesting or beautiful.
Explore nature: Give each child a magnifying glass. Take the children on a walk around the building and encourage them to look closely and explore God’s creation.
SNACK IDEA:
Pretzels
Cookies with fondant eyeballs on them
Olives
CONCLUDE the Lesson
CONCLUSION:
Our eyes are special because through them we can see and appreciate God’s wonderful creation. When we look at the beautiful Creation God designed for us- we can get a glimpse of God, our Heavenly Parent. Let’s take time this week to look closely at the world God created for us and feel God’s love through nature and people we meet.
PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Parent, thank you for all the beautiful things in this world. Our eyes were made by You so we can appreciate all the colors of the flowers and all the sizes of the animals. Every day we want to look more and more closely at the creation around us so we can feel Your love. This week, please remind us that our eyes are special because we can find You in all that You’ve created. Thank you, Aju.
