Materials Needed

1. One large piece of construction paper for each student.

2. Markers or crayons.

3. Glitter glue or glitter crayons for the eyes.

4. The song, Shining Eyes, from Red Grammer's recording Hello World.

5. Hand held mirror.

Activity

1. Play the song, Shining Eyes and have students listen to the words.

2. Play the song again and ask the students to listen to the parts of a body that Red sings about (eyes, nose, dimples, hair, ears, skin). Tell the students that Red sings about remembering your eyes and not whether your hair is straight or long or whether or not you have a dimple.

3. Pass a mirror around so the students may look at themselves.  As each child holds the mirror tell them to look at their eyes. What happens to your eyes when you smile? What happens to your eyes when you are sad? Tell the students that your eyes say a lot about how you feel. A parent can tell if you are sick by looking at your eyes. A teacher can tell if you are sad by looking at your eyes. Your eyes tell someone to come and play with you.

4. Pass out the large construction paper for the students. At bottom of each paper have written, “our shiny eyes are like rays of sunshine that brighten up the skies”.

5. Walk the students through drawing their faces (i.e. draw the shape of your face. Now draw your ears, etc). Make sure you have them add everything to their face except for their eyes.

6. Now tell the students that they are going to add their eyes but that you have special glitter crayons or glitter glue to make their eyes shiny.  Have the students draw their eyes with the glitter crayons.  When they have completed their self portrait they can share the picture in group time or the teacher can display them on a bulletin board.

7.  Finish the activity by playing the song, Shining Eyes again and have students sing along.