MY FIVE SENSES

Magnify It!

Children will explore their sense of sight using magnifying glasses.

What You'll Need
What To Do
Resources
Print Lesson

Lesson Objective

Children will discover how using a magnifying glass can effect what they see.

Science

What You'll Need

  • Magnifying glasses – 1 per child
  • A variety of materials with interesting textures, such as leaves, rocks, shells, feathers, fabrics, coins, and blocks
  • Trays – 1 per table

What To Do

Note: Prior to the lesson, place a variety of collected materials on each tray.
  1. Discuss the sense of sight with the children (see Did You Know?).
  2. Tell them that they will be using magnifying glasses to explore different things and to see how the magnifying glass can change the way an object looks.
  3. Distribute the magnifying glasses.
  4. Have the children look at their hands with the magnifying glass; encourage them to move the magnifying glass around, alternately closer to and farther away from their hands.
  5. Discuss what happens to their hands when they look through the magnifying glass (see Guiding Student Inquiry).
  6. Place a tray of materials on each table.
  7. Encourage the children to compare the items, first without and then with their magnifying glass.
  8. Discuss what they see and how the magnifying glass changes the objects (see Guiding Student Inquiry).

Guiding Student Inquiry

  • Describe what happens when you look through the magnifying glass.
  • Describe what your hand looks like under the magnifying glass.
  • Explain what happens when the magnifying glass moves farther away from the object.
  • Tell me something you can see through the magnifying glass that you could not see without using it.
  • Explain how using a magnifying glass could be helpful.

Explore, Extend & Integrate

  • Have the children use the magnifying glasses on other items in the classroom. Encourage them to talk with each other about what they see.
  • Allow the children to take the magnifying glasses outside during recess. Encourage them to examine playground equipment, plants, the ground, or anything else that they are interested in.
  • Keep magnifying glasses in the science center, encouraging the children to use them at any time they want to examine something more closely.

Check for Children’s Understanding

  • Could children describe how the magnifying glass alters what they see?
  • Could children explain that items look smaller the farther the magnifying glass is from the object?
  • Could children find something through the magnifying glass that they could not see without using it?
  • Could children explain how using a magnifying glass can be helpful?

 Resources

Did You Know

Magnifying glasses allow your eyes to see things larger than they actually are. Magnifying glasses are made with two convex lenses. Each convex lens is bent outward. The lenses take light rays and bend them so they come together at a central point. This bending of light rays makes the image appear larger than it really is. The larger image allows for more detail to be seen. This magnification is important for scientists, doctors, detectives, jewelers, artists, and other professionals to see details in very small things. 

Our sense of sight is one of our five senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. We rely heavily on our sense of sight in our everyday lives. Our eyes are kind of like a camera. They react to light and allow us to see things. The information from our eyes is sent to the brain, and the brain tells us what to do. For instance, if our eyes detect something moving quickly toward them, our brain will tell our eyes to blink and our head to turn away. 

Vocabulary: Child-Friendly Definitions

  • sight – the ability to see.
  • eyes – the two organs of the body used to see.
  • senses – any of the five ways to experience things. The five senses are touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight.
  • magnifying – causing to appear larger.
  • object – anything that has shape or form and can be seen or touched.
  • convex – having a surface or edge that curves outward like the outside of a ball.

Lesson Tips

  • Remind the children that magnifying glasses are a tool and should not be used to look at the sun or at any other source of light because doing so can damage their eyes.
  • Be sure to supply a wide variety of interesting objects for the children to examine.

Books

  • You Can Use a Magnifying Glass (Rookie Read-About Science) by Wiley Blevins
  • Look! A Book About Sight by Dana Meachen Rau
  • Sight (The Five Senses) by Maria Rius, J. M. Parramon, and J. J. Puig
  • The Eye Book by Theo. LeSieg
  • Seeing (The Five Senses) by Rebecca Rissman

Home School Resources

Home educators: use these printable lesson PDFs to teach this lesson to your home schoolers. They're available in English and Spanish.

Home/School Connections

Las Conexiones a la Casa

While we believe that the books and resources recommended may be of value to you, keep in mind that these are suggestions only and you must do your own due diligence to determine whether the materials are appropriate and suitable for your use. PNC has no sponsorship or endorsement agreement with the authors or publishers of the materials listed.

Content Provided By

Carnegie Science Center

Visit Carnegie Science Center website

Common Core State Standards Initiative – These lessons are aligned with the Common Core State Standards ("CCSS"). The CCSS provide a consistent, clear understanding of the concepts and skills children are expected to learn and guide teachers to provide their students with opportunities to gain these important skills and foundational knowledge [1]. Visit the CCSS