Kids! Enter the Santa Clara Optometric Society’s Save Your Vision Month Coloring Contest. This year’s theme is Be Wise About Your Eyes! Color the illustration on the front page of the PDF. Be creative. Use bright colors or any media like glitter, yarn, sprinkles, etc. to increase visibility. Winning entries will receive tickets to local amusement parks, sporting events, or museums. All entries will receive “Finalist” ribbons. Hurry! Entry deadline is April 4th.

Children can enter the coloring contest, by downloading the PDF »

Rules:

I. Contestants must be between the ages of 5-10 years old. 2. All entries must be postmarked no later than April 4, 2008. 3. Mail to: Santa Clara County Optometric Society, P.O. Box 26130, San Jose,CA 95159-6130. 4. Entries will be judged on the basis of neatness and creativity. The decision of the judges is final. 5. All entries become the property of the Santa Clara Optometric Society. 6. Winners will be announced on May 2, 2008.

Related Internet Resources

• About Your Eyes, the American Optometric Association’s Teachers’ Center offers activities and teaching masters for classroom use. (www.aoa.org)
• The Eye and How We See from Prevent Blindness America (www.preventblindness.org/vlc/how_we_see. htm) provides information on vision and the eye. The site’s Eye Tests for Children can be printed and shared with parents and guardians)
• Optics for Kids (www.opticsforkids.org) provides lots of information and activities about light, including topics such as lenses and lasers, for students in upper grade levels.

ONLINE OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

• Optical Illusions provides four illusions for younger students from the American Optometic Association (www. aoa.org)
• Illusion Works (www.illusionworks.com) offers a huge selection of interactive demonstrations and scientific expla- nations, illusion artwork, interactive puzzles, 3D graphics, and much more.
• The Eyes Have It! (www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson078.shtml) additional activities for your classroom “eye”xploration.

A Note to the Teacher:

Thank you. Again. Thank you for your willingness to set aside some time in your classroom to explore the wonderful miracle that are our eyes. Nearly 80% of everything we will ever learn, we learn with the help of our eyes. Understanding how our eyes work and knowing how to take good care of them not only makes good health sense but, as studies have shown, are critical to a student’s suc- cess in school. We hope that you will visit some of the suggested websites shown here will help your students be- come more aware of their vision, and how their eyes work, and the impor- tance of taking care of their eyes. Feel free to help us improve by commenting or offering suggestions.

Please encourage your students to enter our coloring contest. Instruc- tions are below.

DID YOU KNOW? Fun Eye Facts

• 600,000 sports-related eye injuries occur in the U.S. each year.
• More than 90% of sports-related eye injuries can be prevented with appropriate protective eyewear
• Approximately 43% of eye injuries happen to children age 15 or younger
• Only 15% of children wear protective eyewear when playing sports.
• The top 10 sports for eye injuries are:
    1. Basketball 2. Baseball 3.Softball 4. Lacrosse 5. Hockey 6. Tennis 7. Soccer 8. Volleyball 9. Water Polo 10. Football
• Spinach, carrots, broccoli, corn, peas, and tangerines are rich in anti- oxidants, which are good for the eye.
• Humans blink approximately 17,000 times a day! That’s one blink every 5 seconds or 12 blinks per minute.
• Star fish have eight eyes – one at the end of each leg.
• A falcon can see 20 times better than a human. Even while diving at 100 miles per hour!