Thinking with your eyes---Social Skills Lesson

I have the most adorable social skills group ever!  The group consists of five students ranging from third to fifth grade with various needs, but all of the kids are capable of accessing the regular curriculum.   This group's social skills curriculum is totally centered around Michelle Garcia Winner's Social Thinking materials. Whole body listening is an integral component.  Today we focused on 'Thinking with your eyes'.

First, the kids looked at photos of kids who either were or were not thinking with their eyes.  These are easily found on Google.  (Do a search on 'kids not paying attention'.)

Second, the kids watched a video of adults walking around in a city.  (ALL adults need to watch this!) Grownups walking by a gorilla totally missed it due to hyperfocus on their phones.
My students grasped how not 'thinking with their eyes' caused them to miss major events.

If the link above doesn't work, try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm2lfv3_ELc

We as a group also played catch with a ball afterwards, but only using eye contact to determine who to throw the ball to.  After watching this video, the students understood how important 'thinking with their eyes' is, and only allowed eye contact to determine who was to get the ball.  I love them!

The video is worth 1000 words.  If you have higher level children in your groups, show this National Geographic video, and then ask them what happens if you don't look at the teacher during instruction.  What do they miss?

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