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The Outside of Me -- A Look in the Mirror     I look in the mirror and what do I see? I see the person that I call, "ME"!   It's fun to look in the mirror and see ourselves.  We can see the color of our eyes, check out whether our mouth is dirty and make silly faces at ourselves.  Looking in the mirror helps us learn about the "me" on the outside.   My Eyes: When I look in the mirror, the first thing I always see is my eyes.  I like my eyes because they are what I use to see the world.  My eyes don't work as well as some people's eyes so I wear glasses.  Do you wear glasses?  My eyes look sleepy a lot of the time -- I think that is because I usually look in the mirror in the morning.  Sometimes eyes look sad, sometimes they look excited and sometimes they look bored.  Looking at someone's eyes can tell you a lot about how they are feeling!   When I look very closely at one of my eyes I can see all the parts.  There is a colored circle called the Iris.  Irises can be green, blue, brown or grey.  What colour are yours?  There is a dark circle in the middle of each eye.  This is called the pupil.  When the light is very bright, the pupils of the eye get small.  When it is very dark, the pupils of the eye get big.  Sometimes, I turn out the lights in the bathroom and count to twenty in the dark.  Then I turn the lights on and look in the mirror really fast.  I can see my pupils shrink from large to small.  It's fun to watch! I have pieces of skin that I use to cover my eyes -- they are called eyelids -- I can blink them up and down.  Lids for my eyes like they were a jar of pickles -- that's kind of funny.  But eyelids are very useful -- they protect our eyes when we sleep, they help keep our eyes from being dry, we can close them to play peek-a-boo and if we try very hard, we can use them to wink.  I practice winking in the mirror but I'm not very good at it.  Can you wink? I have a little indent on each of my eyes near my nose.  These are my tear ducts.  When I am sad water comes out of these ducts -- these are my tears.  If I taste my tears they are salty.  My tear ducts aren't just for crying.  Every time I blink my eyelids a little bit of salty water comes out of my tear ducts to keep my eyes from getting dry.  When my eyes are dry they are itchy so I try to remember to blink when I'm watching TV or using the computer.  Sometimes I get a piece of dust in my eye.  When this happens, my tear ducts work very hard to wash the dust out of my eye.  It is like I am crying even though I'm not sad.  I am glad I have tear ducts to keep my eyes clean and moist. I have eyebrows above my eyes.  My eyebrows are brown.  What colour are your eyebrows?  Sometimes I look in the mirror and move my eyebrows up and down ... I can use my eyebrows to make frowny faces if I move them down or surprised faces if I move them up.  Can you move your eyebrows?  Sometimes, if I try very hard I can make one eyebrow move up and the other move down -- that's very, very hard!  My eyebrows are made of short little hairs.  If I look at them from far away, they just look like two lines on my face but if I look at them close up in the mirror, I can see each of the little hairs that make them.  I have eyelashes on each of my eyelids and under each of my eyes.  My eyelashes are brown like my eyebrows.  Some people have long eyelashes and some people have short eyelashes.  Some people have thick eyelashes and some people have thin eyelashes.  What are your eyelashes like?  My eyelashes work with my eyelids and my tear ducts to keep my eyes safe.  Pieces of dust can't get into my eyes as easily because my eyelashes stop them.  Sometimes I find an eyelash that has fallen out -- that's ok because another one will grow in. Seeing things with our eyes is one of the ways we learn about our world.  Sight is one of our five senses.   My Mouth: When I look in the mirror, the second thing I see is my mouth.  I use my mouth for smiling, eating, drinking, talking and laughing.  I can even use my mouth for breathing!  My lips are the first part of my mouth I can see.  I can make all kinds of silly shapes with my lips.  If I open them up wide, I can see inside my mouth. Inside my mouth, I can see my teeth.  I try to remember to brush them so they are clean and white when I smile.  My teeth don't look the same.  The teeth in the front are sharper than the teeth in the back.  The sharp front teeth are for cutting through my food.  The back flat teeth are for grinding and mashing my food.  When we are first born we don't have any teeth.  We can't eat food that needs to be cut or mashed.  We can only drink liquid and eat very soft, ground up baby food.    When we get older our teeth start to grow -- this is our first set of "baby teeth".  Sometimes when we are children we forget to take care of our teeth -- we don't brush them when we should.  When we are in school, our baby teeth start to fall out and our second set of "adult teeth" grow in.  We have to be very careful to take care of our adult teeth because we won't be getting anymore new ones!  I can also see my tongue.  When I talk it helps me say words.  Try talking without moving your tongue.  It sounds funny!  My tongue moves my food around when I'm eating.  If I look closely at my tongue I can see it is covered in little bumps.  These bumps are called taste buds and they help me taste my food. Tasting things with our mouth is one of the ways we learn about our world.  Taste is one of our five senses.   My Nose: When I look in the mirror, I can see my nose.  My nose has two holes in it.  I breathe in air through these holes.  Sometimes my nose gets stuffy -- especially when I'm sick or it's cold outside.  I use a kleenex to blow my nose.  Have you ever had a stuffy nose? I use my nose to breathe and I use my nose to smell things.  Some things smell good to me and some things don't.  I squeeze my nose shut with my fingers when there is a bad smell.  I take a deep breath in when there is a smell I like. Smelling things with our nose is one of the ways we learn about our world.  Smell is one of our five senses.       My Ears: When I look in the mirror, I can see my ears.  I have to turn my head to see them well.  I use my ears to hear the world.  I can hear music playing and a dog barking right now.  What do you hear?  When I look closely at my ears I can see tunnels going into my head.  These tunnels are where the sound goes.  There are lots of important parts inside the tunnels so I don't stick anything in there.  I like being able to hear, so I'm careful to take good care of my ears. Hearing things with our ears is one of the ways we learn about our world.  Hearing is one of our five senses.   My Skin: When I look in the mirror, I can see my skin.  My skin covers just about every inch of me.  It is my tough outside package.  If I scrape it or cut it, it will grow back but I put a bandaid on it until it does.  If I look closely at my skin it isn't all the same color.  It looks a little peachy, but it has dots of darker color.  These are my freckles.  Not everyone has freckles, but they are part of what makes me, ME!  Do you have freckles?  What colors can you see in your skin? If I look very closely at my skin I can see little holes.  These are my pores.  When I am hot, salty water called sweat comes out of my pores to cool me off.  When I am cold, my pores shrink to try to keep me warm.  If I get cold quickly, sometimes my pores close so fast that I get little bumps on my skin.  These are goosebumps.  Have you ever had goosebumps?   When I touch something with my skin I can feel it.  We explore the world by touching things with our skin.  It tells us what it is, it feels wind blowing and rain falling.  We can feel if things are rough or smooth, hot or cold, gooey or dry. Touching things with our skin is one of the ways we learn about our world.  Touch is one of our five senses.   My Hair My hair doesn't help me learn about the world, but I like it anyways -- my hair is part of what makes me, ME!  My hair is long, straight and brown.  What is your hair like?  Hair can be curly or straight.  It can be brown, black, blond, or red.  Sometimes when we get older our hair falls out and doesn't come back -- or it turns grey or white.  I brush my hair to keep it neat.  I wash my hair to keep it clean.  There are about 100,000 hairs on top of our heads.  When we pull out a hair another one grows in its place.  If we cut our hair, it grows some more.  I wonder how long my hair would get if I never, ever cut it?  I'm glad my eyebrow hairs don't grow as long as my head hair!     Those are the things I see when I look in the mirror.  You might see some things that are the same as I see and some things that are different.  Each one of us is our own special "me"!   Printable Worksheets: Draw a picture of yourself in the mirror    Five Senses Itsy Bitsy Book   Other Links: coloring.ws  Emotions Coloring Pages DLTK-Kids.com All About Me section