A googly eye walk with kids

A googly eye walk is an ordinary stroll with one extra job: finding the faces that already live on the street. Letterboxes, drainpipes, bollards and bins sometimes wear a pair of stuck-on eyes, and a child with a purpose will happily walk twice as far as one who has simply been told to come along. This guide is for parents, grandparents, teachers and anyone else taking a small group out to look. It covers choosing a route, keeping everyone safe, what to carry, which games work, and how to turn the walk into drawing or writing afterwards.

Choose a route that suits the legs, not the map

The best hunting route is shorter than you think. Children notice far more at a dawdle than at a march, and twenty minutes each way with plenty of stops will produce more faces and more conversation than a long loop with a deadline. Plan around the slowest walker, and then plan for them to be slower than usual, because every lamp post is now a possible suspect.

Pick a place where faces are likely. Use the map on this site to see where eyes have been reported near you, then choose a stretch where several are within reach of each other. A single shopping street, a park with a path and a few benches, or a quiet residential block can all work. Hypothetically, a loop of a few hundred metres around a local park might pass a gate post, a bench, a drinking fountain and a couple of signposts, and any one of them could turn out to have a face.

Walk the route yourself first if you can: you will find out about broken paths, awkward crossings and toilets, and whether the eye you were counting on is still there. Eyes get knocked off and taken home, so treat the map as a hint, and choose a route with spare faces and room for pretend ones, such as a knot in a tree or a car grille that looks faintly surprised.

A loop beats an out-and-back, and a place to sit for a snack and a sketch is worth planning in.

Safety near roads comes first

Looking for faces makes people look up, sideways and backwards, which is exactly what you do not want near traffic. Agree the rules before you leave the house or the classroom door, and repeat them at the first kerb.

Follow whatever adult-to-child ratio your school or organisation requires, count heads at every stop, and give everyone a partner. Make sure one adult has a charged phone, knows the way back, and knows who to call. It rarely matters, and it is the kind of preparation that is only noticed when it is missing.

What to bring

Less than you would think. A small bag shared between the adults is plenty.

Notice what is missing: spare eyes and glue. This walk is about looking, not adding. Packing stickers invites the temptation to use them, and whether a place is right for a pair of eyes is a grown-up decision that depends on permission and on how easily they come off again. If a child asks, the honest answer is that today you are observers. The guide on etiquette and permission explains why.

Games and challenges

Games give a walk its shape. A few that work with mixed ages:

Spot ten faces. The classic. Each child has a tally sheet and a target of ten. A face counts only if everyone in the group agrees it is a face, which leads to cheerful arguments about whether two bolts on a gate are eyes or just bolts. Younger children can aim for five. Older ones can go for ten faces showing ten different feelings.

Name every character. When a face is found, the finder names it, and the name goes on the sheet. A drainpipe might be Gerald. A letterbox might be Big Doris. The rule is that the name must suit the expression, so a worried-looking bollard cannot be called Sunny.

Tell its story. At each face, one child begins a sentence, such as "This is Gerald, and every morning he...", and the next child carries on for one line. Keep it light and let it get silly. The point is practising invention, not judging it.

Whatever the game, keep the scoring gentle. A walk where one child always wins is a short walk. Celebrate the oddest find, the best name and the most patient spotter rather than only the highest count.

Respecting other people's property

A face on a gate or a letterbox is on someone's property, and a good walk models how to treat it. Teach the same few habits every time.

Look with your eyes, not your hands. Eyes are often held on with something that will not survive being poked, and a pupil that rattles is a pupil that can be lost. Stay on the public side of the fence, do not step into a garden for a better view, and keep your voices down outside houses. If someone asks what you are doing, a friendly explanation settles it. If an eye has come loose and fallen on the ground, resist the urge to put it back or pocket it. Leave it where it is, or tell the adult in charge. It is not yours, and it may belong to someone who is coming back for it. If something looks damaged, dangerous or unkind, such as an eye stuck over a safety sign, simply do not engage, and let an adult decide whether anyone needs to be told.

Finally, count and leave. Nothing is collected, nothing is moved, and no litter is left behind, including your own snack wrappers. A group that leaves a street exactly as it found it is the best argument there is for this sort of fun being welcome. The guide on sticking and removing googly eyes explains what happens when people are less careful.

Turning the walk into a drawing or writing activity

The walk is half of the activity. The other half happens when you sit down afterwards, ideally the same day while the faces are still fresh.

Draw the best face. Ask each child to draw their favourite, then add what the walk did not show: the street behind it, the weather, the creature it might become if it came to life. Younger children may only manage the eyes, and that is fine. Older ones can add a speech bubble or a name label.

Write a short story. Choose one of the characters named on the walk and write a paragraph, or a page, about a day in its life. Prompts that help: what does it see all day, what does it wish for, who walks past it, what happens when the rain comes. Older children might try writing in the first person, from the face's point of view.

Make a field guide. Collect the drawings and names into a simple folded booklet, one page per character, with a line about where it was found, how it looked, and what it seemed to feel. A class can combine its pages into one large guide, and a family can keep it as a record of the holidays.

Whatever form it takes, praise the noticing, not the polish. The most useful thing a walk like this can give a child is the habit of looking closely at an ordinary street and finding something to say about it.

A last word

You do not need many faces, a perfect route or any equipment to make this work. A short loop, a few firm safety rules, a tally sheet and a willingness to be silly will carry most groups through an afternoon. Go slowly, look together, leave everything where it is, and let the drawing and the stories do the rest.

Last update: 2026-10-16 AWST