We love to read!
Students focus on a large spinning spiral afterwards, they are amazed to see someone’s head visually grow much bigger and then smaller!
The science behind the optical illusion is explained, that the eye muscles became fatigued when looking at the spiral and overcompensate when relaxing and looking at something else. I explain that reading exercises the mind AND the eye muscles. Speed and comprehension increases with practice. For older grades some simple eye exercises are taught.
Magical books are used in the show with things popping out of them and words and pictures magically appearing.
Through exaggeration students see that reading is fun, reading makes them smarter and reading improves their imagination, and often what’s vividly imagined comes true! Therefore vividly picturing themselves doing well on a test, in sports, etc. can improve results.