Monday, April 21, 2014

DIY I Spy Activity

I would love to say I came up with this all on my own, but alas! no :) I found the idea of creating your own DIY I Spy on a preschool activity board on Pinterest and modified it for my classroom. This is a great way to practice vocabulary, especially recycled from earlier themes so it doesn't lay fallow in the minds of your students.
To create: Gather together a group of objects of known vocabulary (if you don't have manipulatives you can use pictures) and place them on a solid piece of paper. Take a picture of the grouping, like I have above, and print it out. You can print out several copies or just one, depending on how you will use the activity. Laminate if possible. Secondly, create a 'I Spy' (Busca...) checklist to go along with the picture. For this one, there are tons of possibilities. Here are some:
-a horse
-a house
-a dog
-the number four
-something orange
-three fruits
-five mammals
-something prehistoric
-a mode of transportation

I like to have a checkbox next to each item on the list so kids can check off each thing as they find it. And, it's wonderful to have a mix of nouns and categories so kids have to think a bit more about what they are looking for. The checklist can be printed out multiple times so you can use the laminated picture over and over again. The alternative could be to laminate both the list and the picture as one larger page and use a dry erase marker to circle things as they are found. Super fun and easy to create!