5 Ways to I SPY

We love the I Spy Books and there are lots of ways to incorporate the idea into fun activities.  Here are just five of them:


1. Make your own I Spy Books.  Choose a theme like colors, a holiday, or beginning letter sounds.  Start gathering objects from around the house that fit your theme (or better yet, have the kids do it.) Take and print your pictures, write your clues, and bind them together for your own I Spy book!  (There's a great tutorial over at Rookie Moms.)

If your children are younger, you could do an I Spy collage (aka junk collage).  Gather odds and ends from around the house (cereal, dried pasta, magazine pictures, foam shapes and letters, google eyes...) and have your preschooler glue everything onto a piece of paper.  Then they get to quiz you and see if you can find things.

I Spy Collage
 2 I Spy Scavenger Hunt - Our local library has laminated cards with pictures of things for kids to find around the library.  Drew enjoys this so much that I made my own version by taking pictures of things in the backyard and laminating them.  This is great for preschoolers because there's no reading required and he can do it on his own.  It's also great because it's active.

i spy scavenger hunt
3 I Spy Discovery Bottles - You could use any theme and any container.

i spy snow globe
4.  My sister made these I Spy bags for the kids.  There's a laminated picture attached of all the things they can find in the bag (including the letters in their names).  There's a tutorial for similar ones at Skip to My Lou.

i spy bags

If you're like me and and your sewing skills are non-existent, I saw a great idea for filling plastic zip-lock bags with hair gel at Teach Preschool. Add some little toys and a laminated picture, and you've got a No-Sew I Spy bag (though it's probably not as travel friendly as the sewn version!)

5. Interactive Games- Scholastic has great I Spy games online.  There's an interactive game to build your own I Spy picture, I Spy Bingo, I Spy Puzzler, I Spy Mystery Match and lots more!

How do you I Spy at your house?

18 comments:

  1. Question: When you make the I Spy bags, you said you filled the bags with hair gel. What kind did you use? I have never seen the little balls of gel. I think this would be great for the Prek kids at school. Also, if you did not sew it, how did you close the ends.
    Just wondering!!
    Thanks

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  2. Bobbi, you are a no-reply blogger and your profile is blocked, so I can't see if you have a blog. I hope you check back so I can answer your question! The picture of the I Spy bags are ones that my sister sewed. I was only offering an alternative if you didn't want to sew - fill zip-lock bags with hair gel for a similar experience. I will go back and make that more clear. Thanks so much for your comment!

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    1. used water bottles work GREAT for travel! You could even hot glue the lid on. We use white rice and hide the objects. The more rice in the bottle, the harder it is to find the letters, objects, etc.

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    2. used water bottles work GREAT for travel! You could even hot glue the lid on. We use white rice and hide the objects. The more rice in the bottle, the harder it is to find the letters, objects, etc.

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  3. Hi Lorie,
    That is right, I do not have a blog yet. It is on my to-do list!! I have made the hair gel bags before but I really liked the look of the sewn ones. I love the little balls and the objects. :)

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  4. some great ideas! we love playing i spy too! i think the bottles look so fun! we start preschool everyday with an i spy picture to warm up our brains! and we're working on our own i spy ebook for our readers!

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  5. Love your I Spy ideas. My favorite is the outside scavenger hunt. We've been doing a daily photo scavenger hunt outside all month and my son loves it.

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  6. This has given me an idea for a party game - thank you

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  7. I LOVE this post! Great collection of I Spy activities. I followed your post over from the Show & Tell Blog Hop ... but I've also seen the pin all over Pinterest!

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  8. Great ideas! I love the scavenger hunt especially. Thanks for linking up with the Kids Co-Op this week.

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  9. Fun! I especially loved your scavenger hunt. We'll be heading to the lake soon and this will be on my brain to make!

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  10. I just LOVE the I spy bags! I have made the I Spy jars with rice for my son and for presents. But I think the I Spy bags I just a bit more special! Thank you for posting the idea I will have to try it!

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  11. Thanks for sharing this at tip toe thru tuesday! my favorites are the I spy bags!

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  12. Brilliant ideas! I love theI spy bag.Thanks for linking on Fun Sparks xx

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  13. I'd never seen the I spy bags - those look cool!! Thanks for linking up to TGIF! I look forward to seeing what you link up this week,
    Beth =-)

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  14. Totally LOVE this!! Thanks for sharing.
    Lori

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  15. Hello,
    I would like to feature this post on the T.E.A.C.H. Awards at Cachey Mama’s Classroom for May. If you allow me permission to use one image from the post and link back to your post, please e-mail me at cacheymama@gmail.com as soon as possible. Thanks!
    Lori @ Cachey Mama’s Classroom
    PS. If you would like to see past T.E.A.C.H. Awards, click HERE

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Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!