I Spy
I Spy
One of my roles in my work as an early childhood specialist is facilitating Communities of Practice sessions in my home state Vermont- these sessions allow for deeper dives into a topic area.
I am currently co-learning with an amazing group of early childhood professionals as we dig deeper into process art- exploring color, fabric and clay. This past week community members shared photos of the children in their care using some of the techniques we covered in our sessions.
My lovely friend Lisa, owner of Meadow Wee Daycare, shared an engaging I Spy learning opportunity which she graciously allowed me to share with all of you!
Above is the photo of the I Spy experience & below is Lisa’s explanation:
I put out a variety of colored construction paper on the craft table for each child to choose a color they wanted. After everyone had chosen a different color they then went around the playroom collecting eight to twelve items that matched their color.
Typically I would have done this and had it all prepped for the kids, but I wanted to engage them in all steps of the activity. Once items were collected we put them on our craft table. Each child then chose one item of each color. We then took a picture of each childs group of colored items then put those items in the tough tray. All remaining items were put on the tough tray to be mixed up. They used some of the kitchen tools along with their hands to mix up the colored toys in the tough tray.
The kids' excitement was so great to see, they couldn’t wait for the printer to print out their items to spy! This was wonderful for me to see because in the past I usually would have had this step done already! By engaging the kids from the very beginning of this activity it kept them interested in the activity so much longer than usual.
Once they found all of their items they wanted to do it again. They put their items back onto the table, mixed them up and started to find their items again! After the second time I made the suggestion they could trade papers (the printed out sheets) so they could find other items! I left this activity out on our tough tray for the week and the kids continued doing the I spy game several times each day!
