Five Senses ! Do you see what I see?

1. Gather your materials. You will need some goggley eyes, a larger piece of card stock or construction paper, another plain sheet of paper, some crayons/markers, and glue.
2. Start my coloring the big paper, If your child is old enough have them write the words ” I spy…” all over it.
3. While they are doing that , write on the white paper something like ” From my front porch, I spy….” I did three areas of our house but more or less works great.
4. Add glue around the edges.
5. Add lots of googly eyes. Ask toddlers and preschoolers what they are, and to point to their eyes. Ask them what they are for. Explain we are putting them all over the paper because we are going to go explore using our eyes and come back and write down our findings on this paper!
6. Go to the different places and ask your children to tell you what they see! While they are doing this if they are old enough ask them to close their eyes and ask them if they can’t see how would they know what is around them.
7. Report your findings, if your child can write let them do it, if they want to draw what they saw, that is great! If they are a toddler do it for them but talk to them about it and have them recall it as you write it down.

Books!

The whole I spy series is a wonderful treat to have in a classroom or home, preschoolers have an uncanny love of finding things and these books rock. I used to love to pull them out on rainy day recesses while teaching Pre K and it would keep many a preschooler engaged for quite a while! They are by Jean Marzello and Walter Wick and if you have access to Scholastic Book orders you will usually find one in each order at a great discounted price!

Additional Activities

Old McDonald Lost His Sight!

This is a fun game that I have played with children as young as 2.5, all you need is a blindfold and a room clear of danger . Blind fold the child who is going to be ‘ Old McDonald’ and have any other kids or yourself around them in a circle, the leader ( you) says “Old McDonald had a farm eieio, and on his farm he had a —animal—— then make the sound, the farmer has to go find the animal using his sense of hearing.

You can also use scarves and have them available for the farmer to touch and the animal is at the end of the scarf. So this time he is using his sense of touch. Please be careful with this one – gentle tugs, and a bump proof room is a must!

I Spy!

I have countless memories of playing this game with my sister as a child but as a teacher it’s been a wonderful tool. Helps teach all sorts of basics, and when learning about the sense of sight, it’s great! So if you don’t know how it works, one person says ” I spy with my little eye something that is __ enter color__ or ___ starts with the letter___ ” and the other person/ people have to guess. If they get it right it’s their turn.