Children will play "I Spy" with letters in words displayed in their surroundings. This activity will reinforce letter knowledge and letter sounds in a fun way.
Learning Area(s): Reading and Writing
MATERIALS
- Sunglasses (optional)
LET'S PLAY
While in the house, in the car, out doing errands, or in the community (somewhere with printed material displayed), introduce the activity: “We are going to play I Spy Letters. To spy something means to see something. As we play this game, we will look all around and find letters. I will go first to show you. I spy the letter ‘S.’ Do you see the letter ‘S’ anywhere?” Have your child look around until he locates the letter. If he needs help, you can give clues about where to look for it.
Then say to the child, “Now it’s your turn to pick a letter that you see.” If your child is hesitant, give him the words to say to start (“Say, ‘I spy the letter . . .’”).
TIPS
- When your child is old enough to sequence alphabet letters in order, you can start this game with A first, and after finding an A, look for a B, and so on to try to complete the whole alphabet!
- A variation on this activity is to have your child find something in his surroundings that begins with a certain letter, for example, a cat. Then he would say, “I spy something that begins with the letter C, or the sound, /ck/.” Then you or others can guess the object.