As part of the Virtual Book Club for Kids, Miss E and I read The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle. I created an I Spy Jar for my daughter to hunt for the bug characters in the book.
I filled a jar with dyed green rice, artificial flowers, and pictures of bugs in the book. The pictures were laminated with clear packaging tape to give more durability. I filled the jar a little more than 3/4 full with rice to allow room to shake and move the rice and pictures. If your child is likely to dump out the contents, seal the lid shut with packaging tape.
Miss E and I made an I Spy worksheet to help hunt for the bugs. She glued the pictures onto a sheet of a paper and we wrote the names of each bug next to it's picture. She helped identify and write the first letters.
The I Spy Jar has been endlessly entertaining for Miss E. She gets a kick out of shaking the jar and looking for the bugs. This activity supports reading comprehension since children learn the characters in the story. Writing words together and identifying first sounds and letters in words fosters early literacy skills. Identifying bug names builds science knowledge. Moving, holding, and shaking the jar helps kids develop gross motor skills and hand and arm strength.
My one complaint of this activity is the pictures tend to pile up together probably because of the static caused by all the shaking. This is easily remedied by taking out the pictures and mixing them up again in the jar. This may not happen if they were glued to thicker paper or cardboard. Plastic toy bugs would probably be the best, but the pictures allow for a budget friendly alternative. In addition, I suggest a wider mouthed jar because it can be hard to get the pictures out of a smaller opening.
Our I Spy Jar is just one of many other fabulous activities for the The Very Quiet Cricket Virtual Book Club. Check out the links below for other great ideas. If you have a blog post with an idea based on the book, please share it in the blog hop below.
This post is shared at For the Kids Fridays and It's Playtime!
10 comments:
I absolutely love this idea! I bet if I had the pictures by the jar, my little guy would be able to point them out to me as he shakes it. Eventually, we could get to the letters and written names. Thanks for sharing!!!
Rebekah this is awesome. the jar and find sheet look so pretty. i'd kinda forgotten about I spy jars. Might have to go and make one.
I Spy Jars for books- What a terrific idea!
Love this! And I love that she helped make the finding sheet! We have some plastic bugs somewhere so I may need to make this for Sweet P!
What a great idea to make an I Spy jar to go along with a story. I love it! Very creative!
What a brilliant idea - I love the advice you give at the end you would have had me pulling my hair out when it wasn't working.
Very cool Rebekah - I might make some of these for our long car ride to the beach this weekend.
Very fun and you can use it for so many different I spy opportunities. Stopping by from For the Kids Fridays. Hope you will stop by True Aim. Thanks!
Yes, this is awesome !
When do kids can start this I SPY jar ?
Mine is 2 yo and we have never try this.
What a lovely I spy jar to go with the book.My son would love spying the bugs in the jar.Must make one for him.Thanks for the inspiration.x
Post a Comment