i - I spy

Children in nursery will be learning to:

As we were learning about the letter i, I decided to play I spy. Instead of looking around the room for an object I decided to use the illustrations in a book. This is another way to enjoy a book with your child to help foster a love of books and reading.

The You Choose books are great for this activity. The books have a question at the top of each page and children choose from the illustrations to create their own stories. Which means the pages are quite detailed with lots of things to look at.

I spy is great for developing children's awareness of initial sounds. To support your child, play with letter sounds rather than letter names.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with mmmm.

If they find it tricky to hear the initial sound you could model it first e.g. Moon starts with m. Mmmm-moon. Can you spot something else that starts with mmm? (mat)

Visual Discrimination - Visual discrimination is the ability to see how two things are different or the same and how they relate to each other. Playing I spy helps children to develop an eye for detail which will help them when they need to tell the difference between similar letters e.g. b, p, d and q.

If your child finds it tricky to identify initial sounds in words you can still use the book to help develop visual discrimination and pre-reading skills. Try asking questions that require your child to really look at the picture.

Examples:

Can you see anything that you can eat?

How many things can you see that make a noise?

What things can you see that you can play with?

Which things can you see that you can wear?

Is there anything there that is really small?

If you have a go at this activity and share any photos on social media I would love to see them. Please tag @miniwritersclub and let me know how you get on.

Anna

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