While printing up photos for our friendship blocks, which I shared in my previous post, I also printed up extra photos for the children to use in other ways throughout the classroom. For this activity, I invited the children to create their own “I Spy Me” boards…
Set out on the table were the children’s pictures, some glue, their names, and then I asked the children to share with me their favorite color so they could add a handprint or just paint any way they wished on their boards using their favorite color. Â We used cut up pieces of cardboard for this process…
So let me back track just a second because hanging in the classroom we have a big “I Spy Me” poster board that the children can use to find themselves too. So this process does have a connection with something else we have been sharing in the classroom…
And we also read the book “I like Me” by Nancy Carlson as a way to introduce our “I Spy Me” activities throughout the classroom…
“I Like Me” is a simple book about a pig that likes herself and we learn about things that she loves to do…
So back to the “I Spy Me!” pictures. To extend the concept of “me” and the things we like, the children had to search for their own picture and name to glue on their boards. Some of the children needed help with their names (since we are only in the third week of our preschool year) so I helped them out…
Once their names and pictures were found, the children glued them on the board and then told me what favorite color of paint they would like to add to their board. Â I put a small puddle of paint on their hand and let them do what they liked with it from there…
Some of the children simply made a handprint but most of the children decided they wanted to hide their photo behind the paint so finding their picture would be more challenging…
And for those who wanted a color like purple or orange, we added a color of paint to each hand so they could mix the two colors to make their favorite color…
A simple process that gave us another chance to talk about each other, ourselves, our favorite colors or color mixing, and to get our hands messy! Excellent!
And of course, one of the best parts of this process was seeing if Mrs. Stewart could find “me” on the board underneath all that paint!
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