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I-spy game with letters

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We’ve been playing I-spy Letters today as we were out and about in the neighbourhood. We were hunting for the lettert ‘R’, which happens to be the initial of Little’s best friend, but of course you can choose whichever letter you like: think about what stage your child is at with letter recognition and play the game accordingly.

Young children might just be able to spot the first letter of their name. Older children can be set the challenge of spotting each letter in alphabetical order.   If you have more than one child you can even make this a competition to see who can find all the letters of their name first. Aside from helping children to actually recognise letters, this game helps them to sort through an assortment of information to home in on what they’re searching for. It shows them that letters have a real purpose, as you can talk about what all the writing is telling passers-by. It’s also good for them to see words written all sorts of different fonts and in both upper and lower case.

Somedays the school run can be fun, other days it can be a chore, so it’s handy to have a few games ready to use if the kids need to be chivvied on a little. What games do you play?

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 My guide to ABCs and 123s

Do you have a young child who is learning their ABCs and 123s, and do you want to make their learning fun? Our ABCs and 123s resource of mulitsensory, play-based letter and math activities is just what you need. See more here.

Mini beast hunt

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Growing sunflowers with children? Download our free sunflower activities ebook.

Our sunflowers have now moved outside to our little greenhouse to enjoy the Spring sunshine and get them used to being outside. We’ve been out enjoying the garden too. Little has been especially interested to see creatures out there. She will stop in her tracks and peer at her feet, watching an ant running around. Big is interested to know which animals are goodies (that would include worms and ladybirds) or badies (which definitely includes slugs and snails). So we have decided so survey what animals we have sharing our garden with us by playing… Garden Bingo!

First we talked about what animals we might expect to see. (Sorry Little, but no elephants are likely to be found.) Then we drew pictures of them. Everyone can join in with this, no matter how young or artisically challenged they might be. Little did a great worm, ladybird and spider – with carefully counted legs. Big’s cat is very characterful and her butterfly is perfectly symmetrical. I was able to muster some greenfly and wowed everyone with my woodpigeon.

Then we stuck our animal pictures on to our bingo card and wrote their names underneath, along with a tick box for each one. Each time we spot an animal in the garden we’re going to tick them off our card. Take time to have a good look at each animal as you see them. Look at their shape, colour and patterns and count their legs (or note their lack off). Talk about their role in the garden ecosystem and decide if they are goodies or badies.

If you like a competition you could make each person a slightly different bingo card to see who can spot all their creatures first to get a ‘full house’. We like to promote harmony in our garden so we have one big bingo card to complete all together.

If you’re out in the garden and growing things with your children, come and join in with our Sunflower Club to get a Spring and Summer full of activities all linked to growing and gardening.

Woodland Walk – woodland jewellery

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We had such fun on our woodland walk today. The girls relished having so much space to run in. They gathered lots of natural materials on their treasure hunt: leaves, seeds, fircones, moss. They used them to make some nests and also to make some jewellery too. We brought some small lengths of wool with us and use them to tie together some jewels – favourite leaves the girls chose from their treasures. We tied the brooches on to their coats and they pretended to be forest fairies off to a party in their finest clothes.

Make your own street map

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To help children get to know their local comunity you can make your own street map. I’ve used this with children who were new to the area to help them feel settled in their new home, and with children starting school, to help them feel confident about the school run.

Start by taking a walk around your local community. You might want to pick a particular route that the children take regularly – to school, to the childminders, to the shops. Help your child to spot local ‘landmarks’ which they recognise on the way – a post box, a zebra crossing, a park, the house where the barking dog lives. Use a digital camera to take pictures of each landmark.your own street map

When you get home, print off the photos. Use a roll of paper (or the back of a wallpaper roll) to draw out a basic road map of your journey. It’s doesn’t have to be exactly to scale of course, and you’ll probably need to do this bit for them. Then, together tell the story of your journey – talking about all the things you pass on the way and sticking them in the right places on your map.

When you’ve finished you can use the map to play with toy cars or dolls’ house people to bring it to life.  You could roleplay situations with the child – for example  you could walk a doll to school along the route and have them say goodbye to mummy and line up to go into class. This lets your child try out situations before they occur – giving them chance to prepare themselves and become more confident in the real situation.

Next time you go on the journey keep a look out for all your landmarks and notice if any have changed.

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