Check out the most BEAUTIFUL I Spy game you will ever see! This is so simple to make and children will love learning with this activity board. This is also a dry erase board, so it can be enjoyed over and over again! Children can work on plant identification, colors, counting skills, and more.
Children are often bombarded with worksheets at school. They tend to be boring and not very interesting to look at. Here is a fun and simple alternative to worksheets that can be used at home or as a learning center in a classroom!
Here’s just a quick tip before we get into the “How To” section:
If you don’t want to make this a dry erase surface, you can keep the pieces of nature loose similar to our Nature Find It activity!
Ready to make one!? Here’s what you’ll need..
Supplies:
- Cardboard
- Packing Tape
- Dry Erase Marker
- Paper Towel
- Pressed Pieces of Nature– If you don’t have any available, you can purchase a pack on Amazon. We used some from this pack on our board!
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RELATED: Check out Magical Pressed Flower Lanterns
Here’s How We Made Them:
Step 1:
Organize your pressed pieces of nature on your cardboard. You can read more on pressing flowers in How to Preserve Flowers for Nature Activities.
Step 2:
Now it’s time to make the dry erase surface. I did this two ways to compare methods:
For the “Key” I put some Mod Podge on the board first, put the flowers on the thin layer of Mod Podge, and covered the flowers with more Mod Podge. The Mod Podge dimpled the cardboard a bit, but looked okay when it dried. Once it dried, I put strips of packing tape over the key one piece at a time.
For the actual board, I skipped the Mod Podge and went right to taping the board. I started at one end and worked my way to the other. Just make sure the pieces of tape overlap a bit so there are no gaps in between the strips of tape. This only took me about 10 minutes and it turned out great!
I was going to try clear contact paper, but the thought of trying to correctly position one huge piece of contact paper on the board made me really nervous! I think contact paper would be a good option if you make a smaller I Spy board.
This activity took me about 15 total minutes to prepare and I gasped at it’s beauty when it was complete! As you can see, the board now has a nice surface and you can easily wipe off any dry erase marks.
Now invite your child over to the board! I asked my four year old if he could find all of the pieces of nature on the board. He was so excited to find them all! Our conversation naturally moved to colors, counting, and comparing the different pieces of nature.
My son put little dots next to the pieces of nature as he found them, but kids can circle, check them off, or make any other marking to track their findings!
Also you can skip the key and call out different items to find. “Can you circle all of the blue flowers?” “Can you count five flowers and put a heart next to them?” “Can you check off all of the flowers with stems or leaves?” The questions and prompts are endless!
The surface is so smooth and shiny. Children will love wiping the marks off of the board!
Pin it and save it for later!
I hope you give this simple nature activity a try! I promise, your little nature lovers will love it as much as my boys.
∼Tara
