I love to make simple and fun homemade toys and books, and today’s I Spy Foam Book is both of these things! Bonus, it’s all in a little booklet and kids can take it with them when you travel or wait in doctor’s office or in a restaurant to keep them on their seat!
There are a variety of foam stickers in different themes and you can make an I Spy book to match your child’s interest.
Materials for I Spy Foam Book
You will need:
- pre-cut rectangle foam sheets (find here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom)
- self-adhesive foam stickers of your choice (find here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom)
- bindings
If you prefer not to get rectangle foam sheets, you can use cardstock paper in rainbow colors. You just need to cut the rectangles to a size to match little hands.
To make this foam I Spy book, I grabbed several pre-cut rectangle foam sheets in rainbow colors and several packs of self-adhesive foam stickers, we used:
How to make I Spy Foam Booklet
On each of the rectangle pages, I added themed foam stickers. For example, for animal themed page, I made sure I had one of each animals in different sizes AND different colors.
I had my little book put together with spiral spine, but you can easily use a hole punch and tie it together with ribbon or book rings (find here: United States | Canada | United Kingdom).
And you’re all ready to go play I spy!
How to Play I Spy?
With several same items in different sizes on the same page, I can call in and ask my toddler to find: “Can you spy a little green frog?” or “Can you spy a big blue turtle?”. We get to learn animal names, colors and sizes.
We can also count how many of each animal in on a sheet. Similar activities can be done with instruments, letters and vehicles too.
We have this book for over 5 years now. It survived my older daughter and today, I use it with little one too. Hope your kids will enjoy this easy to make at home I spy book as much as my kids did!
Learning Opportunities for Kids
As they play with this homemade book, kids work on:
- visual sensory system,
- observing and identifying different objects,
- learning names of the objects they encountered first time,
- math – counting, sizing,
- letter recognition.
Looking for more fun things to do with your kids? We want to recommend you our book – Learn with Play (150+ Activities for Year-Round Fun and Learning)! You will find inside easy to prepare activities for everyday fun as well for all seasons and holidays! Here is a preview for you:
Book is available as:
What else can you play with stickers?
Here are few suggestions to try with your kids:
- Amazingly Easy Ways to Use Stickers for Learning – you will find a number of ideas how to use stickers as learning manipulatives in all areas of studying – math, language and letter recognition, as well as arts and science.
- Ladybug Fine Motor Play – use stickers to dot spots on ladybug
- Dinosaur Fine Motor Hunt – find hidden dinosaurs!
My Bored Toddler says
What a great toddler activity. My daughter would love a book like this. Thanks for sharing on #ToddlerFunFriday