Back to School Scavenger Hunts and I Spy Games

I know it's only the end of July, but I am already planning some of my back to school activities. I have a diverse caseload of kids in preschool through middle school, and I love to find activities that can be adapted to use with almost all of them. My kids just love treasure hunts, I Spy games and racing the clock in timed challenges, so I created this packet to include all three of those motivating activities.

This product features two colorful I Spy! game boards that can be used in a variety of ways.  I like to use them with my preschoolers to target categories, attributes, colors, letter recognition and object function. I just ask them to find "something in the sky" or "an animal that lives in the zoo", and have them cover the item with a checker after its found.

I use these boards in so many ways! I use them with the checklists that are included to find objects belonging to categories, but here are some other ideas:  Adapt it for working on S-blends by having the student say "I spy a ____" while finding each item. Use it to target negatives by finding items NOT in the category listed, and have them say, "A ___ is NOT a ____." or "A ____ DOESN'T have ____." Have the students direct others to find specific objects by describing them. Be creative! 

I've got a couple of older elementary students who struggle with processing information quickly and have difficulty with rapid naming tasks, so I created two rapid naming checklists to go along with each board. 

All you need is a stopwatch (there's probably one on your cellphone), a dry erase pouch to put the I Spy game boards in, a dry erase pen to cross off items as they are found, and a pencil to record the number of items found. I have the students name the items as they find them, often having them state the color of the object as well.

My older kids really love this one! Anytime they can race the clock, they are happy campers. This would be a great activity to target fluency, too.

The second part of this product is the set of five different scavenger hunt lists.  There's a color hunt for the little ones...

...ones that feature object functions, attributes and negatives...

...and one that targets social skills. I've even included an extension activity targeting follow-up questions.

These scavenger hunts are perfect to use one-on-one or with a group, or even for sending home as homework.  I haven't used them with my kids yet, but I just know they'll be a hit!

Want to add these to your back-to-school lesson plans? You can find them in my TpT Store, so just click on over.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Pam