"I spy" tub

"I spy with my little eye..."

Halloween treasures hidden in a tub of leaves!

Elise has enjoyed digging through this tub of leaves to discover

ornamental gourds, a rat, a bat, a carnival squash, and a snake.

A few reasons why I think this "I spy" activity is great...

• It offers lots of language opportunities.  Elise is just beginning to say words, so I mostly just name the objects.  As she becomes more confident with the items in the tub, I've been challenging her to "spy" certain items (I never ask her to find something if I'm not completely sure she knows what I'm talking about, though.).  An older child could look for items of a certain color, beginning sound, texture, etc.   
• It provides a sensory experience.  Just digging through the leaves alone activates the senses!  I also tried to select objects with a variety of textures, so they would feel different from the leaves and each other.  Elise has been using her sense of sight to find most of the objects, but an older child might enjoy closing his or her eyes or wearing a blindfold to "see with the hands" instead.
• It reinforces object permanence.  The first time Elise did this activity, she didn't know what she would find in the leaves.  All the times after (oh, there were many more times!), Elise knew that even though the rat was hidden in the leaves, it was still there.  An older child may be able to recall from memory some or all of the items that have yet to be found.   
• Last, but not least - you can count the objects!  Sometimes, after we've taken everything out of the tub, I count the objects aloud.  I also say things like, "I spy one more thing!" as we look through the leaves.  Once an older child knows how many items there are total, he or she will be able to use addition/subtraction to determine how many objects are still hidden.
• Oh, I thought of one more thing!  I'm not sure about this, but it there has to be something to seeing just part of an object and knowing what the whole is.  For instance, in the top photo, only a small part of the snake is showing, but since you know what the objects are now, you know it's the snake.

Happy Halloween week, friends!  ;)