We’ve been reading several I Spy books by Lucy Micklethwait, thanks to suggestions from my friends Rachel and Molly.
Each book is filled with reproductions of fine art. Opposite each painting is the sentence, “I spy with my little eye, a…”
Maia had a lot of fun finding the items the first time through.
We started with I Spy Shapes in Art and worked our way through each book.
Surprise, surprise, she knows most of her shapes! I didn’t know that and haven’t been teaching them. But she was able to find triangles, squares, rectangles, diamonds, etc. among fairly complex pictures.
After the first read through of each book, she had most of the items memorized, and didn’t enjoy them quite as much.
I think I would mix it up by choosing a different item in the painting to “spy” each time, rather than just the one in the text. The images are so rich in detail that this would be simple to do.
I Spy Two Eyes: Numbers in Art
More picture books about art
- Willow :: A Children’s Picture Book About Art and Imagination
- Beautiful Oops Book and Drawing Activity
- The Dot :: A Book about Creativity and Confidence
- A Circle Art Activity Inspired by The Dot
- Sky Color :: A Children’s Picture Book about Creativity
- Ish by Peter Reynolds
- Best Kids Picture Books to Inspire Children’s Art
- Art Books for Toddlers :: The Mini Masters Board Books
- 5 Picture Books to Inspire Creativity
Pin It for Later ::
Just requested I Spy A Freight Train: Transportation in Art from the library. Thanks for the recommendation. My son will be in heaven. He likes to play I Spy when we go for walks and adores trucks, cars and such. I agree that you would probably need to make up your own things to spy when rereading the book to keep it interesting. For that matter this game could be played with just about any book. Maybe I’ll pull out an old art history book I have.
I love your art ideas and read your blog everyday…thank you for these recommendations. I think my 18 month old son would love Lucy Micklethwait’s I Spy Two Eyes, Animals in Art and I Spy a Freight Train. Have you seen Musuem 123, Musuem ABC, and Museum Shapes? I enjoy them even though he’s still a little too young.
Oh my gosh! Yes! This is exactly what I am looking for. We have one of those other “I spy” books (ya know, pages filled with objects) and my son loves it – so these would be the perfect addition! I also think they could be really interesting for my English Foreign Language students! Again, thank-you.
I love these books too! Thank you for this post. I have another email on the way for you….finally.
In PEACE
Jennifer
aka Montessori Mama
These look amazing and I am so excited that someone mentioned the freight train in the comments — will be perfect for my train obsessed girl.