Hide-and-Seek Animals & Words
We loved this thoughtful post by Zoe of Playing by the Book and had to share. Whether inspired by literature to create fantastic projects or prompted by a project to search out a fun book, Zoe and her family are all about words and it shows in this fun hide and seek animals and words activity she created!
Begin by exploring Ellie Sandall's new book, Daisy Plays Hide-and-Seek. Not only is it a story time gem {your kinders will love searching the pages along with Jake to find where Daisy the cow may be hiding}, it will provide your kiddos with inspiration for creating their own animal hide-and-seek book {or when exploring the classroom book in the literacy center}!
Designing A Hide-and-Seek Book
- Make a full-size booklet. Zoe and her daughter liked the idea of a concertina booklet {see the original post for directions}, but you can also make a standard booklet by stacking sheets of colored construction paper and holding them together with staples, yarn, or binder rings.
- Glue a full sheet of colorfully patterned paper to the front of each piece of construction paper in the booklet, excluding the cover. [NOTE: 6x6 or even 9x9 patterned origami paper works perfectly for this!]
- From the same paper patterns, create various animal shapes, cutting them out and creating a card stock backing to make them sturdier.
- Match the patterned animal shapes to the matching paper in the booklet and use a fastener to attach them to the page. The animals 'magically' disappear!
Zoe suggests using the blank pages beside each hiding animal to create anagrams with common animal names for your kiddos to solve {i.e. "Monkey" becomes "onkMey", etc}. If you think this is too advanced for you students consider providing them with animal labels backed with a Velcro dot and an envelope glued to the back cover of the book to keep them in. As students identify the animal playing hide-and-seek on the page, invite them to sift through the animal names and stick the appropriate one on the Velcro dot that has been positioned on the opposite page.
You could also paste the animal name label under a construction paper flap for you kiddos to "discover" once they identify the animal on the print. Add a fantastic literacy element by providing an envelope of letters for students to practice identifying as well as use to spell out the name of the animal.
Whether they make their own books or explore a classroom book, this is a fun activity that your kinders are sure to enjoy!
