I Spy...Higher Order Thinking!

In a 4th grade TRC class in Manhattan, the teacher wanted to spice up her unit on 3-D geometrical shapes. She had the idea of making I Spy books. We just needed to organize and elaborate on that idea. She began by introducing the students to 3-D shapes.

The teacher then showed the students a video on how one author went about creating I Spy books. It showed how he got his ideas and gathered “stuff” for the photo layouts. Each student, or group of students, had a 3-D wooden shape, which they were allowed to take home, and start collecting items for the page of the I Spy book.

They were encouraged to start thinking of a theme for the page layout, looking for objects for the page layout, and looking for other objects that were the same shape as their 3-D shape. Once the students had a theme and collected all of the objects for their page layout, they began to design and make their page layout. Once their page layout was complete, they took digital pictures of it. They then transferred these pictures onto the computer.

The students also had the opportunity to write a poem to go along with their I Spy page. The poem helped the reader know what to look for on that page. The students had to crop the objects that they wanted the reader to find, from the original picture, so that they could use them in their poem.

We made a class I Spy book including all of the completed poems and pages. The kids worked hard and were VERY proud of their end product. They also took their I Spy books and shared them with a kindergarten class.

~Stacy Aschenbrenner, TRC Facilitator, Manhattan USD