The
I Spy books by
Walter Wick and
Jean Marzollo are hugely popular in our library. They are always checked out and it seems as though I am replacing them annually.
Each year the first graders take a critical look at the books and work on creating an original I Spy book. This year we have been celebrating poetry during April and decided to include the I Spy books as a part of our poetry study.
We begin the study by going through the books twice -- the first time for fun and attempting to find the hidden objects, but the second time we look with the eye of a critic. The boys say the rhymes over and over; they wonder why certain objects were selected to be found, while others weren't; and they look at how the photographs are set up with attention to how space and light are used.
We then watch I Spy: More Than Meets the Eye, a VHS tape we have that walks the students through the process that Wick and Marzollo use. They see how actual layouts from the books are created and put together. Seeing the "Balloon Popper" from I Spy School Days actually work is always the most popular part of the video.
The boys next step is to lay out their own I Spy page. They use a variety of doodads and trinkets to create their scenes, and then photograph it.
The last part of the process is to create the rhyming couplet that will accompany their page. This can prove to be difficult, but once the boys start free form rhyming it becomes almost like a surreal, free form poetry slam. I ask them to create one couplet to go with their image. I like to watch them play with the words and the word order while creating the rhymes. Their creativity always amazes me.
I put it all together using Word, make a copy for each boy, and bind it together with binding combs. It's a favorite with the boys.
Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile by Marcia Wells
