It‘s autumn and Brown Owl and friends are busy in the forest.

There are many different ways to use this I-spy picture. Here are a few of my ideas:

1) To revise autumn vocabulary that has previously been learned and to generate differentiated speaking opportunites.

Children simply say what they can see. The closer they look, the more they'll find!

Some children will give short answers: two bats / I can see two bats. Others will give longer ones: I can see two bats flying next to Cat.

N.B Cat has a capital letter as it's her name in my rhyming stories).

Again I first see what the children know. If they use a word in their mother tongue, I give them the English (maybe write it on the board for older children) and we repeat it together with an action.

3) To play a game of 'I spy'. This can also be played in pairs.

Teacher: "I spy, with my little eye ... something orange!"

Pupil: "Is it the pumpkin?"

Teacher: "Yes, it is! / No, it isn't!"

4) To practise reading and writing key autumn words (black and white versions).    

5) To calm children down or to help them focus. The full colour version can be printed on A3 and laminated. Children can find the objects listed at the side on their own.

N.B. I have included a version without the written word so that this busy autumn scene can be used with non-readers, at kindergarten or for teaching key words in other languages too.

Using the same vocabulary I have also created a game of 'I have got ... Who has got ...?' and an autumn spotter's list.

P.S. Brown Owl is the main character in my rhyming picture book series ‚Read and Rhyme with Brown Owl‘.

For more information visit www.readandrhyme.at