I Spy Jar

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My 2 year old son, Connor, loves playing I Spy.  We play it at the grocery store, in the car or whenever he is getting a little impatient.  I came across the I Spy bags on another blog but wasn’t in the mood to sew anything.  So I decided I could throw everything in a jar and glue the lid on with super glue.  In my house super glue seems to fix everything:)

I started with a trip to Hobby Lobby.  This was actually my first time in a Hobby Lobby because they just opened a store in Maryland.  We went home to visit my parents for Thanksgiving and I was so excited.  I could have shopped in that store all day.

Supplies Needed:

  • Plastic jar with lid:  Mine were two for $7.99
  • Plastic Pellets:  $3.99
  • 20-30 small objects
  • Self-Laminating Sheets:  $3.49
  • Small piece of elastic – enough to stretch around the top of the jar
Directions:
  • Gather your small objects:  I went through all my junk drawers and art supplies to get random objects:  paper clip, penny, dime, screw, buttons, stickers, letter beads, fishing worm, etc.  Anything I could find that was small enough to fit in the jar.
  • Take a picture of the objects or create a list of the objects:  I placed the objects on my printer/copy machine and made a color copy of all the objects.  You could also take a picture of your objects and print the photo.  The list of objects would be perfect for older children.
  • Make smaller cards of objects:  I cut the copy of my objects into 4 sections so the cards would be smaller.
  • Laminate the cards:  I took two cards and put them back to back.  Then I used the Self-Laminating sheets to laminate the cards – two cards per sheet.
  • Place all the objects into the jar.
  • Pour in plastic pellets.
  • Glue the lid to the jar:  I placed super glue around the inside of the lid and placed the lid on the jar.
  • Attach cards to jar:  I punched a hole in the cards and put elastic through the hole.  I wanted it to stretch around the top of the jar and easily come off when Connor was playing with it.
Spin the jar and start searching for the items shown on the cards.  Connor was so excited to look for the different items and he was just as excited to shake the jar around.
I think this will be perfect for long car rides when we travel to Maryland:)

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4 Comments

  1. What a great idea! I saw your link on Ucreate. I’m going to have to make these for the next time we take a road trip. Rice would work well in the jars too, and I always have that on hand! Thanks!!

  2. Love this! My almost 2 year old would be so into this too. I’ve been dying to do an I-spy bag as well, but don’t have time for the sewing. Thanks for the great idea!

  3. My kids would love this! Thanks for sharing such a fabulous idea.

    And thanks for linking up at Serving Pink Lemonade!