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Calling all Nancy Drews, Inspector Gadgets, and Scooby-Doos! It’s Spy Week! From invisible ink messages to magnifying glass Oreo treats, we had a ton of fun exercising our detective skills while using spy themed language all week. Check out what we did below so you can try your hand at cracking the code to a fun summer!

Fun Summer Schedule
Each summer I pick nine different themes. Each theme is broken down by day of the week. Then every day has a focused activity to encourage vocabulary development, language in natural contexts, and create hands-on experiences. Here is the daily schedule we will follow for the entire summer regardless of the theme!
- Make It Monday
- Take A Trip Tuesday
- Water Wednesday
- Thinking Thursday
- Foodie Friday
- Cinema Saturday
- Sensory Sunday

Too many other things going on this summer? Don’t stress! Pick only a couple of activities or do it all. Incorporating vocabulary and language into even just one activity can help increase your child’s retention and application of concepts. Most importantly, just have fun together!
Make It Monday
Mandy and her girls did foolproof “invisible ink” message this week for our Make It Monday craft. Her almost 2 year old was easily able to do the activity and had lots of fun in the process. Here is what you will need.
- White paper
- White crayon
- Paint brush
- Watercolor paints
- Water

First, Mandy wrote a secret message in white crayon on the white paper. She then had her daughter paint over the top of the message however she wanted with the watercolor paints. The secret message appears immediately! This activity is great if you are wanting to do an invisible ink type activity, but you don’t want to hassle with having to heat the message in order for it to appear. Her daughter did a great job making such a beautiful painting too!

Take A Trip Tuesday
Ok, you guys…I knew this was a thing, but I had no idea this was such a big thing. Geocaching! My son and I are obsessed! I wanted to create an experience that felt a bit mysterious and detective-like, but still appealed to the four year old mind. Geocaching was the perfect combination for our Take A Trip Tuesday!

So I started with a simple Google search because I am not going to lie I had no idea what I was doing. Apparently, geocaches are small containers or mementos hidden out in the public domain. I found there was an app ( I could download to my phone that showed the exact locations of geocaches in my immediate area. We chose one that was walking distance from our house since I had both boys and the dog with me!

We followed the map and found a pill bottle hidden in a lawn decoration in a side yard along the bike path. Who knew?! We signed the log inside the bottle and marked our quest completed on the app. Good thing we had a magnifying glass (definitely made the experience more spy official) and a “hint” button available via the app (we caved and needed the hint). Also, helmets are not required…unless you ride bikes to your geocache site. 😉 But overall such a fun, unique, and FREE experience for a fun summer activity!
Water Wednesday
For Water Wednesday during our fun summer schedule we went full on Mission Impossible with a water obstacle course! So easy and kept my little guy entertained for a long time. The weather has been stifling this week so any excuse to play in the sprinkler was a welcomed one!

I set up the small slide we had in addition to some diving rings, a plastic bat, and a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, I placed a bubble machine to crawl through the bubbles at the end! Then I placed the sprinkler so it had a wide arch and rotated over all of the obstacles. Best part about this activity is you can use whatever you have on hand to make your obstacles and any type of sprinkler will work! My son even enjoyed making his own course obstacles. Huge hit at our house!

Thinking Thursday
For our Thinking Thursday book, I found an I Spy: Mystery Edition at a local bookstore. Although it was a challenge for my son, we eventually found all of the hidden items! Plus we love these types of books too since they foster independence and confidence for early readers. Grab your copy here to support your local bookstore!

No spy week would be complete without secret coded messages! I found a super cute, easy, and FREE alphabet code on TPT by Mattie McMurry. I was able to draw the simple pictures to make several secret messages. My son needed a little help with the letters, but he enjoyed figuring out which letter matched to the pictures. See one of our messages below!

Foodie Friday
I kept it beyond simple this week for our Foodie Friday…like two ingredients and no prep needed simple. We made Oreo magnifying glasses with double stuffed Oreos and pretzel sticks.

All you need to do is stick the pretzel stick into the Oreo’s filling and voila! Magnifying glasses! My son was able to do make snack completely independently which was an added bonus. Just be sure to grab double stuffed as the regular sized Oreos aren’t big enough to fit the pretzel.

Cinema Saturday
A perfect fun summer movie AND spy themed flick has to be Scooby-Doo! We watched the live action film from 2002 and cheered on the silly dog trying to solve the mystery. We even ate some more magnifying glass Oreos while we watched!

Sensory Sunday
I decided to try my hand at making my own “I Spy” version of a sensory bin. All I needed was some rice, a small tupperware bin, a piece of white paper, and some miniature furniture/household items. This was a relatively easy sensory bin to set up and fit great with our spy theme.

After much digging in the basement, I found some of my old dollhouse accessories including a set of pots and pans, a grandfather clock, a toilet (which my son found absolutely hysterical), a sewing machine, and much more. I arranged all the items on a white piece of paper and took a picture so we knew what to find in the rice bin. Next, I filled the small tupperware container with approximately 3 lbs. of white rice. I buried all the items and popped open the photo of everything on my phone for my son to refer back to as he searched. Again, this activity can be easily modified to use whatever you have on hand at home!

I was a little sad our fun summer spy week came to an end. Compared to the other weeks, this theme had been very easy and had lots of free activities! While we aren’t ready for Scotland Yard or the FBI, we definitely could dominate a game of CLUE after our week of sleuthing. And now you can dominate your summer with tons of low prep, fun spy themed activities!
Wanting more themed weeks and activity ideas? Check out our farm, zoo, and human body weekly activities for more fun summer inspiration.



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Happy sleuthing, fellow SLPs and mamas!
Talking Mama Bears