The game Veo, Veo in Spanish is I Spy in English. In addition to the guessing game that children play, there are I Spy cards, books and games by Brairpatch in association with Scholastic. These wonderful visual materials are fascinating to kids and adults, and can be used in lots of Spanish language activities. There is also an online Veo veo activity where kids play online and learn letter sounds and vocabulary. You can read this post about how to use I Spy cards in Spanish-language activities. Here you can read a post about how to play the traditional game Veo veo, which starts with a simple rhyme.
Making an I Spy picture to play Veo veo is an entertaining way to speak Spanish with your child or a group of children, and you can also print the picture and riddle to use again or to share with friends. These pictures are a great way to review letter sounds, numbers, colors and animals with beginners. For more advanced students there is plenty of vocabulary to make the activity interesting. The riddles can be adapted for any level; they can range from a simple list to more complicated structures.
This link takes you to the I Spy online games on the Scholastic website. From there you click on the Activities tab and can then make a picture online to play Veo veo. You choose a background and then scroll through objects and drop and drag to create the picture. There are riddles in English to choose from, but the last option is to write your own. You can write in Spanish and then write in the accent marks and tildes (ñ) when you print the picture.
To make the most of the activity, talk about the objects as you choose what you want in the picture. You can use simple sentences like Hay una vaca. (There is a cow), Me gusta el globo (I like the balloon) or El pájaro amarillo es bonito. (The yellow bird is pretty.) Also, ask your child which objects she wants to put in the picture. ¿Quieres la hoja? (Do you want the leaf?) ¿Quieres el león? (Do you want the lion?)
These are some of the objects you can choose from to make a picture:
Numbers – all of the numbers are masculine (because of the word número). You can say el dos, el tres, or el número dos, el número tres.
Letters – all of the letters are feminine (because of the word letra). You can say la A, la B, or la letra A, la letra B.
El pájaro – bird
El conejo – rabbit
La vaca – cow
El león – lion
La rana – frog
La hoja – the leaf
La flor – the flower
La estrella de mar – starfish
La canica – marble
El cubo – bucket
La concha – shell
El barco – boat
La luna – moon
El cupido – Cupid
El cisne – swan
El globo – balloon
El ángel – angel
El tambor – drum
El caballo – horse
La regla – ruler
La paleta – lollipop
La mariposa – butterfly
El dinosaurio – dinosaur
La serpiente – snake
La máscara – mask
La llave – key
El gato – cat
La piña (del pino) – pine cone
Los libros – books
Once your child has a picture that she likes, you can work together to write a riddle. Your riddles do not have to rhyme! You can use a category (letters, animals, objects that start with a certain letter, colors) or just combine objects that your child knows in Spanish. These riddles, for example, are based on categories.
Animals: Veo una rana, dos vacas y un caballo. Hay una serpiente también. / I see a frog, two cows and a horse. There is a snake too.
The color blue: Veo muchas cosas azules, como una L, un nueve, dos lunas y un conejo. / I see lots of blue things, like an L, a nine, two moons and a rabbit.
The letter C: Veo la letra C y un conejo, una canica, un cuatro y dos conchas. / I see the letter C and a rabbit, a marble, a four and two shells.
If you do want your riddles to rhyme, the easiest way is to find palabras agudas (words where the stress falls on the last syllable) for the rhyming sounds.
You can make pictures to go with these rhyming riddles. Write in the accent marks when you print your picture.
Veo un globo, un león feróz
Dos mariposas y el número dos.
Veo un pájaro que canta, y otro igual
Dos ranas, dos flores y una llave de metal.
Veo una vaca, y la letra K,
Dos pajaritos, la luna, la A.
Veo un dinosaurio, la luna, un tres,
Dos mariposas y un bird, en inglés.
Veo tres flores, dos lunas, la I.
Un cisne, un globo – también los vi.
You may also be interested in this post: One Pretty Poem and 15 Activities for Children Learning Spanish
