Nature Activities

Nature Crafts and Activities

April 20, 2010

With Earth Day coming and spring warming us up and taking learning outside I have collected some of our favorite nature crafts and activities ! If you remember how your perspective changed when your teacher decided to take your class outside you don’t need to be told how such a simple act can open up young minds to learning.

Giant Sunflower Craft ( above)

Nature Color Match!

Rock Bugs

Nature Brochure Craft

Beach in A Jar

Spring Tree

Coffee Grinds Sensory Tub

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Posted in Age 2-3 years, Age 3-5 years, Age 5 and older, Age Under 2 years, Crafts, Nature Activities |

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Spring Sensory Tub !

March 23, 2010

Toddler Sensory Activity

Spring is finally here! I love spring and everything it brings from baby birds, to flowers and especially Easter candy. This sensory tub was a huge hit with my son and we have been chilling outside digging in it , filling the eggs with the birdseed and bugs and not worrying about it spilling on the kitchen floor.

Gather your materials. You will need a plastic tub or large casserole dish, some birdseed, kid garden utensils, some Easter eggs, plastic bugs, and flower sequins.
Pour your birdseed into the tub.
Add your bugs, shovels and sequins.
Add your little gardener and have fun.

Garden Books

Quiet in the Garden

Quiet in the Garden by Alki is a calm book about listening and watching all the bugs, birds and animals going about their day in a not so quiet garden. Starting with a hungry robin readers watch as all the animals take turns eating and asking others about what they eat. Finally the little boy who is watching all the bugs and animals eat picks some vegetables and fruits from the garden and sits down to have a picnic. I liked how this book showed how all these animals and bugs thrive within a garden, and how you can hear all the noise if you just sit still and listen.

Jack's Garden

Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole is a garden version of the classic ” The House That Jack Built”. We watch as Jack prepares, plants and cares for a garden. I like the detail that the book goes into from the worms in the soil, to the seedlings, birds, flowers and insects that all work together for a garden to succeed. My son loved that Jack seemed to be a teenager, not sure where he got the idea but teenagers are the height of cool for my 3 year old. I also really appreciated the detailed drawings of things along the edges of each page, from slug eggs, to specific insects and different flowers, they all offered more learning while reading.

Song of the flowers

Song of the Flowers by Takayo Noda is beautiful, bright and the three times I tried reading it with my son he declared ” I don’t like this book!” . The text is very figurative, it reads like a lullaby and for my literal preschooler it just didn’t hold his attention. The text is actually very repetitive which is normally a huge hit with my son as well as other children his age but it simply didn’t cut it. The illustrations are paper cut outs and are stunning! Grab this book and have a look for yourself, but I can’t recommend it since it was such a flop at my house.

Food Coloring Leaves

September 18, 2009

Beautiful Branch

Autumn Leaves Craft

This craft was one of those ideas that I had and hoped I wouldn’t regret. Food coloring , small eye droppers that squirt and a toddler could have been a recipe for disaster but not only did we have fun and survive , how awesome are those leaves? I was planning on posting this next week but couldn’t wait to share. We have been talking a lot about the changing colors we see on our tress but this could also be used for a fun garland if you don’t want to make a branch.

Gather your materials. You will need some coffee filters, a large piece of construction paper ( white or brown), red, yellow and green food coloring, eye droppers,3 small dishes , water ,crayons, scissors and glue.
Start by drawing a branch .
Have your child color the branch they can add more branches if they like too!
While they do that draw leaves on the coffee filters.
Pour some water along with the food coloring into the small containers, pop the eye droppers in ( one per color)- a big tip put a thick fabric place mat under your child when they are doing this step. It will absorb the coloring so it doesn’t get on other things. Of course this will stain it so do not use your new William Sonoma ones !
Using the eye dropper drop the colors onto the coffee filter leaves.
Use multiple colors for each leaf if you want. Using an eye dropper is intricate and helps develop your child’s fine motor skills.
Let dry- ours dried over night.
Cut out the branch
Cut out the leaves
Add glue to the branch
Add your leaves and let dry.

Posted in Age 2-3 years, Age 3-5 years, Age 5 and older, Color mixing, Crafts, Fall Activities, Fine Motor Activities, Nature Activities |

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Fall Butterfly Craft

August 25, 2009

Leaf Butterfly

The book Leaf Man inspired this craft. I had a different leaf craft planned, which we will do later but as we were leaving the park today I picked two leaves up and put them together, asked my son what they looked like and after he said “Butterfly” I knew we’d be doing this instead.

Gather your materials. You will need 2 large leaves with stems, some cardboard, markers, tape, glue and googly eyes.
Start by drawing a butterfly body on the cardboard.
Have your child color it – red was the only color he wanted to use today.
While they are coloring snip the stems off the leaves, don’t loose the stems they will be made into antenna in a bit.
Cut the body out.
Tape the antenna on underside of the head.
Tape the leaves on as wings. Tape works way way better than glue since the leaves can still have some moisture , they can take forever to dry sometimes.
Glue the googly eyes on add a smile!

Books

“Leaf Man” by Lois Ehlert was the inspiration for this craft and will leave you trying to find all sorts of things like butterflies, chickens and fish in leaf piles. The book is about a leaf man who blows away in the wind and the reader is taken past all sorts of animals like chickens and ducks, past rivers filled with fish and butterflies in the air. All are leaves pieced together to make these awesome images , some are obvious, some take concentration to see the animal among the leaves. Wonderful creative book to welcome the changing seasons.

“Lucky Leaf” by Kevin O’Malley is a funny book about a boy kicked outside and off his video game by a parent and his quest for a lucky leaf. He waits and waits for the last leaf from a tree to fall, even after his friends give up and go home. The story is cute and my son thought it was funny. I liked the comic book format of the illustrations and the little boy’s dog has some pretty funny facial expressions throughout.

“Autumn : An Alphabet Acrostic” by Steven Schnur is a lovely book that is also a wonderful introduction into this form of poetry for young children. Each page has a poem about the season, from Acorns, to Owls to Pumpkins. Each letter of the words are a jumping off point for a sentence in the poem. The beauty of this book is that it reads well traditionally as well as individual poems which really makes it two books in one.

Posted in Age 2-3 years, Age 3-5 years, Bugs, Butterfly, Crafts, Fall Activities, Leaves, Nature Activities |

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Nature Color Hunt

May 22, 2009

This is so simple to make, and can be used over and over again. Learning colors in a book or while using paints isn’t bad, but when you are able to go outside and find colors in the natural world there is a spark! I was overjoyed to see my son yell “Look mama flower is yellow”. I love bridging learning from inside to outside and incorporating all different ways to learn into one activity.

Gather your materials. We used a baby food freezer tray but an ice cube tray, or egg carton among other things would work well. Also scissors and a color of foam ( can you tell I bought a big thing of foam a few weeks ago?) or construction paper for each section. A backyard, beach, park…
Cut your foam/paper into pieces small enough to line the bottom of the tray/carton. For younger kids choose colors that you kn0w they have a chance of finding a match. You don’t want it to be too easy , but too much of a challenge just frustrates everyone. If a child is frustrated they won’t learn, our goal is to challenge and learn!
Head outside – my son couldn’t wait to get outside so as you can see he’s as per usual in his pjs!
Start finding things to match. Start off by choosing a color with your child and both go looking, if they have a hard time finding a match find one, and go to it but don’t announce you have found it. Say something like “Hey Bug I think there is a match over here, can you find it” narrow down the are for them, if they still can’t pick up the object and have them match it in the tray.
Continue working together or if they want to work all alone, watch your child explore and make connections, that is exciting and fun too!
After you have made all your matches, talk about what you have found- how it feels what it does ( rock lines a path for us to walk on, a flower provides pollen for bees etc…).

Books!

These books aren’t related to the activity at all, they are just some books that caught my eye at the library and I was eager to share!

“19 Girls And Me” by Darcy Pattison fell short of my expectations which I admit were high. The overall message was great, that boys and girls don’t need to be labeled “tomboys” or “sissies” just friends. The adventures the kids get into are great too. What I didn’t like was that every adventure was suggested by the lone boy. Why couldn’t he take the backseat? There were 19 girls you’d think one of them would have a suggestion. In the author’s defense the girls did suggest things part way through each adventure but I resented that he was always the ring leader.

“Scaredy Squirrel : at the beach” by Melanie Watt is so funny. I love books like this that have absurd humor thrown in. Before you even read the story on the inside flap you will notice a blurb that ends with “This story is not suitable for pirates” it just makes me giggle! The story follows the most anxious squirrel you’ll ever encounter as he tries to make his own beach, only to end up at a busy one! What I love about this book are the details, the small asides will have you laughing and the main story will keep even young ones totally entertained. My son loved it especially the part about the pool being the ocean and the flashlight being the sun, even at two he was trying to tell the squirrel how wrong that was. Super fun and a great message about overcoming fears as well.

“Bernard : The Angry Rooster” by Mary Wormell was a huge disappointment to me. Bernard is proud and when a rooster weather vane is put up on the roof of the barn he is jealous and takes out his anger on everyone he encounters. Here is my issue with this book.I like that the author is writing about anger, I think it’s essential we talk about that with toddlers and kids. What made me feel disappointed was that although people ask him why he is angry , and an adult can see through the illustrations that the weather vane is being put up and he is looking at it, it’s not obvious to a child. I had to really look to notice it. No one takes Bernard on saying his behavior is not acceptable or demands he explain why he hurt others. I want to label and recognize my child’s anger but it alone is not an excuse of bad behavior and that was the feeling I was left with after reading this book. My son just kept saying “Mean rooster!” I explained he was jealous and angry but I wish the book had explained it more as well.