In the Woods for Preschoolers - Part 3

My last, shorter, post on our "In the Woods" theme. I must say it was a bit tougher than I expected to find original ideas for the week. I had to broaden it to include camping, forest animals, star gazing and such. Adrian, as expected, wasn't thrilled by the topic either. It's not like we were talking about trains! LOL I think it would have been slightly different if we would have been living back in NY where wildlife roamed in our backyard. We literally had deers, rabbits, wild turkeys, and even a coyote at one point. I won't even mention the beautiful birds we got to observe. Oh nostalgia...Let's move on to the remaining activities I'd like to share with you all before I book a plane ticket back! LOL...

Missing our NY Backyard Deers this year

Star hunting with a flashlight in a darkened room

Tough to say from just this snapshot but this was actually a hunting activity done in the dark with a flashlight. What a thrill it was. I first wrote down several letters on several stars. Then, I put some tape on the back and taped them on the wall across a room that has black out curtains. When the  time came, I gave Adrian a flashlight and one of the stars. I told him to look for similar stars on the walls and told him exactly how many there were. He proceeded to gather all the stars. He loved it. I think he sometimes even pretended not to find some stars just because he loved shining the flashlight across the walls! :) We did a variant of this by taping the letters on the floor as well as furniture. 

Sizing - Finding the right bed for the right animal

Using our Forest Animals made by Learning Resources and some plastic food storage bins, the activity was to find the best bed for each animal. After all, some animals hibernate and need a bed for quite a while in the long winter nights... This sizing activity was easy peasy for my son but he still liked it.

Forest Animals Talks

I love Learning Resources Jumbo Animals. We have a lot of their sets and if it were up to me, we'd have all of them and believe me, I am working on it! :) I think I possibly like them more than the kids though. It's just that they are so great for little hands, so cute, and realistic looking. I just want to play with them and am a bit puzzled that they are not playing with them more I guess... Anyhow, during school with Adrian this week, I whipped these out because well...they do belong in this unit. We talked about each animal. We checked out what jumped out at us first. The antlers came up fast so we had a talk about them. We examined the animals' tails. We counted the animals' feet. We saw the owl had wings and could thus fly but that no other animal on our table could.  We also saw that the beaver's feet were slightly webbed in the back...Could he be spending a lot of time in the water like the ducks? It may not look like much but simple animals can bring out lots of questions and discussions...

Touch & Feel Backyard Experience - with your Eyes Covered

A backyard activity of touch and feel with a bandana over the eyes. We had one beautiful fall day here this week with nice temperatures and so I couldn't resist going out impromptu with Adrian. I placed a scarf on his eyes and  took him by the hand and made him feel different textures in our backyard. I then asked him what it could be. It was so difficult for him not to lift the scarf and look right after touching. He didn't mind having his eyes covered and walking but touching and not seeing, now, that bothered him! :) We still played a bit but then just enjoyed the fresh air. Textures to touch can be bark, cedar tree, grass, a flower, a fluffy bush, a fence, etc.

Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

This was delightful. Probably the last of the season unfortunately but definitely something I will be looking forward to putting together again come Spring. Scavenger hunts are always fun. Prior to preparing it, I looked at what we had in our neighborhood to make sure it would be possible for Adrian to gather all these objects and then we set off with the sheet in a plastic protector and a little bag. I knew  some items would be close to home and knew some would be on our way to a playground about 10minutes from here so it was a little walk with a reward and school into it! :) Adrian felt very proud when he had gathered everything. He would not play at the playground until he had found everything. A copy of this  hunt can be e-mailed to you per request. Ours included a pinecone, a daisy, a blade of grass, an acorn, a leaf, a twig, a rock and red berries.

In the Woods for Preschoolers - Part 2

Well I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! It's always a bit difficult being far from family during the holidays but I'm thankful I at least had my husband and kids to celebrate this year. I've got lots to be thankful for and one my many thanks goes to you my dear readers. Although nobody has commented yet (shyness, perhaps?), I can see all my posts have been read; some more than others. Well, keep on reading and don't be shy. Your comments are welcomed! For now,  here's a post featuring more woodland activities we did last week in preschool with 4.5 year old Adrian. I'll be posting more on this theme later.

Pinecone Bird Feeder

I actually had planned on doing this during Angry Birds week but we ran out of time. I figured it would work for this week as well. We used a well opened dry pinecone found during one of our walks. I let Adrian scoop out a good amount of creamy peanut butter on a plate and then let him pour a good amount of bird seed on another plate. I then showed him how to spread the peanut butter on the pine cone with a plastic knife so it wouldn't break the needles. He then spread it himself. After that, I asked him to roll the pinecone in the birdseed so it would be completely covered in birdseed. I personally tied the pinecone with a thread (it was messy and probably should have been done prior to anything but I was afraid it'd get in the way).  Adrian carried the pinecone by the thread and we hung it on a branch. He stayed out for quite a while waiting for the Angry Birds to come eat...

"Star to Star" Constellations

A cute variation of dot to dot! :) I personally could never see any constellations in the sky. I was always very bummed by it and tried very hard. I can't see them on the paper either but I'm quite hopefully my son will! :) I printed this worksheet from Crayola.com. I'll probably use it again or a variant when we work on the Solar System later this year. I just thought that looking for constellations was something people did when they go camping in the woods you know. I know I did. Just didn't find them. Pfff.

Marshmallow Counting and Feeling

Using some marshmallows and number tiles, Adrian had to put out the right number of marshmallows requested per campers for their s'mores. And no, we didn't make any. I personally don't like them and I doubt A. would care for them. On top of that, graham crackers are a tough find around here... A. liked to feel the marshmallows though. First time he's ever touched them so we felt them fresh out of the bag, waited an hour when they are drier too and we also melted one...how fun! We had a taste of one too (chewed it and well, he  didn't quite enjoy it... :)

Marshmallow Building

Well, since we had marshmallows on hand, why not have some more use out of them? I brought out some toothpicks and told Adrian we should try building things with the marshmallows and toothpicks. I built the 3D triangle and then he built the square. He then built another square but while building it shifted and WHAT? it became a diamond! He was so happy with this surprising result. Rectangles were also built along with a regular triangle and so on. 

Worksheets - Writing Practice and Shadow Matching

I am not a big fan of worksheets in general. Mostly because Adrian isn't. Once in a while though, I bring some out and he enjoys them. I try to keep them different. This time, we did shadow matching and writing practice under a camping theme thanks to 2TeachingMommies. Shadow matching was not and has not been challenging in a long time. Writing practice on the other hand could use more work. His pencil grip is not what it should be at this stage and neither is the time he uses to trace this! LOL

More Shadows - Real Ones  Made by Us

What's more fun than making animal shadows on a sheet? I remember doing this as a little girl and being delighted by some people doing some more intricate ones. Here's a copy from Old Book Illustrations showing various forms of hand shadow puppetry. Try a few or try them all. Camping has never been so fun!

Computer Literacy - Learning about Twilight Turtle's Constellations

After moving from Denmark to New York, we purchased our son, then 16 months old, a little CloudB Twilight Turtle. We figured the move might cause some nighttime anxiety. After all, we had moved from Copenhagen's main street to a much more quiet, dead end type of NY surburbia street. There were no more loud crowds, sirens, street lights and such. Fast forward 2 years later, Twilight Turtle has now moved to Germany where we are now living and it is still keeping our Adrian happy at night. This week, Turtle even got to come out during daytime to participate in school activities. If you visit CloudB's website, you can actually see the constellations projected on your child's ceiling every night along with some details. Adrian was delighted. He loved moving the mouse along to see the constellations and I loved to think that at night, he was possibly looking for them when he had some trouble falling asleep...

In the Woods for Preschoolers

Time for a new post folks! I've been slacking way too much and I bet you guys missed me just as much as I missed you. So here is a little something to chew on...

Last week, we worked on a thematic called "In the Woods". I brainstormed all around it and came up with camping, forest animals, woodlands, starry nights, and the likes so you can expect this theme to be broad. :)

A lovely bonfire for our campsite

Of course, I had Adrian gather the wood for our bonfire. I dispersed the toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls around the room and then we assembled the fire and made the flames with some scrunched silk paper. I explained what people usually do around bonfires since we've never been camping with Adrian yet. We later had some more dramatic play with a makeshift tent under a table covered with a big sheet. :) I fluffed some pillows inside and blankets. It was quite cozy and we read a nice book by Karma Wilson; Bear Snores On. Quite nice to explain hibernation actually...

Pinecone Forecaster Science Experiment

A beautiful science experiment done with a simple pinecone found outside. We started with the one you see above; fully open and dry. We took a picture. I explained to Adrian that when it's warm, sunny and dry, pinecones are all opened and that when it gets moist, wet and snowy, they close up. As such some people used to use them to forecast the weather to prepare for trips before they had better ways to know what was coming. To prove my point, we immerse the same pinecone in a bowl of water and closed it for an hour. After an hour, it was already partially closed. See picture below. After 2 hours, it was so sealed that it looked like it had been glued. Adrian loved checking back on his pinecone several times. :) I read about this idea on Science Sparks.

1 hour later - pinecone has started closing

Mushroom picking in the yard

Something we did earlier this year but it was very well loved and deemed appropriate with this theme as well so I took it out again. It was loved just as much this time around and requested again later as well. I hid them around the yard and asked Adrian to find all 11 of them (dotted 0 to 10) and later, inside, he rowed them from 0 to 10). I made these myself using unpainted wooden drawer pulls! :)

Rhyming Words - Woodland Themed

Well that didn't go too well...I was looking forward to it and was very excited about it. I was so sad when I realized it was too advanced for A. Oh well. I'm still trying to challenge him more in the literacy department but this was definitely too challenging. If it isn't for your child, e-mail me and I'll send you a copy of my work. It features several forest animals and several rhyming words that need to be matched with the creatures. E.g. Fox - socks, moose - juice, deer - ear, etc.

Rock Painting

I wish our rocks had been bigger but rocks are sort of rare around here despite that fact that it's quite rural. Anyhow, Adrian and I decided to make ladybugs with our rocks since Zahavah will be hosting a ladybug birthday party in a few weeks. we figured it would be nice decorations beside the fact that they are easy to paint, cute AND also found in the woods.

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This post was shared on Discover & Explore.