Nature ABC Walk and Case Files for Nature Detectives

ABC Walk

After reading the book we are going on a Bear Hunt, Spiderman decided - it's a beautiful day outside, and we are going on an ABC Hunt! 
Why not? We love going on walks. Short ones, long ones, on feet, bikes, or scooters. Alphabet hunt sounds even better! Batman was given the task of recording observations. We decided to start with our backyard.
Don't forget your camera or phone, and nature bags to bring home the samples.

• A - apples, ants, acorns (asphalt - discounted by Batman as it is man made)

A for Apples!

Honeysuckle with Bees

• B- bug, bee, bark, buds, birds, butterfly
• C - caterpillar, crow, cloud, cat, car, creek
• D - dandelion, dog
• E - earth, eggs (from a bird's nest), eagle
• F - flower, fern, fly, feather
• G - grass, green leaves, gravel,
• H - hummingbird, honeysuckle
• I -  inchworm, iguana (if we had spotted one)
• J - jasmine
• K - kite, katydid (I don't think we spotted one, Batman did say that they are active at night, as he seemed to know something about it, I let it slide!)

L for Lizard

• L - leaves, lemon, lady bug, lizard



O for Orange Leaves

• M - mud, maple, mulch, moss

• N - nest
• O - orange leaves, owl (if we had gone out at night)
• P - pumpkins (decorations for fall), purple flower, (poop - from dogs, lol!), pine cones, palm trees, parachute seed, plants

R for Rose

• R - rose, rabbit

S for Snail

• S - stones, stump, seeds, squirrel, sun, snails, spiders, sand
• T - tree, twigs, trails made by above mentioned snails
• V - vine



W for web

• W - wind, water, weeds, worms, web
• Y - yellow flowers

The kids hypothesized that if we had gone for a nature walk near the lake, we would have seen dragonflies, frogs, fishes, turtles, ducks, tadpoles etc. All true!

Spiderman's thought - we should have taken a nature walk in the zoo, mom, then it would be real easy to come up with something for all the letters!

Here is a great extension to the ABC Nature Hunt:Make an ABC Nature book

Nature walks are great opportunities to engage all your senses. Here are some extensions.

 

Sound Walk

Extend your nature walk to a sound walk.What kinds of sounds do you hear? You can leave it open ended, asking them to record/draw 5 sounds for example.
Or you can have a checklist - 

1. Do you hear the wind?
2. Rustling of leaves?
3. Birds chirping?
4. Cars swooshing by? 
5. TV blaring?
6. Dogs barking?
7. Cats meowing?
8. Leaves crunching?
9. Baby crying?

Sensory Walk 

Feel the bark of the tree. How does it feel. Now feel the petals. Run through grass, wiggle your toes in the sand box, dip your feet in the creek, feel the sun on your back, and the wind in your hair...

Nature Detectives

We had so much fun, and Spiderman and Batman had so many questions to ask and observations to make, we decided to organize things a bit more for our next nature walk.
Presenting ...

Case Files for Nature Detectives

1. Space to record your ABC Nature Hunt from A to S - write or draw!
2. Sound Hunt
3. Two pages for Texture Hunt
4. Smell Hunt
5. Color Hunt
6. Color graph (see if their predictions match up with the graph)
7. Leaf rubbing page
8. Sorting - Plants or Animals
9. Venn Diagram - Living, Non-living, and Once-Living
10. A page to record the weather.

Download it for free, and have fun detecting and learning.
Please Note: This version is for personal use only. Teachers, please see my TpT Store.
 
The wonderful clip-art is from My Cute Graphics.

 

Indoor Fairy Play Invitation

I made some furniture for the fairy garden outdoors. But the kids decided they wanted a chance to play with them first, inside.

They wanted me to "surprise" them. We went though the house together looking for some of the components together. And  I set it up for them to play with some new things for the surprise element. Unfortunately, I could not resist playing with it myself, so there is no picture of just the components of the play invitation separately :)

This is what my two super-heroes came up with - an enchanted schoolroom in the middle of a magical forest. A moss sheet from Michaels, loose moss, fake flowers help set up the forest. The ceramic houses are candle holders. There's one for Spiderman, one for Batman, and one for me (my felted toadstool house)

 

The whole place is in a party mood. Batman told me we are having an "open-house" at the schoolroom. (Hmm, wonder where he learned it from). We have plenty of benches and wooden blocks for seating if you don't fancy the grass.

We are having a tea party. For seating, the super-heroes provided the guest with mushroom buttons, upside down flower pot, barrel, butterfly stones, and some low stools made of shiny smooth glass with small pebbles on the bottom. Batman made the stool with me.



If you don't like it picnic style on the ground, there is always the seating area. The chairs are the latest in style -  smooth shiny glass pebbles hot glued on corks, with polished shell for back support. 
(A tiny disclosure for others who are thinking of branching into fairy furniture: I made a few chairs with shells for both the seat and the back. Batman and Spiderman told me those look like "potty chairs". So use them for the fairy bathroom!)

There is a tiny book basket (a shell) with fragrant books made out of orange peel.
The table seen here is smooth polished river stone mounted on cork. Someone left some food on the table. There is a gazing ball near the seating area as well.

There is also a dance floor. The small tiles are glued together to make the dance floor. We have some lanterns for later in the night, and of course, some string light bulbs hanging from the branches.

As you can see, lots going on. Tinker Bell is visiting us, along with Bambi. There is a rose trellis (upside down, I think). We are still cleaning up, and getting everything ready.
 

Do join us for the party. 

Beach Sensory Bin

It started out as a simple activity, some fine motor practice for the boys, and a few minutes of peace for mom. 
Hammer and nails - check.

Open the pretty parasols, stick them in the Styrofoam - check, umm, no, wait..

Inspiration behind the Beach sensory bin

Batman came back to me, and said, mom, those pretty beach umbrellas really do need a beach to go along with it. <OK, I can take a hint. >

So a simple bin was born, providing hours of fun for my two boys......





.. and tons of fine motor practice with the "pretty beach umbrellas"! 

Of course, then we need a beach towel under the umbrella, a picnic perhaps on the towel, and a chair or two if you don't want to get all messy on the sand!

Batman was more into this bin because he was trying to build as many sand castles as space would allow, with moat, flags, pretty stones...

  
The teeny tiny flower pots, and some small buckets to make the mounds, scrap paper glued on toothpicks for the flag, small pebbles for the moat, a shovel for him, and he was in sand castle heaven...

 
We had some tidal pools in our bin, with the kind of ocean animals we might see in them.
These are the "grow in the water" kinds, and we will play with them later... 

See the net? It's for beach volleyball. But I was not allowed to put in a ball, because apparently it got washed away by the waves, so only the net remains...

My two super heroes had a fun time digging for treasure (pretty stones) in the sand, and I am to make a pirate bin, and use the beach in here....

The only twist in this sensory bin is that I used baking soda (colored yellow) instead of sand. I saw these wonderful post on "bath dirt" and other wonderful tactile bath fun, and wanted to give it a try. So the "bath sand" is getting played in the sensory bin now, and later on will make a transition into the bath tub, along with the grow in the water ocean animals, before it gets washed out!

Linked up to:
Screen Free Activities and Resources, Stress-Free Sunday, Link & Learn, Montessori Monday, Monday Kid Corner, and Tot School Gathering Place

Now I know my 1 2 3 s...

Write Your Numbers!

My super-heroes are not big fans of writing.

So I am always looking out for ways to make it more fun, and do "super-writing" worthy of Spiderman and Batman.

How many ways can you write your numbers?

This post is about numbers. But of course, it applies to just plain old writing, for numbers, letters, shapes, and all the fun ways to do it. I think we tend to focus more on writing our letters, than numbers. In defense of the letters, I understand there is more of them.
After all, there is no uppercase and lowercase numbers, but nonetheless, this post is dedicated to numbers.

Drill your numbers!

There are some awesome ideas out there to tempt even the most reluctant "writers". They generously gave me permission to link back to their posts. Give it a spin...

• Tried and tested - write it out :) You write the numbers, they trace over it. Rockabye Butterfly shows us how to trace over with Q-tips. While you are there, don't forget to check out the fun way to learn about number words!
  

  

  Rockabye Butterfy - Number Words

  
  
• Trace - sandpaper numbers, or other tactile numbers. 

Trace it, then write it...

• Play at Home Mom shows us how to make fantastic squishy bags! Make sure you play with them a while before passing it on to the kiddos :)
  
  
• Read a book with sensory numbers, like this book with large grooved numbers, and trace them!

  

  Books with large grooved numbers to trace

• Go with the staples. Fun worksheets, wipe-off cards! I have the Kumon workbooks, and the Flash Cards. I like using the Dry Erase Crayons with the flash cards! Just wipe it off with a damp paper towel when you are done!

  

  Worksheets

  

  Wipe-off Flash Cards

  
  

• Make them with bingo markers, or Do-A-Dot markers! You can find tons of free printables online. The one shown here is from a book made to go with the dot markers.

Numbers with Bingo Markers

• Or for a fun twist, use the same sheets with flat pebbles backed with magnetic strip and a baking tray. Or let the kids wing it!
  

  

  Magnetic numbers!

• Write it on paper, chalkboard, sidewalks. Write with pencils, crayons, markers, paints, chalks, finger paints, window crayons, puff paints! Here is a very fun twist on writing on the chalkboard from Kingdom First Homeschool.

  

  Kingdom First Homeschool - Writing on chalkboard!

• Write in on the shower stall after a steamy bath! Write it in the shaving cream. Write it in the sand tray, or in sugar, cornmeal. Here is a fun twist on the sand tray from Teach Preschool.

  

  Teach Preschool - Feather and Sand

• Shape it out - with pipe cleaners, tooth picks, craft pieces, play-doh, pebbles, shells... Cut out the various curves and lines from felt, and ask your number-expert to put it together!!

• How about with nails and hammer? Play at Home Mom shows us how.
  
  

  

  Play at Home Mom - Nails and Hammers

•  How about making them with play dough? Use these awesome Number Play dough Mats from Homeschool creations.

  

  Homeschool Creations - Playdough Mats

  
  
• How do you write a 3? Go around the tree (from "Everyday Snapshots") of course!

  

  Everyday Snapshots - Write a 3!
  

  Some numbers are trickier than others. Here is a wonderful post on how to teach kids to write number 5 from "Teach Mama".
  
  

  

  Teach Mama - Write 5!

  
  
• For those who already know their numbers, reinforce with these fun ideas. Build some fine motor skills along the way...


• Ask them to make you a number on the peg board. For those not comfortable making it on their own, take a picture of your effort (or older siblings), print it out as a pattern, and then ask them to make their own.
  
  

  

  Peg Board Number Fun

• Let them "Drill" their numbers with this board, pun intended!

  

  Screw and drill board number practice

• How about rubber bands and geo-boards?

Rubber band and Geo board number fun

• Or droplets of water on a suction mat? Or beads on the fuse mat?

How do you practice your numbers (& letters, shapes...)? Let us know!

Linked up to:
Montessori Monday, Monday Kid Corner, Tuesday Tots, and After School Link Up

Frog Sensory Bin and Pond Unit

Metamorphosis and more!

 



Spiderman read "The Teeny Weeny Tadpole" by Sheridan Cain at school.

The teeny weeny tadpole is well, teeny weeny, and a tadpole to boot, and cannot jump among the lily pads like Mother Frog, he can only splish and splash.  His mom, and all the other animals he meets on his journey downstream (lamb, rabbit and grasshopper) assure him that he will be able to jump just like them - soon. After several days, he meets up with big bad fish, who eats tadpoles! And the only way to escape the big bad fish is to jump. And the teeny weeny tadpole, who has now become a frog, jumps and escapes from fish! This is the story in a nutshell. It's a fun book.

Now back to Spiderman, who, just like the teeny weeny tadpole, has been going around asking everyone - Can you jump? And, he is naming everything teeny weeny tadpole! So I thought this would be the ideal time to introduce to him the transition of tadpole to frog, and refresh Batman's memory about Metamorphosis!!

I set this frog/pond sensory bin up as a surprise for the two kiddos.
There are some blue/green pebbles, blue/dark blue water beads, twigs, some tiny weeds pulled from the garden that looked like they could be found in a pond (minus all the root soil), plastic fish, frogs, and turtles, lily pads cut from foam, and of course, the life cycle models of the frog!! The set does not have eggs, but we have the young tadpole, mature tadpole, tadpole with legs, froglet, and the frog.
You can find frog life cycle figures (I don't remember where I got mine from, mine does not have the eggs), and the Safari frogs and turtle toob.

This is what the kiddos found when they came home from school!




Gratifyingly, they loved the surprise! Frogs, water, water beads, nets to catch the tadpole in - apparently, that's all it takes to make them happy! Spiderman "caught" a fish, and put it in a bowl aquarium! Spiderman was not too sure about the "plants", but Batman showed him how the plants/logs were needed for the animals to hide in. Otherwise, they would get eaten up too easily. He even explained that this was called "camouflage"!!

Batman's comments when he saw the whole set up and presentation as shown above - "the tadpoles should not be "on" the lily pads. Can they breathe if they are out of water for too long? I know the frogs can!" Just that one comment was worth all that work. That he observed, processed it, and pointed it out to me. 
He is right. Initially, a tadpoles breathes and moves just like a fish, using its gills and tail. After about 5 weeks, the tadpole develops lungs, and has to swim to the surface to gulp water!!

I had five frogs, so we also sang the five little speckled frogs, sitting on a log song, and created some satisfactory splashes :)
Umm, we had to balance the frogs on the log outside the water. Next time, we will try with a bigger log. Check our collage picture.

I always try to make a mini unit to go along with the sensory bin if possible. Counting, sorting, patterns, stacking, pouring and making a mess comes naturally. But the frog sensory bin lends itself very nicely to a lot of different learning adventures, especially a pond or frog unit!

These are the concepts that I am going to introduce to the boys after their excitement over the bin dies down a bit!

• I don't have the book, but I found a reading of the book, the Teeny Weeny Tadpole.
• Read the books, as soon as I figure out where two of them are hiding!
  From Tadpole to Frog - the book not only takes us through the metamorphosis of the bull frog, but also takes about frogs hibernating, and shows a variety of animals and plant life through the different seasons.
  The Wide Mouthed Frog - a fun pop up book about a curious, and bragging wide-mouthed frog! By the end of the book, the mouth is not so wide...
  Fish is Fish - a delightful story of friendship between a minnow and a tadpole!
  Curious George Tadpole Trouble - the kids have seen this episode, and love reading the book. George, who is charge of Bill's tadpoles, lets them out in the pond for a swim, but do the tadpoles come back?
  
  
• Introduce the concept of Amphibian - which a frog is. 
• Some other characteristics - like webbed feet. What other animals has webbed feet? Why? What other animals do you know who can live in both land and water? How about their super special moist skin? Or their tongue?
• Talk about Metamorphosis - through frog's life cycle and butterfly's!
• Observe our pond life habitat, and learn more about it.
• Counting backwards with Spiderman with the five speckled frog song!!
• Beginning sound, ending sound, rhyming reviews with words like frog, log, fish, turtle, duck, water, pond etc...
• I have to prepare this, but it might be fun to have plastic eggs with the beginning sounds, and get the kiddos to match the eggs to the animals, like d for duck and dragonfly, f for fish and frog, t for turtle, s for snail, salamander, snakes etc. These all hatch from eggs, and all can be found at a pond habitat.
• Go through the frog nomenclature card/booklets at +Montessori Print Shop at the free printable downloads section!
• Supplement with the frog/pond themed printables for more language and math fun!

You can find some wonderful resources at Frog life cycle newsletter, along with lots of free printables from generous bloggers. Hop on to my Pinterest board, Pond Unit Fun n Learn, which lists all these resources and more!

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Artsy Play Wednesday, It's Playtime, Mom's Library, Montessori Monday, Tot School Gathering Place, After School Link Up