Thursday, May 24, 2012
Posted by Cindy on March 8, 2012
Preschool fun with the letter W…
Watery stickers fill in the letter W.
Naming and sorting water animals.
A watery poster for our wall.
Learning about the waters of the world.
Sorting animals of the water, land and air.
Sorting wild vs. domesticated animals.
Sorting weather pictures.
Watercolors – his easel is a giant box.
A walk to pick wildflowers.
A walk to find water.
Posted by Cindy on February 29, 2012
I’m late posting about the remainder of our preschool alphabet lessons. Way late. Like 8 months late. Oops. Better late than never??
A volcano became our alphabet poster for the letter V.
Sorting veggies from fruit doubled as a nutrition lesson.
Valentine cookies are an easy recipe for preschoolers to help with – and yummy!
Because it was pretty outside (and because I was unmotivated to come up with other activities), we went on a nature walk looking for anything having to do with the letter V. All the photos below are from that walk.
A “V” stick
Violet colored flowers
Evidence of a beaVer
V in a tree
A violet
A vine
We enjoyed these during our letter V week!
Posted by Cindy on October 1, 2011
Eli is our nature treasure hunter. While the rest of us set out on our nature walks with high hopes to stumble upon something great, it’s often Eli (the preschooler) who finds the most greatness. He loves nature walks and finds great joy in his keen sense of discovering things that make the rest of us “ooh” and “aah”. I think it helps, too, that he’s closer to the ground than the rest of us! At any rate, it blesses me beyond measure to see his excitement in exploring God’s wonderful creation. Some of his recent finds…
Asiatic Dayflower. When open, Eli thinks it looks like a dragon. I think he's right.
Caterpillar Egg Casings
Can you see the hair-like fungus growing on the tomato?
Eli finds all sorts of fungi. This one is a tiny bracket fungus.
A beautiful spider web catching the sun.
A "furry" acorn growing on a white oak tree.
Do you see the caterpillar hanging out inside the morning glory bloom?
Don’t underestimate your preschoolers and their abilities! Their greatness might surprise you!
Check out the NaturExplorers series written just for preschoolers and kindergarteners: Nature By the Season!
Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2011
One theme Melissa and I have noticed several times in questions is whether or not our units are appropriate for the younger crowd five and under. While 1st through 8th graders were our target audience, we didn’t leave out the little ones! (Or the bigger ones for that matter.)
In each unit, there’s a section written specifically for little ones with ideas for sensory skills, motor skills, broadening vocabulary skills and several hands-on explorations. There are also fun crafts, cooking and dramatic play ideas for little hands.
At the same time, most of the outdoor activities in the main section of the units can be used with young children, too!
Here are a few examples of how my two-year-old son has tagged along during our recent nature studies. And maybe I shouldn’t even use the words “tagged along” because he was learning just as much as us on his own level!
He's probably more serious about finding things in nature than his big brother and sister!
Throwing and hitting help him learn about the world around him.
We touch a lot of things and I use descriptive words.
I never force nature on him, I let him make his own discoveries - and his finds are often better than mine!
I always let him take part in what the big kids are doing if he wants.
God reveals Himself through nature to our little ones as well as us! Don’t leave little guys and gals out!
Check out the NaturExplorers series just for preschoolers and kindergarteners: Nature By the Season!
Posted by Cindy on
When it’s a bit too cold for little ones to be outside learning about snow, bring the snow inside! A simple box of snow is a great form of indoor snow study – and it’s LOTS of fun! (Oh, and it keeps preschoolers busy for a REALLY long time. WooHoo!)
This is just one of many ideas found in our Snow and Ice NaturExplorers unit! We’re expecting more snow in KY this weekend and Eli’s already asking if we can bring “thome thnow in to pway wiff.” 
