It’s been a very rainy spring in Kentucky, making for lots of rain related nature study. One morning soon after breakfast, and soon after the passing of a storm, my littlest guy and I headed out to find raindrops on plants. (His idea.)
Here are some of the simple (preschool) lessons we learned on our walk…
Large, flat leaves hold pools of water.
Long, skinny leaves hold dainty droplets in rows.
Leaves shaped like a bowl hold lots of water.
Mud is a great place to find animal prints.
Puddles are fun to play in - even in your pajamas.
During a recent study of the letter G with my three-year-old during our preschool time, I was thinking about a fun way to explore the color green. A scavenger hunt nature walk turned out to be perfect for this time of year. With so much of the world around us turning brown because of autumn and the drought we’ve experienced, green is harder to come by around here than you might think. So we set out on a short walk to find as many greens in nature as we could.
You’ll notice as the walk went on, green in nature was replaced with just finding green things. I think the downfall started with the hay bales!
Our first find was a green grasshopper! You probably can't see him very well in our picture, but what an exciting thing for my little guy to find right off the bat!
A few green leaves still hang on, especially on bushes.
Green clumps of grass stand out in the midst of brown leaves and acorns.
Two colors of green lichen were very pretty!
Not a great picture, but this was a treasure in the midst of mostly brown acorns.
Green moss felt very soft growing on the side of a tree.
These fallen leaves were sitting in the middle of a low lying nest.
Small remnants of green could still be found on a few wildflowers.
Eli didn't pay much attention to the green growth on this hay bale because...
...this is what he wanted to do!
Mold on this pile of bricks was a very pretty color of green.
I'm supposing this is the same mold as on the bricks.
And finally, Eli insisted on taking this picture himself. If he'd had his way, there would've been many more green photos of farm implements!
Walks like this one will be highlighted in our upcoming preschool nature study curriculum. I’m not sure when you should expect it, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted as the time draws closer.
Oh, and watch for a post soon about the Nature Study and the Holidays walk we took this week looking for red and green. My big kids went along this time and had just as much fun as the preschooler did! Scavenger hunts are so exciting, aren’t they?
And finally, Eli insisted on taking this picture himself. If he'd had his way, there would've been many more green photos of farm implements!
Walks like this one will be highlighted in our upcoming preschool nature study curriculum. I’m not sure when you should expect it, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted as the time draws closer.
Oh, and watch for a post soon about the <a href=”http://shiningdawnbooks.com/available-units/holidays-mini-unit/”><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”><strong>Nature Study and the Holidays</strong></span></a> walk we took this week looking for red and green. My big kids went along this time and had just as much fun as the preschooler did! Scavenger hunts are so exciting, aren’t they?
Wow. I’m pretty behind on my posts. We’re actually finished with school for the year and I’m just now publishing our letter T lessons! And it may not get better over the next month or so. Our schedule is CrAzY with three kids in ball this spring, not to mention I’ll be writing like a mad woman this month to meet my May 31st deadline. I’ll get around to posting the rest of the alphabet lessons and other school happenings as I can. Until then, I hope you’re May is much more relaxed than mine!
This is our letter poster hanging on the wall - a tissue paper tree.
Eli has loved learning about life cycles. This one shows a turtle.
Teeth stickers fill in the T template from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Playing with tools.
Tikertoys are fun for building.
Dollar Tree workbooks helped Eli learn about triangles.
We sorted and graphed foam triangles.
The foam triangles were fun for art, too.
Transportation was a fun "boy" theme to go along with the letter T.
Of course, we couldn't forget to play with tractors!
Tracing T's in cornmeal was good handwriting practice.
We’re motoring on through the alphabet with the letter R!
Have you ever come across a rabbit this colorful? This one rests on our alphabet wall.
We sorted rocks as we talked about textures, colors, sizes and shapes.
Predicting which rocks were heavier was easy to prove with our balance.
Instead of calling this game memory, we called it the "R"emembering game. I included two memory games in the resource widget below that are on my wish list since I don't think this one is available anymore.
This game is called Big Roll Bingo and is super-easy for preschoolers.
Free play with cuisenaire rods was an introduction for math to come.
The whole family acted out The Doorbell Rang with pretzels (instead of cookies).
You never know what I might be writing about - homeschool plans, field trips, projects, family life, and so much more. I hope you'll consider using the subscribe button at the top of my blog to keep up with all the happenings at Westward Academy. And, by the way, I love comments!
