Saturday, November 24, 2012

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...

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