Greening Sam and Avery

outdoor play link up - alphabet hopscotch

The day before the snow came the girls and I had a great time with the sidewalk chalk. They drew rainbows, suns and shapes while I wrote out the whole alphabet. Once the alphabet was written I showed the girls how we could sing or say the song while we hopped along on the letters! They were both eager to try it out.

It was a blast and we went both forward and backward on the alphabet.

Then, we (mostly the girls!) were so excited the to see that the alphabet was still there when we shoveled the snow away!

Since I was the one doing the shoveling and all bundled up I didn't get the camera to take pictures of them in their snow suits jumping on the letters. But I came out later to at least capture the letters partially covered with the snow. They had a blast once again jumping along the letters and it was great to see them saying the letters together as they jumped.

 This week's Feature -

 This was a tough one. There were 36 entries that were all great and so many wonderful new ideas. But one mom takes the prize for being my hero of creativity! I can just hear her voice, I can feel her eagerness to give her child what she wants and the whole thing is just hilarious! But in the end it is an AWESOME idea and an amazing job of one mom to get creative with her kids outdoors. So head over to Sense of Wonder to see how you can make a snowman in Texas!

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us! Here’s just a few guidelines for sharing.

• Any kind of children's outdoor play is welcome. If it happened outside, then please link it up!

• Please do not share any competitions, promotions, or posts that are not related to Outdoor Play.

• Please remember to link back to this post and help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!

• Each week we will feature an activity from the previous week. By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished 

 

Another guest post coming at you today! This one comes from the fabulous mommy blogger Nature Tales and Trails. I have said it before and will say it again she is one of my go-to blogs for books and activities that are nature related. She had great book reviews and product reviews that I always find helpful and interesting! Check her out if you are in need of good books for all ages!

 

My girls love animals and nature and want to save the world. Tall order for a 5 and almost 11 year old but they have great hearts and really try to do all they can. I knew they would love this activity and we have done a few posters for the ABC's of Nature since it was such a hit.

First to get the mind flowing we read a few great alphabet nature books:

ABC Nature Riddles

 

by Susan Joyce
illustrations by Doug DuBosque

Rhyming alphabet-based riddles challenge the reader to identify aspects of nature from clues, including the first and last letter of the word.

and

N Is for Nature : An Environmental Alphabet Book

 

by Tim Magner
illustrations by Mike Nudelman

N is for Nature is a wonderful book with pretty pictures and full of information it is sure to entertain both kids and adults. With simple sentences and creative images shaped to form each letter, early readers discover the magic of the alphabet. After you read N is for Nature, you and your kids will never start looking at nature in a new way.

After reading these fun, wonderful and education books we did our own ABC's of Nature poster. This poster was fun to make got all 3 of us throwing out something for each letter (a few letters ended up with more then 1 since we couldn't pick just one). Grab a marker, poster board and thinking caps.

 

The Nitty Gritty:

This activity was great and worked well for both ages of my girls. They worked together as a team real well and they really enjoyed making this so much we made 2. We have done so many animal and nature  posters and collages but never a ABC poster. This would be fun to make into a book for your beginning reader. I hope to do that over the next few weeks (or months depending on how easy it is to find all the pictures) and bind it into a book for my 5 year old for Christmas as a book made by her and her sister.

This craft is also a freebie craft you could use construction paper, chalkboard or what ever is on hand and if your kids are younger you could do this over several days or even weekly as part of your Alphabet Letter of the Week.

bug week - bumble bee

Today was all about the bee!

A simple craft....

A simple song...

Loosely to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It"

If you see a bee on a flower, ouch don't touch. If you see a bee on a flower, ouch don't touch. If you see a bee on a flower, if you see a bee on a flower, if you see a bee on a flower, ouch don't touch.

If you see a bee in the air, ouch don't touch. If you see a bee in the air, ouch don't touch. If you see a bee in the air, if you see a bee in the air, if you see a bee in the air, ouch don't touch.

If you see a bee on your arm, ouch don't touch. If you see a bee on your arm, ouch don't touch. If you see a bee on your arm, if you see a bee on your arm, if you see a bee on your arm CALL YOUR MOM!

A simple game...

I made these flowers and hid them all around our house. One of our bug books told us that bees search for flowers and once they find nectar they will fly back to the hive to "tell" the other bees. The way it tells the other bees is by communicating through a "bee dance"! So, I had Sam and Avery take their bees and fly them all over the house looking for flowers. When they found a flower they had to come back to me (the hive) and do a bee dance to tell me where the flower was hidden. Wish I had gotten video of their bee dance because it was adorable. We played the game over and over again this afternoon.

Love combining lots of different elements into our learning. We did read general bug books today and look at pictures of bees but I never found an entire bee book that I was really in love with. Still looking....

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The Nitty Gritty!

For the simple craft I cut out the B ahead of time along with the wings. Then I gave her a strip of black paper to cut out the stripes and antennae. She loves cutting practice and making the bumble bee was very fun.

We did talk about where we would find bees in our yard (on the flowers) but a very busy day, with long naps and extreme heat forced us inside for most of the day.

The song was just something silly that I made up for Sam and Avery. Sam has no hesitation when it comes to touching and picking up things in nature. I don't want her to be afraid of things like bees or spiders but I do want her to understand that sometimes there are things we don't want to touch.

Day 211: more reuse-it crafting

Do you remember the reuse it letter hunt?

Well, when I found this book yesterday at the library I knew we had to try that activity again.

"Max's Words" by Kate Banks and Boris Kolikov is about a little boy who is jealous of the collections that his two brother have; stamps and coins. So he decides to start his own collection, letters and words. He starts cutting out words and builds a huge collection and then realizes that he can make sentences and stories out of his words. His brother's get in on the action in the end and make stories of their own.

It is a cute book and Sam liked reading it and then doing the letter hunting again.

We grabbed old magazines, paper, scissors and glue and went to town. For complete instructions see the link above.

She has gotten much better at recognizing her letters so it was much more of a successful activity this time around. Her cutting skills have also improved.

We love combining books and activities and this was a big hit at our house today!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Linking up to JDaniel4's Mom - Read. Explore. Learn today. So welcome to any readers stopping by from over there.

Sam is not old enough to do as Max does in the book and cut out words to make sentences and stories but letter hunting is always fun a great way for her to continue to work on recognizing the different ways letters can be written. Plus it is a great re-use it activity for junk mail, newspapers and magazines.

But if you have older kids I would encourage them to try out the word collection idea. Cut out words and see if they can make their own sentences or stories!  I can see this being a fun activity for a kindergarten or first grade class as well. Or a fun homework project for that age!

I am headed up North tonight for a two day environmental education conference with the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education. Getting together with these folks is great and I always get so inspired. Hoping to squeeze in some snowshoeing, hiking and skiing as well!  Should be a great weekend. And I will of course spread that inspiration and any new ideas that I get back with all of you so be sure to check back on Monday to hear about the weekend!!

Daddy has the girls and I have outside time and lots of books lined up for them. More about that tomorrow!

Happy Friday!

Day 207: bringing flashcards to life

I know flashcards are not most people's favorite teaching tool. They aren't exactly hands-on or creative or allow for much imaginary play. But I had great success with them when Sam was a baby in getting her to become a great talker early and now that Avery is needing to talk I am using them again a bit with her.

However, I still have to keep Sam entertained at the same time. This poses a problem, one that I am sure other moms have faced as well.

Today while I was doing some basic animal flash cards with Avery, I started asking Sam some questions about the animals;

• which ones live in a forest?
• which ones live in the ocean?
• which ones can fly?

And then she had to group the cards, after I had shown them to Avery, according to the questions I was asking. Both girls sat, attentive, learning and focused! Woohoo. For about five minutes!! HA!

So, I got out another set of flashcards.

Not sure where these came from but they are  neat because they have a wide variety of animals, have catagory labels on the bottom and are color coded. Yellow - fish, red - bird, blue - mammal, green - insect, brown - reptile, and blue - amphibians. Sam is just starting to learn what these titles mean so the color coding really helped her. But again I showed the cards to Avery first and then handed them to Sam to put into catagories. Had fun with these and both girls were focused and learning. For maybe seven minutes!

Finally, I took a combination of the two sets of cards, pulling out only the cards that matched animals I knew we had in our plastic/wood animal sets in the playroom. Once I showed the card to Avery and said the name I would then hand the card to Sam and tell her to go find the animal. She LOVED this part. She would run out of the room and come back with the matching animal. Sometimes it took her a little longer but then I would get a few more minutes to work on other cards with Avery. This was probably the favorite use of the flashcards today. A great way to keep both girls active, engaged and learning somewhat together.

The best part of today's activities? We were working on this before and after lunch today. When we got in the car after nap to head to do some shopping (about 20 minutes away) Sam spent the whole 20 minutes wanting to talk about animals. She was asking me questions about where different animals lived, who lived together and whether they were a bird, fish or mammal (she doesn't get reptile or amphibian at all!). The fact that she remembered what we had worked on, wanted to talk more about it and was asking questions makes me believe that the little games we played were working!

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The Nitty Gritty!

The third activity worked the best, I think, because it had a physical element to it and, to her, felt more like a game or scavenger hunt. We have done a lot with scavenger hunts so she is use to that concept which may also have helped to make it a success. So fun to have found a way to work with both girls using the same tools but in very different ways.

So, since I mentioned that we have done a lot with scavenger hunts I thought I would share what we have done before -

1. Window Bingo - spice up a cold or rainy day with a great indoor activity that still involves the outdoors.
2. Phonics Scavenger Hunt - incorporating letters and reading into a scavenger hunt
3. Flower Hunt - a version of the 3D scavenger hunt using backyard flowers
4. Icicle Hunt - a great winter activity that can help entertain kids out in the cold and help them learn to look at all the little details. 
5. Where Does This Come From? - a great scavenger hunt for matching seeds, leaves, berries, etc. to the plants that they come from. 
6. Picture Book Come to Life - a scavenger hunt based on the things a child finds in a book. 
7. Color Hunt - a scavenger hunt based on finding different colors in nature.
8. Reuse it Letter Hunt - finding letters in magazines to learn and match letters.

For more ideas check out the page on the sidebar. I would love to hear other ideas or feedback on any of these.

I have a guest post tutorial up at Ladybug Blessings! PLEASE head over and leave a comment. I would love to see some of my loyal readers commenting over there. Thanks!

Day 146: holiday travel

Headed to my parents for Thanksgiving which means 6-8 hours in the car (depending on how many stops and how much crying we have to deal with!). 

Here are some of the books that will be keeping Sam occupied in the car this afternoon:

In the Snow: Who's Been Here?, by Lindsay Barrett George. Our first winter/snow book! This one is neat for Sam because it talks about animals that she knows and two little kids that are on a winter adventure.  But I think this book is great for older kids too because it is a guessing game about the evidence that certain animals leave behind in the snow. For example when you see freshly cut and gnawed branches on the ground underneath a hemlock tree what animal might have been up in the tree? Have to read the book to find out!! HA!

Bug Safari, by Bob Barner. This one has such bright, colorful pictures that depict all kinds of insects and their tiny little world.  The story is about a boy that takes his bug hunting very seriously and goes on great adventures examining the world of little bugs.  It is totally the wrong season for this book but when I saw it I just couldn't help myself!

ABCs Naturally, by Lynne Smith Diebel and Jann Faust Kalscheur.  A great photographic depiction of the alphabet as it is found in nature!  This is amazing photography.

Growing Vegetable Soup, by Lois Ehlert. A book in true Ehlert fashion.  Amazingly bright pictures that are simple and fun.  Added details in small print that can be read or skipped over.  And great inspiration for growing a garden!

ABC Animal Jamboree, by Giles Andreae. A very fun animal alphabet book.  Sam really likes the crazy pictures on this one. Although i will say that the shark and tiger pictures are a little scary! 

Hope your holiday travels go well.  Enjoy Thanksgiving (if you are celebrating!).

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The Nitty Gritty!

If you need more inspiration for your holiday travel you should check out these posts -

Day 54 - why stopping at parks may take longer but makes for a much better trip in the end.

Day 74 - how truck stops can be green spaces

Day 41 - more books to keep your little ones happy

 

Day 126: alphabet tree cookies

You could say that once I discover something I become stuck on that idea. Hence the MANY toilet paper tube posts and projects we have done the past few months.  Lately I have been stuck on this idea of tree blocks. You can find the first use for us here and then another one here.

I modified the idea of the tree blocks just a little bit, making them thinner and turning them into alphabet tree cookies!

My poor husband spent probably almost an hour yesterday cutting a big branch into 26 cookies for me, BY HAND (we don't own a power saw).  Don't feel too bad for him he got a backrub out of the deal!

I wrote the letters on the cookies just with permanent marker and then cooked them for a little while in the oven to help dry them out a bit (the branch was a bit green) and kill any bugs that might be in them.

My sister suggested thinking of letters more just as shapes at this point with Sam and suggested that I create a matching game for her with letters.  52 cookies might have been pushing it in one night so I wrote out a set of letters on note cards. 

Sam and I layed out the cards in order (we sang the alphabet very slowly while we did this) and then pulled the tree cookies out of the bag one at a time and found the match.

 
The cookies are all different sizes, thicknesses and not all necessarily totally flat (he was using a hand saw!).  But the imperfections are what make them so awesome.  She can use these to build towers for Avery to knock over.  Combine them with regular wood blocks to make things more interesting or use them with the cards to work on letters.  Lots of options.

And Avery enjoyed the bag full of things for her to check out!

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The Nitty Gritty!

I am seeing so many more options for ways to work with this idea.  A second set that are lower case so that when she is ready we can match uppercase with lowercase.  Bigger ones! Not really any reason other than it would be cool to have HUGE tree cookies.  If you had multiples of the same letters you could do simple spelling with them as well.  Who needs those Leapster things, I've got tree branches and a marker!! HA!

Multiple purpose toys are amazing and these tree cookies (I am hoping!) will fit into that category.  What would you do with a bunch of tree cookies? 

Day 125: reuse it letter hunt

(Did you see that video I posted earlier?  NO? Scroll down and WATCH! It is amazing!)

Alphabet/letter week continues at our house!

We are working on letters and she is really into scissors right now.  Trying to combine those two things and I remembered an activity that I had seen out in blog world a while ago.  A great reuse it activity and an very easy one. 

I got some magazines form our big recycle box, scissors and glue.  The idea is to focus on one letter at a time, finding them in the magazine and then cutting them out.  I wanted her to be able to have some place fun to keep all the letters that she found and a notebook just wasn't neat enough.  So I made her a little recycled notebook (see Nitty Gritty for how to make the "TLC" book that is in the picture below). 

Sam LOVED this activity.  She actually understood what we were doing and really got into it.  I know I probably should be working on the letters in the correct order but her interest right now is in the letters in her name so I am just going with it.  We searched for S, A and M. 

This is the S page!

By the time we got to M, which Sam struggles with a bit, she was starting to lose focus, but we had already worked on the project for almost a half hour!  I was pretty proud of her. 

Our little book has more pages so as she learns new letters and gets more interested we will do more pages of letters. 

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The Nitty Gritty!

Got this idea from here. A great place to get ideas for educational and fun activities.

The book starts out as a box of some sort.  The size of the box doesn't matter, the bigger the box the bigger your notebook will be.  But it should be the cereal, cracker, granola bar type box (not the real stiff cardboard).  You only need one side of the box; cut it out and fold it in half. This will be the front and back cover of your notebook.  Poke three holes along the fold (top, middle and bottom). Then cut some regular paper to be just slightly smaller than the size of the notebook (when the front and back cover are layed out flat).

Poke holes in the paper that line up with the holes in the cardboard.  Weave the string through the holes back and forth and end with both ends on the inside of the book to tie the knot.Try and have a long length of string left over that you pull back through the middle hole so that you can wrap the string around the book and tie it closed if you want.

This is the front of our book.

And this is the back.

Isn't that cow adorable?  Love it!

Sorry if this tutorial is a bit hard to follow.  The string is the hardest part to explain but if you just play around with it for a bit you should be able to make something work. 

These books are fun to do make with older kids or school groups so that they can use them for journaling, homework assignments or observations while they are outside.

Day 124: phonics scavenger hunt

Okay, its really just a regular scavenger hunt! But exciting for us all the same because we are starting to incorporate words into our hunting!  Every other time we have done any kind of scavenger hunt it has been the 3D variety or picture variety (okay those links go to the same place, which is also just the page on the right side bar about scavenger hunts!) but now we are adding words to our pictures. 

Sam really liked adding this to our adventure this morning.  I didn't force too much learning of the letters but when she found something on the card we would talk about what it was and I would point out the word and letters to her.  She loved when the words had the letter S in it!  She is very into the S.

Here are some pictures from this morning.

Love that there was still frost on the ground.  It was the perfect cool morning walk and actually got me excited for getting outside in cold weather!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Here is the hunt that I made for Sam and I to do today at Governor Nelson State Park.

Download Phonics walk

Just like any other hunt that we do the pictures are super simple and can be changed very easily.  I am excited to start getting more exact with her though.  She is starting to recognize certain bird calls (geese, ducks, crows) which makes me think that if we got good bird feeders set up and kept them maintained maybe I could start working on simple bird ID with her as well.  I think she could learn chickadee, cardinal and grackle pretty easily.  But I know that I don't want to force this kind of information on her.  At this stage it is not about her learning the details, just about the experience!

Now that I know Sam likes these cards I think I will make a bunch of different ones (for all seasons) and get them laminated.  Then simply punch one hole and stick them on a ring.  Simple game/activity to take along whenever we are out on a hike!

These cards would be super easy to make without the pictures if you had an older child going on the walk with you that needed to practice reading skills.  This way you could do the same hunt with different aged kids but have it be a challenge for both.

The cards would also be really easy to make in multiple sets and taken on a walk or field trip with a class of students.  This could add an additional learning element to a school outing that is also fun for the kids. And a great way to get them exploring and noticing details! I think it is great when teachers come up with creative ways to get the kids focused on where they are and what they are doing that isn't just a worksheet. 

Day 123: green alphabet

So this might be a long week!  Sam had no interest in working on her letters today.  Michelle commented yesterday with the great suggestion of the N is for Nature coloring book.  It is very cute and I printed it out today for Sam.  I am also trying to get that book for us to read as well. 

Sam has shown so much interest in letters, asking us all the time "What's this for?" (copying the way you read an alphabet book, A is for...).  But I think she may be a bit too young to really get it.  I would love for her to be able to recoginize the letters in her name SAM.  But she is really struggling with the m.  We started with our Eric Carle Animal flash cards.  These are fabulous by the way if you haven't checked them out they are/were a huge hit at our house.  They are the first set of flash cards we used with her from a very young age and she knew all the animals really fast.  This use to be a "parlor trick" that we would do when friends came over.  People were impressed when she knew what a Xolo was!  (yes we were those parents.  I mean what are kids for if they aren't for entertaining dinner guests?)

After we worked on the letters with the animal flash cards for a bit I pulled out the coloring book that I had put into a three ringed binder.  She colored a bit but still could not say M back to me from memory after I had showed and told her what it was several times.  She kept saying W.  Strange.

Anyway...I am working on some more hands-on type of activities that might be more vaguely attached to the alphabet. I was to encourage her interest and not have her hating the topic!

But I have lots of other stuff to tell you all about tonight.  Yesterday officially ended the October Challenge. I didn't have a prize for this past month but I still really appreciate all of the people that sent in their challenge entries.  I even got one more from Tami! 

"I think one of the biggest examples we use at our house to be kind to the environment, would be to upcycle or reuse what has been tossed away by someone else.  It's not only great for the environment, but it's thrifty and saves our family a ton of money, and keeps unnecessary things out of our landfills.  For example, I rarely buy new books, toys, or clothing for my son.  I shop rummage sales, Goodwill, St. Vinnie's, Craigslist, and consignment shops in search of a good deal.  You can find lots of "like new" or name brand items, at thrift store prices.  The way a 2 year old wears through pants, breaks toys, or rips books makes me also feel better about not paying full price.  I hope "being thrifty" will pass on to my son - I know my mother was a great example for me." - Tami

But today starts another month and a different challenge!  So bring on November.  This month I know it will start (at least for some of us) to get harder to get outside. Because of cooler temperatures it will be easy to hole-up inside and avoid the outdoors.  So I want to do everything I can to encourage us all to GET OUTSIDE!  My challenge for this month is two-fold.  First I want you to take your family or class for a hike.  A long walk in a natural area.  Second I want this hike to occur in a NEW place.  Get out and explore.  Find a new park or just a new trail in a park you know.  But really explore the unkown and unfamiliar.  Going hiking during this time of year can be really rewarding because with less leaves on the trees views can be more amazing, birds and other wildlife can be easier to spot and certain not so friendly plants and insects are starting to go dormant and be less of a pest. It can be an amazing experience.  So GO! Hike. Explore. And then come back and tell me how it went.  Share your experiences to motivate others to get outside.  That's what it is all about, just encouraging each other that even with the smallest of kids it IS possible and enjoyable to get outside!

Finally, I am working on a fun idea for the blog for this month and next month.  I want to do some toy reviews.  I want to show all the parents out there some good options for Christmas presents.  Some handmade, wood or fabric, environmentally friendly, kid learning friendly and endless play kind of options.  AND I ALREADY HAVE ONE TOY MAKER LINED UP!  So excited to share the first Etsy Store with you but you will have to wait to hear about them.  What I need from you is some suggestions of other toy makers.  Things you have seen that you would love to hear more about.  Friends you know that might be interested in partnering with me.  Types of toys you think are great eco-friendly options.  I would love to hear your suggestions! Not only will I be reviewing these toys but also GIVING THEM AWAY to readers to help with the Christmas shopping! YEAH! Can you tell that I am excited about this? 

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The Nitty Gritty!

This was already a really long post so I will keep this short.

The flash cards were good today for one really great reason.  AVERY! She paid attention to them.  Watched as Sam and I were working with them and seemed interested.  It reminded me that it was about this time that I started working with Sam on them.  And Sam showed an interest  in working with Avery on the flash cards.  How great would that be to have Sam sit with Avery and do flashcards together?  Has anyone ever tried this before?  Could it also help Sam learn her letters?  So interested in this idea of an older sibling being the teacher.  Would love to hear stories of other moms that have done something like this.  Super excited to have a new animal related activity to work on with Avery.