Greening Sam and Avery

toddler nature play

Sick. Does that sum up the last few days for you? Coughing, sneezing, headaches, and just overall awful feeling. But today Sam is back at school and I am starting to feel a little better. So I got out the colorful paper acorns and Avery had a busy morning being a busy little squirrel!

We read The Busy Little Squirrel book first. This is a really cute little board book that is perfect for Avery. There is repitition, colorful pictures, simple animals that she is familiar with and a great simple lesson; squirrels are very busy animals. 

Then Avery started hunting for her own acorns.

Little squirrels do sometimes stop to eat an acorn!

I love when we can combine a book and pretend play! Such a great learning combination for Avery. 

How have you expanded on books lately?

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The Nitty Gritty!

We did this a little while ago with both girls. Go here to see it the first time. So, yes this is a repeat but it is nice to do things again when Sam is not around. And we just found this book so that was a great addition to the activity.  

For an outdoor element consider going for a hike looking for squirrel leaf nests or tree cavity nests. If you still have snow you could also look for snow tracks from busy squirrels. 

outdoor play link up - zoo play

Whenever we come to St. Louis my girls love to go to the "big" zoo! So even though St.Louis was surrounded on all sides by severe storms we headed out with cousins and friends today under clearish skys. With rainjackets and boots in tow just in case!

Some of the highlights from today...

Avery just loved the river otters.

And we saw babies!!  We loved how the baby elephant walked right underneath the big mama!

And look at that cute little trunk!

Then we saw a little baby monkey.

And here are two new things that I learned today at the zoo.

1. Let my kids go at their own pace. At one point Avery was lagging behind the bigger kids because she just wanted to stay and watch the otters. My instinct was to pull her away and tell her to join the rest of the group. But then I stopped myself and just let her stay there as long as she wanted. It occurred to me that if the outing is truly for them, then I should let them dictate how long we stay at each exhibit. What does it matter if we run out of time and don't see the whole zoo? I am often pulling the girls away from something to get them to move on to something else and I realized today that I should slow down more often and do things at their pace!

2. Use the signs. My niece is a beginning reader. She really enjoyed trying to read the signs and share the facts with us. And then my sister starting reading them first and asking Bailey if she could find on the sign where it said something, like where the animal is from or what it eats. Then Bailey would have to read the sign and tell us that specific fact. It was a great activity!

A great day was had by all. And only a few raindrops landed on us.

This Week's Feature

I have to tell you about  a couple of great posts before I share my favorite. Did you see the post from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots? We found the book she suggested, The Gruffalo, and my girls LOVE IT!

I missed entering this giveaway but the handbooks look amazing! Great review and post over at Mommy Labs.

But my feature for this week comes from Rainy Day Mum (someone that I have featured before! Her posts are just so darn good!). The reason I am featuring this one is because she is writing about what is absolutely my most favorite activity to do in all the world; hunting for spring! I am anxiously awaiting the day when I walk outside and see all kinds of green things poking out of the ground. We have so far been burying the few things that we have found because it is just too early but when spring really comes I will be hunting for those green leaves like crazy! And I can't wait to check out the book that she recommends.

On to the Party!

So I have noticed recently that a lot of folks that are linking up are not posting the button or letting their readers know that they have linked up. I would LOVE to share so many of these great ideas on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook but the rules state that you have to share the link up if you want us to share your post! So please be sure to go back and add the party link up!! Thanks everybody.

So for this edition, here are just a few guidelines for sharing:


- Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!- If you'd like us to further share your post (e.g., on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest), please just include a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play!- Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.- Each time we will feature an activity from the previous party. - By contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished. (If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar.)

Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1.

 

animals in winter - birds fluffing their feathers

I am scrambling today trying to get our whole family ready to head out of town for an environmental education conference. This is the first time that my family will be coming with me for a "work" conference and I am very nervous but also really excited. I have two workshops to present, three meetings to run and a ton of other stuff to do, not to mention being mom and wife! I will be sharing pictures and stories of what we did and how it went when we get back on Monday!

So, while I am packing and prepping for my sessions the girls got to pretend to be birds trying to survive the cold temps in winter.

First we talked about how birds have feathers and to make them even warmer in the winter they shake their bodies to fluff up their feathers. The fluffing traps air between the feathers and keeps them more insulated. This is one reason why some birds (cardinals and chickadees) look bigger in the winter. They haven't put on extra weight, just extra air!!

I started with water balloons. But instead of filling them with water I filled them with air.

The I explained to the girls that to fluff up their feathers they had to try and see how many balloons they could squeeze underneath their shirts.

Eventually they started trying to stick the balloons under their pants, sleeves and even socks! They were determined to be warm birds through the winter!

They had a blast and I got some great work done. Plus, some learning happened, which is always a plus!

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The Nitty Gritty!

For more activities on animals preparing for and surviving winter check out these posts -

squirrels and bears

learning about hibernation through pretend play

Which is exactly what we did!

We started by talking about where bears go when it gets cold and what they might use to make their hibernation spot more comfortable.

The girls thought their princess tent filled with pillows and blankets would make the perfect bear cave.

But the tent was not as dark as they thought a cave would be. So more blankets were needed!

Then they settled in to hibernate like bears do!

Sam quickly decided that bears must get very bored while they hibernate and she decided it would be better if they had books! Hibernating quickly turned into very comfortable reading time! HA!

But this pretend play got us to have great conversations about why some animals hibernate and others don't. And what it must be like to hibernate.

Love when pretend play can directly lead to learning some great lessons about the animals around us.

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The Nitty Gritty!

We set this all up in the morning and the timing worked out perfect that when they were tired of pretending to be bears it was lunch time. This gave me the perfect opportunity to talk about how hungry animals must be when they finally wake up for spring. The girls had fun pretending it was finally spring and they could eat again! I think it also led them to eat a bigger lunch!!

We learned about squirrels in winter here.

teaching animal needs with a matching game

I made these cards for the girls as a way to start teaching them about what animals need. We pull an animal card and then try to pull the cards that go along with what that animal eats and where they live. All animals (at least the ones we are learning about right now) get their water in the same ways, rain, puddles, ponds, streams, etc. so we have water cards that look the same but there is one for each animal. There really isn't a winner to the game, just more flipping of cards and trying to match up which animals the needs go to.

It took me sometime to print, cut out and glue the cards but they will last a while this way and the girls seem to really be enjoying them.

I could see a game like this being a great preschool or kindergarden activity. And it can be created for local animals making it specific to any area! Love that.

It is great when I can use games like this to teach them about the natural world around them!

animal tracks in the snow

I think I needed some outdoor time even more than the girls did today. Grumpy, overtired and in a pretty bad mood would be the way I would describe...nope, not my children, today it was me. But then we bundled up and headed out and almost immediately my mood began to change.

We started finding animal tracks. And the fun and learning began! So here are some pictures of the tracks that we saw and some questions, learning opportunities and games that went along with them!

Follow That Track: find a good long set of tracks and then have your child follow the tracks to see where the animal went.

Question: Why do you think there are so many tracks underneath this bush? Is it warm under there? Can they hide under there?

Question: Who's feet do you think these are? Are these feet bigger than your feet or smaller?

Can You Make Tracks Like A- : Pick an animal and have your child try to make tracks in the snow that resemble that animal. If you aren't familiar with exactly what the tracks should look like, that is okay, just have them mimic what they think the animal would move like.

What Happened Here?: Find a spot that has tracks of two different animals and talk with your child about what might have happened at that spot. What are the animals? Would they get along or want to eat each other? Where did they go? Just because the tracks are both here does that mean they were both here at the same time (this question for older kids!)?

Question: Where does this tunnel go? Who made this subnivean tunnel? Why do some animals use tunnels underneath the snow instead of walking on top of the snow?

We had a great time trying to answer all these questions, playing lots of tracking games and attempting to identify tracks.

Have you looked at tracks in the snow lately?

We also got started making our snow table and chairs today! 

Really hoping this works, we didn't do it the same way as they did here but I think it should work out the same. We will see.

Sam is very excited to have a snow table tea party so keep your fingers crossed that when she sits on that stool tomorrow it doesn't collapse!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Animal Tracks Tips -

If the track disappears at the base of a tree there is a pretty good chance the animal ran up the tree! Super fun to watch kids figure that out on their own.

Rabbits have a lot of fur on their feet so you can't see their four toes very easily. Squirrels have longer claws and less hair so you are more likely to see pronounced toes and claws, plus they have five toes.

Mice may drag their tail as they move, so you would see a small line between the tracks.

Subnivean tunnels are tunnels made underneath the snow. Sometimes you can see these as an odd raised line snaking its way across an open area. Small animals like voles and mice will use these to travel across open space without being seen by larger predators.

How we made the snow table and chairs - I am hesitant to share this until I know for sure that it is going to work. But basically we just used good packing snow and started sculpting it into big squares on the ground. Sam was in charge of filling buckets of snow and bringing them over to me. I am hoping that the snow will compact down and freeze nice and solid outside over night. Then we can either add more to them to make them a bit bigger or just leave them the size they are and try them out to see if it worked. I will keep you posted!

outdoor play link up - discovering animal homes

When you have weather like this in January it is not a choir to get outside! Mid-40s and sunny is crazy weather for Wisconsin and I have to say that I am really starting to get mad that we don't have cold temps and tons of snow!! Where is winter?

But since it is warm we are getting lots of outdoor play time. Today we explored around our own backyard to see what our local wildlife has been up to.

Lots of fun holes to find and explore.

 

Our compost heap makes a great place for wildlife to hide out, find food and an even better place for us to explore!

And then there was some tree climbing! I mean how else can you see if the birds are at home?

A great outdoor play morning! Even with sick kids!!

This weeks' feature!

I was super excited when I saw this post on Exploring the Outdoor Classroom because I have been wanting to collect some snow play ideas, just in case winter ever actually arrives! And then I was so amused to see that her snow play idea didn't involve snow at all!! So very clever! Check out snowball target practice.

 

Super simple idea but what a fun game to have up in the preschool outdoor play area. Thanks so much for linking this up and sharing!

animals in winter - squirrels

Do you ever have those ideas that hit you in the middle of the night and wake you up?

Well, right before the madness of the holidays hit I had this idea to use indoor/outdoor play and games to teach the girls about the habits of animals in winter. I have several fun ideas to test out and we started with squirrels.

I found some coloring images of acorns on the web and printed out 16 acorns. Sam was given the job of coloring them and cutting them out. At first she was hesitant and didn't really care about the project but then I told her that we were going to be using the acorns to pretend to be squirrels and play a game. She sat in one spot until all 16 acorns were colored and cut out!

Before we started playing we talked about squirrels; what they eat (acorns primarily), where they live (nests and hollowed out holes in trees), how they find their food (using their nose to sniff out the nuts), and how they get ready for the cold winter months (collecting and hiding as many acorns as they can before snow falls).

Then I hide all of the acorns around several rooms in our house and told the girls to turn themselves into squirrels to find as many acorns as they can.

They really got into using their noses to find the acorns!

After the girls had hunted for the acorns a bit I added a new twist and became a fox that was hunting them! I slowly crawled around the rooms that they were looking for acrons in, scaring them and pretending to try and catch them. They loved this part. Sam even went so far as to decide that their princess tent was their tree house that they should store their acorns in and hide in until the fox was gone. I stalked them at the "bottom" of the tree house for a while and then told them the fox was giving up and moving on.

This was a great way to talk about habits of squirrels and for the girls to get a chance to see what it would be like to be a squirrel. We learned, we played, we laughed and had a great time!

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The Nitty Gritty!

This could very easily be advanced for older kids into an outdoor game. I learned a similar type game as a graduate assistant at the Central Wisconsin Environmental Station. Something more waterproof and indestructible, like poker chips, could be used as the acorns. With a playing area designated simply spread out the acorns and let the squirrels head out to gather their food. Large cups or similar container can be used as "stomachs" for collecting. After a short amount of time send a larger predator out to start hunting the squirrels. If a squirrel gets caught s/he has to give all their acorns to the larger predator (you can let the squirrel go back to colleting or have them sit down to be dead). Stop after a few minutes and see who has food in their stomach. Talk about what it was like to collect acrons with no predators chasing you versus collecting once the larger predator came out.

With older students this game can also be used to discuss bio-accumulation, food chains, food webs and energy transfer. 

out of season adventures

Winter has come but unfortunately so far has not brought much snow. At least not snow that is sticking around! Cold temps with no snow is probably my least favorite weather situation.

But we are making it work and today we headed to one of our favorite spots, even when it is the "off season".

We headed to the Henry Vilas Zoo, in Madison. We didn't see all the animals that the girls like, no girafffes or bears or prairie dogs but we did have a great time watching the lions, getting to pet a snake, watching the monkeys play and a very active river otter. The girls got to play on the big tree house jungle gym and some great outdoor play time.

Of course I forgot my camear. BOO!

The biggest perk to going to the zoo during the winter? NO CROWDS! The girls can always have a great view of the animals, one on one attention with the zoo keepers/naturalists that are in the exhibit areas and can play freely on the climbing equipment without big kids to push them around or make them nervous.

My biggest tip about taking your little ones to these kind of attractions in the off season is to set them up for a different experience. They won't realize that it will be different unless you tell them. If they are use to riding the carousel and then they can't because it is closed during the winter, don't let this be a surprise when they get there, prepare them ahead of time that it will be closed. Visiting the website of the place you are visiting is a great way to find out what may be closed or, as is the case with the zoo, what animals may not be kept outside in the winter. Even though I had warned Sam we may not see everything she was still sad that the prairie dogs were not out (yes, I know it is weird that my girls really like the prairie dogs!). So instead of trying to comfort her I switched into teacher mode and asked her why an animal like the buffalo (which is in the shelter right next to the prairie dogs) could be out in the cold and not prairie dogs. We talked about their differences in fur and where the prairie dogs might be right now to keep warm. Great learning experience!

What outside places do you still visit in the winter? Any tips on how to make the experience a super positive one even though it is different for the kids?

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The Nitty Gritty!

With no pictures I have kind of talked your ear off already! So nothing more from me.

But here is the post from our last off-season visit to the zoo!

winter books

A few nights ago I created Christmas magic in this house by staying up late and getting the whole house decorated for Christmas. When the girls woke up there were santas, snowmen, nativity scences and other winter type decorations covering every room of the house! I loved getting it all done at one time like that and once everyone else was in bed I put on Christmas music and had some great alone time with my favorite decorations!

One thing that magically appeared when they woke up was a HUGE basket of Christmas and winter books. We have the traditional ones like "Grinch that Stole Christmas", "Twas the Night Before Christmas", and "Polar Express", and several bitrh of Jesus stories. And of course we have the "character" Christmas stories like Curious George, Max and Dora. But some of our favorites are the more general winter story books that we have.

Winter Friends, by Carl R. Sams and Jean Stoick

This is an adorable board book that uses real photographs to show animals in winter feasting on a tasty snowmen. The pictures are awesome and the text is very sweet.

Two of our favorite snow themed books -

Here Come the Snow, by Angela Shelf Medearis

This book has very simple words and is great for the just starting to read age group. The kids in this book are waiting and waiting for the snow and when it finally comes it describes all the fun things that they enjoy doing in the snow. It is a great book to help kids get excited for the snow and prepared for the cold weather.

Snow, by Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman

This one is a very typical P.D. Eastman style book with simple, rhyming text. The pictures are cute and it is a great book for showing the fun and excitement that can be had in the snow. If you little ones are hesitant about playing in the snow this book might be a good one to check out.

Two more Carl R. Sams books that are awesome and I have listed on the Must See Children's Book Page on the sidebar. You can find them under the General Nature Related category.

 

Lastly, this one is a new one for us as the girls got it just last year for Christmas so we only read it a few times.

The Mitten, By Jan Brett

This one is super cute. A little boy loses his brand new mitten and a whoel bunch of animals, one at a time, decide it looks like a cozy home. The animals continue to find reasons (like sharp teeth and long talons) to make more room in the mitten to let more and more animals move in. Though what happens in the story is not realistic at all it can lead to great conversations! And the pictures are very fun. There are "extra" pictures along the sides that add to the story and give kids more things to look at as they listen. We are really enjoying this story.

The winter season is SUPER long here so any suggestions you have for good preschool aged winter themed books would be great!