Greening Sam and Avery

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

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!

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. 

outdoor play party - princesses with boats in the pool

Welcome back to the outdoor play party!

We have pretty much been doing nothing but outdoor play for the last eight days and it has been wonderful! My girls have slept well, eaten well and had tons of great fun. Being in a beautiful warm place on the ocean makes it super easy to play outside. But I know we are headed back to snow and cold in just a few days, so I am soaking up all the sun that I can!! 

The girls do occassionally need some pretend play and extra distractions to keep the pool here at the house a new and fun experience. We recently added a set of small princesses and these great "boats" that we found to our pool toys!

The "boats" are made from some kind of seed pod that we found on a walk and then sent Chris out to find more on his run!

The princesses had to go from one side of the pool, across the water, to rescue their friends on the rocks on the other side!

The girls have had a blast with these new toys and they have provided me a great deal of quiet mommy time while I watch the fun from the side of the pool with a good book!!  (Yes, I do occassionally get in the pool and play too!)

So, what linked up idea from last week has me super inspired? These awesome bird feeders from Learning Table! I love the natural pumpkin containers and just the way the whole thing looks hanging in the tree. What a great way to reuse the carved or decorative pumpkins!

Thanks so much to the Learning Table for linking up!

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.

 

learning to notice and describe

One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me was something that they described as "good eyes". I notice birds that most people might miss. While hiking I can spot insects, mushrooms and lots of other small details. I can see the beauty in little things as well as the big grand view. 

As a scientist and naturalist it is also really important that I can describe in detail the things that I see. These two traits combined are very helpful! I am hoping that I can pass these two things on to the girls.

We practice the "good eyes" all the time when we are outside. Just pointing out things that are both far away and smaller things that are closer helps them to learn to look in both places all the time.

Anyway, today we got out some of our birding tools to start practicing the skill of describing.We started with a set of bird pictures that are all very different. We played "I Spy". Sam would describe a bird I would have to pick up the picture that I thought she was describing, then we would switch.

We moved on to our winter bird poster which made the "I Spy" game much more difficult. But we focused on the birds with distinguishable features that we could describe and Sam did great.

I let Sam play with the Identiflier too. She was trying to hear the calls of birds that were in our poster. It was fun to see her making connections between two pictures of the same birds and then hearing the bird call as well.

Birds are starting to find our feeders again that we have back out for winter. I am hoping the girls will have as much fun sitting and watching the real birds as they did today looking at the pictures!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Even if you don't have bird flash cards, posters or call machines you can still practice observing and describing. Try checking out some "Seek and Find" or "I Spy" books from the local library. But before your child points out what they have found have them describe it to you. If they struggle with the describing, try guiding them with questions about what it looks like. 

"I Spy" can also be a great game to play when you are killing time somewhere or are in the car!

animal movement as a game

I recently found Wildlife Fun 4 Kids and am loving all the fun stuff over there.

The girls and I tried out the wildlife movement dice today. It was a big hit. I printed it out on cardstock and followed the directions on the site but then I switched up the pictures a bit. Using the internet I just printed some small sized photos of animals that my kiddos are familiar with. The original animals are great but I wanted to use more local animals instead.

Once the dice was set I simply explained to the girls what to do (roll the dice and then act out the movements and sounds of the animal that showed up on top) and we got busy being animals!

It was a lot of fun! Wish we would have made multiple dice so that we could do more animals.

Thanks Wildlife Fun 4 Kids!

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The Nitty Gritty!
To extend this activity you could add some reading.

• Can You Growl Like a Bear by John Butler
• Gallop! by Rufus Butler Seder
• Swing, Slither or Swim by Patricia M. Stockland
• Do Goldfish Gallop? by Michael Dahl

You could also extend this game for older kids by asking them to tell you one fact they know about the animal that they roll before they act out the movement. This could lead to great discussions and learning about the animals on the dice.

 

fall fun - felt board fall tree

I have made my first attempt at homemade felt board fun!

I made the felt board probably the most simple (and potentially not very long lasting) way possible. I took white felt stretched it over a piece of white foam board and then hot glued it down in the back. I didn't want to spend a lot of time or money on a felt board until I knew for sure that the kids (and I) would enjoy this type of activity.

Once the board was made I started getting creative with some other felt colors for the girls.

I cut out a big brown tree, grass, some flowers and lots of leaves.

Avery played with these uninterupted and uncoached for almost 45 minutes! I was blown away. So I knew I had to make some more and come up with some other ideas for Sam.

I put together this activity for Sam. (Thanks Aunt Jojo for the suggestions!)

I cut out green, red, yellow and orange leaves to go with the big brown tree trunk. Then I drew four different trees on the notecards. Each tree with different colors of leaves and numbers of leaves. Sam's job was to try and match the felt tree to each of the tree pictures.

As indepently as Avery played with the felt board, Sam needed coaching and assistance. I think this had more to do with the fact that she was tired and cranky than her actual comfort or interest in the activity. But I sat with her and we created the trees, pretended it was a windy day and talked about where the trees go in the Fall.  She wanted more pieces and more options to make pictures (not sure I will be able to make the squirrel and owl she requested!).

I am super excited about all the felt creations that are for sure in our future!

Have a felt creation tutorial you would care to share? What is your child's favorite felt board activity? I am new to this and would love any suggestions that you have!!

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The Nitty Gritty!

I didn't get pictures of the girls playing together but I actually have two boards made with matching sets for each girl. I didn't make the notecards for Avery, she is still a bit young for that, but she has all the other pieces now to play with.

I think to go along with this tree set I will also make pieces to create the other seasons; small flowers to go on the tree for spring along with small green leaf buds, then for winter I will make some winter snowflakes and snowmen for her to put in the picture.

Already this set has lead to work on counting, colors, matching and nature related discussions. Loving me some felt play!!

outdoor play link up - pumpkin week - pumpkin ball

SUPER EXCITED! The Outdoor Play Link Up is BACK!!!!

Thanks goes out to Mama Pea Pod for getting this awesome link up back up and running. We have added another host that I am honored to be working with. If you are not familiar with Learning for Life you have to check it out.

Okay, so what were we up to this week for outdoor play? Pumpkin Ball! I actually made these for our carving party on Tuesday night but the kids were just more interested in their own play ideas then the ones I had come up with. What's a mom to do?! But the girls and I have just loved playing with these in the backyard this week.

I simply took washed out milk jugs, cut the bottoms off and then painted them. I used black electricians tape to cover the slightly sharp edge and used a black permanent marker to draw on the face. I covered the whole thing in modge podge to seal the paint. They worked pretty well with the bigger ball. The small ball was fun because it was a pumpkin but hard to know which direction the ball would go when you threw it using the jug.

Super simple, upcycling and tons of fun!

Now, let's get this linky started! If you have never been a part of a link before please be sure to check out the other ideas, leave comments, and let them know you are stopping by from the Outdoor Play Link Up. It is just more fun if we are all out there checking out the ideas and chatting about what we are finding at the Link Up!

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.

 

pumpkin week- pumpkin puzzles

My inspiration for today's project came from Teach Preschool. You can check out her idea here.

I first cut out a whole bunch of orange circles. I tried my best to make them pumpkin-shaped but whatever, they are just odd shaped circles! 

Anyway, then I did this to two of the circles.

Sam really liked this activity but did get frustrated that she couldn't draw the triangle correctly.

Then I drew complete faces on the rest of the pumpkins and cut them in half. Sam had to match up the faces. She liked this one a lot!

So, two pumpkin activities in one today! I didn't get a chance to try the second one out with Avery, but she has been so into puzzles lately that I am thinking she might understand it a bit. I will let you know how it goes!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Okay, tonight I am linking to to posts that specifically deal with learning, puzzle, game or other pumpkin inspired activities. The craft links and pumpkin decorating ideas will come later this week, don't worry!

Joyfully Weary - Fridge Jack O'Lanterns

Hands On: As We Grow - 40 pumpkin Activities this one has lots of ways to decorate pumpkins but it also has lots of pumpkin activities, pumpkin math and games too.

Living Montessori Now - Pumpkin Unit  there are LOTS of great pumpkin inspired activities 

Learning for Life - Pounding Pumpkins okay this one isn't puzzles or anything like that but I thought it was so different and creative for a pumpkin activity that I just had to include it today!

Teach Preschool - magnetic pumpkin play this is a really cool way to let kids explore making pumpkin faces 

Little Family Fun - pin the face on the pumpkin
    and Pumpkin Treasure hunt

Okay, this just scratches the surface of all the awesome ideas that I have to link up to this week but I wanted to start you all out slowly!

Be prepared to be overwhelmed tomorrow!!!!