Greening Sam and Avery

butterfly preschool program

I scrapbooked tonight! Not for my family or my own kids but for a butterfly. I am creating a preschool butterfly program that involves a puppet and a butterfly baby book! The puppet, named Molly, will walk the kids through her life by sharing her baby book, her family scrap book, with the kids. I am super excited to do this program and will get to test it out on Thursday!

To go along with this lesson I also found this great little finger play about the life cycle of butterflies that I think will be a great wrap up to the lesson. Thanks Amy, at Child Central Station, for sharing this one with me!

Any other great butterfly ideas? Share them with me!!

turn over a rock

My kids have been very into looking for bugs lately. So, we have been turning over rocks, stepping stones, big logs, flower pots and pretty much everything else that they think might have a bug underneath it. 

To go along with all of our bug hunting I checked out a few bug books. 

Bug Dictionary; An A to Z of Insects and Creepy Crawlies is a bit advanced for preschool age but has neat pictures and includes insects from lots of places so it would work in many areas of the country. The book includes great illustrations and good size comparisons of the insects. For a slightly older child creating your own alphabetic list of insects that you find in your own backyard or neighborhood would be a great activity to go along with this book! You could keep the list on a big chart that is visible to them, let them add insects all throughout a whole season or even draw pictures on the list! 

Insect Detective by Steve Voake is a great way to present insect information to little kids. Some of the information is a little advanced for preschoolers but the story is written in a way that still holds their attention. Like many books that I really enjoy this one has additional information on certain pages, in smaller text, that could be read just to older children that want more information. Illustrations are adorable! 

So turn over a rock and then get to reading! For even more bug books check out the list here. 

best earthworm book

If digging for worms is an everyday occurrence at your house too then you have to find this book. An Earthworm's Life by John Himmelman.

The girls and I have been doing a lot of yard work gardening which almost always leads to finding worms, creating worm homes in our buckets and watching lots of worms wiggle in our hands. My girls LOVE worms. So when I was looking through the nonfiction section at the library and found this book I was pretty excited. I didn't know that much about worms so it was a good book for me too!

We like the book because the text is simple and can hold the girl's attention much like a fiction book but has a ton of great information about worms. We learned all about what they do during the winter, what they eat, who they are scared of and how they have babies. Now the girls have a lot more knowledge about these great little treasures that are all over our backyard! 

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The Nitty Gritty!

If you are looking for even more worm fun you can check out our worm learning activities here and our worm game here.    

ticks in our house

We went on a great hike this weekend.

Had family in town to enjoy it with.

But now, my sweet little explorer has a tick bite.
We found one tick several hours after the hike, crawling on Chris's shirt. And then this morning while I was cuddling with Avery and rubbing her back I felt a lump. I pulled her shirt up and instantly saw a large tick and a big red spot on her back.

I freaked Chris out by waking him up from a sound sleep with "Chris, she has a tick!" We tried our best to pull it out but Avery was squirming SO much and crying so hard that we didn't get the whole tick. Not good. Chris called the pediatrician and they wanted her to come in just to check the bite and remove the head if it was still in her back. Off to urgent care she went but then they said there was really no way to remove any more, put some antibiotic ointment on it and a bandaid.

Now, we wait and watch her closely. It was a wood tick, not a deer tick, so the chances of something serious like Lyme's disease is very slim but infection is still a worry. Not a big one, but we need to keep our eyes on the bite.

Things like falls, tick bites, mosquito bites and even more serious things like spider bites and snake bites can happen when you are on a simple family hike can happen. They do happen to people in the woods everyday. But they are no reason to not get your kids out on the trail. Avery will be fine. And the experience of letting her explore by the river, walk through the tall grass to feel the moss hanging on a rock wall and search through fallen leaves to find the best one, is all worth the risk. She is learning, growing and becoming connected to the natural world around her. 100 tick bites won't keep me from taking her out on the trail!!  (okay, maybe 100, but the chances of that are slim!)

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The Nitty Gritty!

Not sure what to do about tick bites? Heard crazy remedies about how to get the ticks off? Check HERE for exact directions on how you should treat tick bites on your children.

I really liked what they had to say about tick prevention as well...

"You can avoid ticks by wearing long sleeves and long pants, hats, pulling long hair back in a ponytail, using insect repellent and by wearing light colored clothing so that ticks are easily detectable."

Being prepared and educated about what might happen on the trail is the best way to keep your kids safe. Know the dangers, know what you need to bring to protect yourself and know what to do when you don't know what to do!

bug safari

Well, we took a few days off. Personal reasons took us back home to St. Louis for a few days.

But today we got back into the swing of things.

Our backyard play this afternoon quickly turned into some serious bug hunting.

The dragonflies were everywhere.

They started out chasing them down but then discovered this was not a good way to catch them.

The stalking began!

When Chris got home we took the show on the road with much more success.

Moths, crickets, a big dragonfly and a monarch!

Sam's favorite part was letting the insects go shortly after we caught them. This series of photos is so fun!

Keep your eyes on that butterfly!

Look on the right side of Sam's face, in her hair, do you see the butterfly?

Yup, and there is the freak out with the butterfly moving safely away!

So funny!

Avery's new favorite thing to do on hikes is lay down.

Which is exactly what I want her to do! HA!!

But we still got the hike in and had a great time.

And both girls can't wait to take the net and bug tube out again!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Bug hunting is a great toddler friendly activity. They have fun during all stages of this activity and can play a big part in all of it. Start them out with looking closely for things to catch, then the chase to try and catch them, then helping you after you get one in the net to transfer it into a container, then observing the critter and finally letting it go.

Don't get hung up on trying to teach them about the bugs. No real knowledge of insects is needed to have a great bug safari. Simple enjoy the time outside, help them with the catching and encourage them to be gentle when handling the critters. If you want to include more learning or observation but don't have the background knowledge about exactly what you are catching focus on more simple things like counting body parts, identifying body parts, describing colors, how it moves and how it compares to other things you have caught. Questions on those topics can lead to lots of great observation time and insightful conversations.

If you didn't notice all of our fun today required only a pond net and an old tennis ball container! Fun can't get much cheaper than that. Love outdoor play and learning that doesn't require a lot of gear and expense.

the ants go marching

We heard the song "The Ants go Marching" the other day and Sam and Avery have been singing it and marching around the house for days. Thought it would be the perfect time to learn alittle bit about ants.

Sam and I did some ant painting.

We used just a little bit of black paint and our fingers to make three body parts and then a black marker to create the six legs and two antennae.

Are her ants perfect? No. Can you even really tell where the ants are? No. But she had a great time with the process and learned that ants have three body parts, six legs and two antennae.

Here is what I created!

After Avery woke up from nap we headed outside to find some ants, singing "The Ants go Marching" of course!

We talked first about where to find ants. I asked the girls if we should look up in the sky. Sam laughed and told me I was silly, ants are in the ground. So we started by looking on the driveway and sidewalk. Then we headed out to the garden. Sam thought maybe we could lift up the stepping stones to find ants.

About 15 stepping stones later we found tons of ants!!  The girls and I had a great time looking for ants. And Sam could still answer at the end of the hunting for ants how many body parts ants have, what they use their antennae for and how many legs they have. I call that a success!

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The Nitty Gritty!

This was a spur of the moment activity so we didn't have any books to go with it. So if you need some inspiration for ant books check here for some ideas!

 

field trip - butterfly exhibit

This was our second year in a row to go to the Olbrich Botanical Garden butterfly exhibit. Last year Avery was still pretty little and stayed in the carrier the whole time (probably a sleep!) so it was neat to see her reacting to the butterflies and trying to find them.

I let the girls lead the way this year (who am I kidding they just weren't listening to me at all and were really going where ever they wanted to anyway!) and we did laps all over the conservatory.

Okay, that was a lot of pictures! But I just loved those butterflies. Just like last year Sam's favorite part was the laminated card they gave out for you to be able to identify the butterflies. BUT unlike last year she could really match up the butterflies. She was able to notice the details and the small differences between the pictures.

It was a great morning outing!

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The Nitty Gritty!

I probably don't need to stress again my love of public events like this and as parents utilizing them to help support/add to what you are learning at home. Since we have a caterpillar growing at home and have been learning a lot about bugs lately this was a perfect fit for both of the girls!

For parents I would strongly encourage you to check the calendars of places like gardens, nature centers, zoos, etc. to see what annual public programs they have. Then if you do all of your education or even some of it at home you can match up what you are learning about to what is going on in the area. Or even if you don't do any formal education at home these programs are still great chances for your kids to learn while having a ton of fun!

For educators events like this may offer discounts for daycare centers, camps or schools to bring groups. Exhibits like this are great field trips and fairly easy to do with large groups of kids.

super simple caterpillar fun

Searched one of my go-to blogs for books and projects the other day after we got the caterpillar and found a very simple activity that I thought Sam would be all over.

After dinner tonight Chris did pj duty so I could cut out some leafs and get the other things that we needed. It took me about five minutes to put this whole activity together.

The idea is to have a leaf of every color that you have caterpillars. Put numbers on the leaves and match that number to the number of caterpillars that are that same color. I also found a big bag of beads so that we could add beads to our caterpillars for even more color matching fun!

Avery sat on my lap while we were making some of the caterpillars, which is a very difficult word for an 18 month old to say! But it was a good chance for me to point out colors and work with her a bit on that too.

Sam had a great time with this activity and since I have been trying to get her to recognize her number symbols that was an added bonus practice that we got in tonight.

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The Nitty Gritty!

Skills worked on tonight with this activity:

• color matching
• counting
• number recognition
• hand-eye coordination

But the key for me was talking with Sam about caterpillars. I showed her a picture of what our caterpillar will grow up to look like. Then we talked about why we were putting our little bead caterpillars on leaves, why there were leaves in our caterpillar home and where we might find other caterpillars outside. Simple ideas but for Sam it is putting the bigger picture together for her.

our new pet

We found this little guy on our tomato plant yesterday and I knew he had to go!

 
But Sam did not want to get rid of him or just put him on another plant. We had to bring him inside!

So, I found the biggest glass jar that we had on hand and drilled a few small holes in the top.

 
The caterpillar is called a Tobacco Hornworm and it will eventually turn into the Carolina Sphinx Moth. I am really hoping we will be able to keep him alive and see the whole transformation.

So far we have just been experimenting with what he likes to eat. The tomato plant branch that we broke off in order to bring him inside safely seems to be his favorite so far. Sam is really hoping the maple leaves will start being eaten too, she put those in there. She also really wants to try grass so we may have to add some of that tomorrow.

I see caterpillar crafts and books in my future!

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The Nitty Gritty!

While I don't think it is necessary to bring insects and animals into your house to learn about them and observe them it can be very useful for children as young as infants to have animals in their home.

I believe (and I don't have any real research to back this up just personal experiences) that having pets to play with, observe, care for and just be around helps small children learn gentleness and compassion for other things. My girls help me to brush our dog, play with her, feed her dinner some days and love chasing her around the house. But they have also learned not to play with her food, pull on her tail or poke her in the face. They know that there are limits to what you can do to animals.

We also have a frog in our home right how which Sam is responsible for feeding (with supervision from Chris!). Both girls love watching "Freddy" swim around and eat his food.

Having pets isn't necessary but I really think it goes a long way to helping kids learn how to interact with animals and appreciate the world around them!

bug week - working with mommy

Today was take your family to work day! What you didn't get that memo?  Oh, right and it is Saturday so for most of you that is not a work day.

Okay, it was take Sam, Avery and Chris to work day! 

I had a family pond critter program this morning that I was really excited about teaching and wanted the family to come with me to check it out. I love getting to share what I do with the girls and especially Chris.

Sam had a great time and got to do a lot of netting in the pond. Avery too had a great time, got super muddy and lost at least one net in the pond (Virginia if you are reading this I will fish them out I promise!). But Avery was very attached to me which made doing my job a bit of a challenge. Chris and the girls only stayed for the first half of the program because it was just too hard for me to be attentive to the other families and look after mine.

The program was a big success and all the families had a good time. We saw a ton of critters, birds, frogs, muscrats and turtles. If you haven't taken your kids to a public family program at your local nature center or zoo it is a MUST this summer!

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The Nitty Gritty!

One more idea that I wanted to share with my educators out there was the craft that we did today at the very end of the family program. We had kids of a wide age range so I wanted to do something that I thought would be enjoyable for all of them.

I photocopied pictures of pond critters and animals. I blew them up so that they were about the size of a half sheet of paper. Then I cut them into pieces. For some of the critters I simply cut them into four pieces and others were as many as 15-20. This way there would be puzzles of varying difficulties for the kids. The kids put together the critter puzzles, then glued their puzzles onto a big piece of cardstock. Then I had informational cards sitting out with pictures of each of the critters and their names. They had to match their picture to the card to identify what they had put together. I encourage the parents to read the information to their child and have them write the name of the critter on their puzzle. It was a super simple project that could be adapted for a wide range of topics. Love that!