Nature Detectives - Washing With Water

Thursday we learned about washing with water and we also did our first 2 weeks of our Experience God lessons.

 

Our first activity for the day was reading our I Can Read book.

We took turns reading the book. I read it to Miss M at first and then she took the book and wanted to look at it and turn the pages herself. She loves reading/looking at books.

Our next activity we tried doing was What to Wash. Mother Goose Time provided us with a little set of ‘would you rather’ photo cards. I would place two pictures in front of Miss M and ask her a question like “would you rather wash the dishes or a dog?” and then she’d choose one or the other.

 

Most of the time she’d grab one picture and then the other and not really make a decision, but she still had fun with this little game.

 

Next, we did our Experience God lessons.

Our lesson for this month is about God creating the heavens and the Earth. We read our story cards and identified colors on the different cards. I explained that God created the heavens and everything on Earth. We went to the window and I asked “what do you see when you look out the window?” and Miss M would point to different things.

Next, we did a couple of lessons. Our first one was Shine the Light. We talked about what colors we see in the day and at night. We turned off the lights and grabbed a flashlight and our creation cards. We looked at the cards and we’d shine the flashlight on the ceiling or somewhere in the room each time we’d hear “light.”

The next lesson was Follow the Light. We talked about if we feel safer in the light or dark and why (Miss M didn’t really understand so I just talked). I’d shine the light on the floor and move it along a path. Miss M would try to chase it. Then I gave her the flashlight and tried to get her to shine it for me to follow but she just wanted to run around the room with the flashlight. She had lots of fun with this one.

 

After those lessons, we colored on our coloring pages. Miss M loves coloring but I’ve noticed that she seems to like it more when I’m helping her so I sat down and colored with her. While coloring, we talked about how God created all the colors in the world.

Our last lesson for the day was our Creation Cube. We put together the Creation Cube that we were provided with and then we played a number-quantity matching game. We’d roll the cube and match the number to the objects on the Creation Cards (example: 1 on the cube = the 1 earth card, 2 on the cube = the 2 clouds card, etc). We talked about how God looked at all that he created and knew that it was good including us.

Nature Detectives - Listening To The Air

Monday we learned about listening to the air.

 

Our first activity for the day was called Bird Sounds. We took our little postcard that Mother Goose Time provided us and I helped Miss M draw her little handprint on it. Then we turned it into a bird. I asked her what sound a bird makes and she said “Tweet!” so we wrote that on our postcard too. Then we took turns holding the postcard and making bird sounds.

 

Our next activity we tried doing was Thunder Patterns. For this activity, we were given a little cube and I tried getting Miss M to roll the cube and then make the sound of whatever picture it landed on.

After Thunder Patters, we did another activity called Wind Lab. I put some water in a cup with a lid and straw. I encouraged Miss M to come over and blow bubbles in the cup. I explained that we can use air to make sounds. We blow into certain instruments and we can make bubble sounds too. We tried blowing bubbles softly and then strongly. Miss M wasn’t really able to blow bubbles into the cup even though she was trying.

Our last activity for the day was listening to bird calls. We listened to some recorded bird calls online and then I tried to get Miss M to mimic some of the sounds. The best she could do was say “tweet” and that was great. She really enjoyed listening to the bird calls and watching videos online. Plus it was kinda funny because our kitties were freaking out from the bird sounds and kept trying to figure out where they were coming from ;)

Our book that we read today was called Mouse’s First Spring.  

Nature Detectives - Flying In The Air

Thursday we learned about flying in the air.

After circle time, we used our magnifying glass to search our theme poster for things flying in the air.

 

Our first activity for the day was called Toss and Land. I made a paper airplane for Miss M and we’d try to toss and land our plane in a box a little ways away. Miss M got super excited and just wanted to throw it all over the living room and wasn’t paying any attention to the box.

She had so much fun with this. She played with it for over a half hour. I was pretty surprised at how entertained she was with something as simple as a paper airplane (note to self!!).

 

Next, we got to make a flying disc. We had two paper plates. On one paper plate I traced Miss M’s hand and on the other I traced one of her feet. We decorated both our plates and then I stapled both together to create a flying disc.

Our last activity we did for the day was called Moving Air (so sorry I didn’t get any pics of this one! It was hard holding/moving the sheet and trying to take pictures at the same time). I explained to Miss M that wings help a bird to fly and we pretended to have winds and ran around moving our arms up and down. Then we grabbed a sheet and worked together to move it up and down. We experimented with putting a light object (feathers) under the sheet and then on top of the sheet to see what happens. Miss M thought this was hilarious.

Our book that we read today was Benjamin the Bear Rides on an Airplane. This was another super cute story about a little bear who flies on an airplane for the first time to go visit his grandma.

Nature Detectives - Floating In The Air

Monday we learned about floating in the air.

 

We started out our day with circle time. We looked out the window to see what the weather was like (cloudy) and we put today’s date piece on our calendar. Miss M loves the sight word and color flowers so she sat there for a while looking/playing with those.

Next we used our magnifying glass to search our theme poster for things floating in the sky.

Our first activity for the day was called Feather Float Test. Mother Goose Time provided us with some feather manipulatives this month. We would toss a feather in the air and observe how it slowly floats to the ground. We noticed that the smaller feathers floated more slowly than the larger feathers. Miss M had a blast throwing them up in the air. Then I had her sit down and I held a feather above her head and Miss M would try to catch it.

Next, we got to make a hot air balloon! Miss M wasn’t very interested in helping decorate the balloon or the cup so we just went ahead and put it together.

 

I tried to get her to explore and find a small object to put in the little basket (soufflé cup) but she checked it out for a couple minutes and then decided to just rip the cup off right away. Then she just wanted to just run around the room with the balloon.

 

Our last activity for the day was called Kicking Clouds. I cut out some cloud shapes and attached some yarn to them. Miss M helped make some clouds of her own by ripping up some paper. We don’t have a table to tape the clouds to so I held them up for her to look up at them while lying on her back. Then we tried kicking the clouds. She did this a couple of times and then wanted to play and run around with the clouds. Run, run, run :)

We also read Sally’s Great Balloon Adventure. It was a very cute story about a black Lab named Sally and a hot air balloon.

Nature Detectives - Counting In Trees

Friday we learned about what we can count in trees.

 

Our first activity for the day was called Out of the Tree. Mother Goose Time provided us with some mystery bags this month. I set out the ones labeled 1-5 and placed a stuffed animal next to each bag. I made some paper wads to represent acorns (we were supposed to use rocks but I was afraid Miss M would try to eat them). We sat down together and counted out the same amount of “acorns” as the number on each bag and then put them in the bags.

I explained that animals gather acorns to eat all year as food and we pretended to feed our animals the acorns.

Special note: Miss M was smaller than this little bunny when she was born. My dad bought this for her the Easter when she was still in the NICU and she was as big as it was when we placed it next to her in her little incubator and that was a couple weeks after she was born. 

Next, we went outside for a bit to go explore and look for a treasure to bring back to put inside our Nature Collection book. Miss M found this flower. I asked her “What is it? What did you find?” but she wouldn’t say that it was a flower for me. She’d just hold it up for me to see. I asked her “Where did you find it?” and she’d point outside.

 

Our last activity for the day was called Picking from the Tree. I put together our tree that we were provided the pieces for. I put five cotton balls on the tree. I’d show Miss M how to use the set of tongs to grab a cotton ball and drop it into our little bowl. I gave the tongs to her for her to try.

She sat there for a while and checked out the tongs but then just wanted to grab the cotton balls and place them in the bowl with her hands instead. She couldn’t really figure out how to work the tongs by opening them with the handles so I think she got frustrated and decided she didn’t want to use them.  

Nature Detectives - Building With Trees

Monday we learned about animals who build with trees.

 

Our first activity for the day was Tree Shapes. Mother Goose Time provided us with some shape manipulatives as well as a poster to go along with them that has matching spaces on it. Miss M loved playing with this. She wanted to play with these all day long. She loved placing the foam shapes on the tree poster, but didn’t really understand how to match them to the spaces yet.

Next, we got to make a pine cone birdfeeder! I gave Miss M the pine cone to hold and check out. I explained that tree branches, leaves and seeds, like pine cones, can all be used to build things with. I helped her put the peanut butter on the pine cone and then we sprinkled the bird seed all over it until it was covered. She wanted to eat the peanut butter on the pine cone so we had to hurry a little bit with this activity.

 

We also built some “buildings” with our blocks. Miss M was very proud of herself with how high she got some of her buildings. This is a skill that we’ve been working on. It wasn’t that long ago that she was only able to go about 4 blocks high. Today she got one “building” 9 blocks high!!

Our last activity for the day was making stick homes. We looked at pictures of birds and beavers. I explained that animals like birds and beavers use sticks to build their homes. She loved the pictures of the beavers so much that we decided to learn a little more about them. Two things we learned were that beavers are mainly nocturnal and also that their teeth never stop growing which is why they’re constantly gnawing on wood – to keep them from growing too long.

We went outside and gathered up some sticks and came back inside to make a home. Even one of our kitties decided to help us J