Preschool Nature Activities - Wall Collage & Bird Nests

Here is in the US spring is finally here. I can't think of any better plan than to do preschool nature activities with my kids. These ideas are definitely not limited to the spring time but we are all anxious to get outside and enjoy nice weather--finally after so much snow.

Going outside for walks, observing their world around them, collecting things along the way provide hours of fun learning activities to do in the classroom or outside.

Here are just 2 of my nature activities that are always a hit.

Environmental Wall Collage
we like to walk around outside & find items to put on a giant wall collage. The children find the items, glue it to poster board if they want to or straight on the wall collage.

Next we write a short story on where we went, what we found, and the children get to show off to the parents or guardians. It’s a great way to get them to recognize the environment around them and then the gluing helps with the fine motor skills and the story helps the language & development.

Use this activity before an Open House in your school and all the parents get to see just how busy their children have been!

Bird Nest
Try making bird nests with your class. Go for a walk with your preschoolers and ask them to collect twigs from the school yard. Take your twig treasures inside for your project.

Show them a real bird nest or a picture of one and tell them they will get to make their own nest. You will need a disposable foam bowl for each child.

You will need to cover the inside with craft glue. They put their twigs inside their bowl and then they pour some more glue on top of it. Set them aside for two days (or until the glue has dried.)

After two days show them how to take it out of the bowl and they will have their own personal bird nest. They are so proud of the nest that they made.

If you like these preschool nature activities, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Earth Day Lesson - Garden Soil Friends

Friday, April 22nd, is Earth Day and I feel quite strongly about teaching my
preschoolers about it. Try the preschool earth day lesson below that one of my readers sent in.

This is a topic that you can teach in so many ways and of course, HANDS ON, is my favorite way to teach.

So many of my readers feel the same way and have sent me wonderful ideas on how they teach about Earth Day. Try the idea below. So simple and meaningful. Your preschoolers will love it and learn about how the soil becomes so soft and rich for planting a summer garden or flowers.


Garden Soil Friends
On Earth day/week,we studied worms first.

Our hands on learning experience consisted of briging in a pile of organic garden soil, from my garden, squirt it with water, and we waited for the worms to crawl out.

We touched them, smelled them, we could see them, listened to them, it was great!!

Each child took a bag of dirt home, named their wormie, and gave it a new home in their back yard.

It was magical to watch the children go from "ewe to wow". I want one, I want to hold one, can I take one home?

If you like this preschool earth day lesson, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com

P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Earth Day Preschool Theme - WHY IS EARTH DAY IMPORTANT

April is the month for Earth Day Preschool theme ideas.
It is never too soon to teach our children about Earth Day and how
important it is.

Preschoolers love learning about their environment and what better
time to teach them how to preserve it and take care of it.

Here is one idea I use to teach about pollution. It is my hands on
approach to teaching and quite effective.


WHY IS EARTH DAY IMPORTANT?

To teach my preschool class about pollution,
I asked each child to bring in a piece of recyclable garbage.

At circle time, I had prepared an imaginary pond filled
with paper fish. We sat around my pretend pond while I
told them a story about how the fish live in the pond
surrounded by the beautiful woods and how happy
they are to live in such a wonderful pond.

Then I explained that as people visited the area for picnics,
they begin to throw their trash into the water. I let
each child put their piece of trash in the pond and
they have to remove a fish. I let each child do this,
one at a time. As more trash goes in, the fish of course
have to come out. Soon the pond is full of garbage and
the fish are gone. How sad for the fish and the pond.

Next we all help clean up the pond by removing the garbage
and placing it into appropriate recycling containers which
I have made ahead of time by taping commonly recycled items
(newspaper, glass bottle, plastic container) to the outside
of a paper bag.

My preschoolers truly got the message of how important
it was to have the pond clean and the fish can come back to live!


If you like this earth day preschool theme idea, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com

P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html