Using your " I's " outside

3 Ways to Enhance Outdoor Time

Investigate, Interact, Imagine

Investigate: Look at things often overlooked. Ask questions about the environment then seek answers. Spend time observing plants and trees over time, or bugs in their natural habitats. Let children experiment with what water does to sand and how the wind blows maple leaf pods. Ask "What are you experiencing with (each of your senses)?" as they explore.

Interact: Kids need to expend energy, and groups of kids are great at encouraging each other to do just this! You can often observe groups of children making up or playing games which are full of movement and action (gross motor development). Practice the fundamentals of sports with a few of the neighbor kids or teach them one of the games you used to play at recess when you were younger. The neighborhood park can be a comfortable place to practice early social skills.

Imagine: It takes time for children to conjure up imaginative plots and story lines. Give time to develop imaginative play. Set out a box of simple props or costumes OUTSIDE and they'll look at them in a whole new light! If children have a good thing going, give them time to play out the scene without interrupting.*

*I can remember having quite long periods of time outside with the neighborhood kids where we'd have to entertain ourselves and the longer we had it seems the more creative we had to be to occupy that time!

10 Leaf Activities

1. Arrange them on clear contact paper and seal with another sheet to make a placemat or window hanging

2. Leaf rubbings

3. Spread glue on paper and sprinkle on crushed leaves for a mosaic look

4. Cover leaves with light fabric (muslin works well) and pound with a hammer

5. Gather a collection of leaves and create a leaf monster or creature

6. Paint on one side of the leaf with watercolor and press on paper to leave a print

7. Paint the vein side with fabric paint and press onto a t-shirt

8. Catch leaves as they fall out of the tree

9. Gather two of each leaf and set up a matching game

10. Sing a leaf song

WELCOME AUTUMN

To the tune "London Bridge"

Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down,

autumn leaves are falling down,

welcome autumn.

Sweep the leaves and put them here, put them put here, put them here,

Sweep the leaves and put them here,

welcome autumn.

Jump right in and have some fun, have some fun, have some fun,

Jump right in and have some fun,

welcome autumn.

River Treasure

We took the boys to the river and let them explore. Our best find was amongst the little pebbles on the shore. The boys came home with pockets full of everything from agates to crawdad claws. I let those little fingers dig and explore in the tiny pebbles for obscure "treasures" and was sure to empty pockets before wash day.

Exploring Sunflowers

The sunflowers are starting to droop and I decided to let C do a little sunflower dissection. They really are pretty interesting. Once you remove the little yellow buds, a whole sea of seeds lies underneath. He spent a good fifteen minutes removing the seeds one by one with tweezers!

Exploring Corn

There's nothing like eating fresh corn on the cob. But before the yum-fest happens, let it be explored. Spend some time examining the ears of corn in their husks.

What does the husk feel like?

How can we find out what's inside?

What does the silk feel like?

Why do you think the corn is inside the husk and silk?

How does your family prepare corn?

Where do we get corn on the cob?

Have you eaten corn other ways?

Shuck the corn. Prepare the corn. Eat (and enjoy!) the corn.

Adopt a Tree

Meet my adopted tree, above. At first, I was a little hesitant to jump on this activity as a preschool activity, but I realize it's important to show children change over time. Select a tree nearby that you can observe throughout a year. It can be informal, as in talking about it each time you walk by. Or you can be formal "scientists" taking samples, collecting measurements, researching it, taking its picture, drawing it, and even getting crayon rubbings of the bark and leaves.

A fun book to read with this activity is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, Harper & Row, 1964.

Roly-Poly Science

C is fascinated by these little guys and in just the time it takes to unload the car of groceries, he's gathered a handful. So playing from his curiousity, I came up with some questions to ask him about the bug that rolls into a ball and gave him a magnifyin glass to get a closer look.

Tell me what they look like?

What do you think roly-polys eat?

Tell me about your roly-poly.

How do they move?

Which end is the head and which is the tail? How can you tell?

Why do you think it curls up in a ball?

Can you tell me something else that is the same size as the roly-poly?

Want to know more? Read A Pill Bug's Life by John Himmelman, Children's Press, 2000.

This is a fun link too. New vocabulary= isopod! http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/isopod/Pillbugprintout.shtml

Dissecting Flowers

Materials: Fresh flowers, magnifying lenses, tweezers

Purpose: To teach children about flowers and their various parts; and to let children explore flowers.

Procedure: Give child a flower to examine closely. An older child might learn scientific names for a few of the parts. A good chart can be found at: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/plants/printouts/floweranatomy.shtml

Younger children can compare, count, measure, feel, get a closer look.

Cautions: Allergies, some pollen may stain like on the anthers of a lily

*Extension: Grow your own garden. Sunflowers are a great example of plant life cycle because once grown, the seeds can be harvested to grow more.

*Extension: Press flowers or petals between wax paper sheets inside of a thick book to use for art projects.

Dancing Garden

Use creative movement and guided imagery to introduce or review the concepts of plant growth.

1. Show the child some seeds. Talk about what seeds need to grow. All seeds store a little bit of food inside them to help the plant start to grow. Once the plant is in the sunlight, it can make much of its own food through photosynthesis.

2. Ask the child to become a seed, forming their body into the tiniest body shape they can create. What kind of seed are you? What plant will you become?

3. Lights off! Seeds grow underground in the dark. Explain that when they get food and water that they will grow in slow motion.

4. Give child a piece of fruit to eat to eat when it starts to rain.

5. A plant mister or spray bottle with water on mist becomes the rain. Encourage them to grow in slow motion, sprouting as they eat the food stored in the seed.

5. Turn on the lights. Now the seedlings don't need their stored food anymore. They soak up the sunlight and photosynthesize. Oh, but the plants can't make their own water so they might need a little more rain.

6. When the plants are grown, find out what each child is. What would happen with no sunlight? No rain? What do people need to grow?

WORDS YOU CAN USE: Seeds, plants, grow, nutrients, shape, slow motion, photosynthesis, rain, sun

Flower Petal Perfume

Sometimes the boys pick me flowers that well, are a bit beyond my TLC. I let them make me perfume instead!

Tear up the flower petals and let them soak in a cup or two of water. After a good soak, pour the liquid into a new container through a coffee filter to catch all the pieces. Let the kids give it a fancy name and dab on a little of your new "fragrance."

*Variation: Add other smell-goods before you filter it, like cinnamon, vanilla, orange rind, etc.

*Variation: Different varieties of flowers.

Nature Walk Bracelet

An easy addition to your next walk is a roll of sticky tape. Just form a roll of tape around the wrist sticky side out. Let children gather nature's little treasures and trinkets for their bracelet displays. (My sample pictured above is artificial flowers.) This activity is especially nice in the spring when things are blooming and growing and in the fall when colors are changing.

*Variation: Use craft materials such as foam letters and buttons to decorate your bracelets.

*Variation: Nature Found It Bags- Children put findings in a Ziploc or paper bag to bring home and get a closer look at. A magnifying glass adds to the teachable moments!

*Variation: Try leaf rubbings or sandwiching flat leaves or flowers between clear contact paper for placemats.