Toddler Tales and Trails December

After a brief opening activity of threading cereal on string for bird/ tree decorations we moved into
today's focus: How do we know it is nearly winter? We talked about signs such as colder temperatures, frost, and also noted what are birds and animals doing at this time of the year.

I read two books,  Frisky Brisky Hippity Hop  based on a poem by Alexina B. White with photos by Murray Head and the story of The Longest Night by Marion Dane Bauer.  Then we sang a couple of songs including Little Bird Come to my Window & Mr. Sun and headed out on a hike.

Hiking in December is wonderful because most of the leaves are off of the trees- so you can notice things that might not have stood out in the summertime.  Right away we noticed a special bird: A Red Bellied Sapsucker pecking in circles around a tree.  This led to instant engagement & we were off.  We looked around for signs of winter.  We noticed how most leaves had fallen- making a perfect brown blanket for the earth.  We used spoons to look under the leaf litter and found springtails, slugs, and a beetle. We also found pine cones which we then used to make bird seed feeders.

A little further along the trail the other naturalist noticed a bushtit nest!  She told the group about how small the bushtit is - and that at one time this nest probably held ten little birds! Then as we were doing a listening and looking activity an eagle flew overhead.  The naturalist guided us to a view point where we could see that the eagle was already building a nest.  It is huge!  While noticing something like a nest in the distance may be hard for the littlest ones- the adults were fascinated!

We played "squirrel tag" a game which mostly involves running around chasing one another and laughing.  The rules evolve for different ages.

All in all it was a wonderfully fun day!  I am already thinking of activities to do in January.  A few ideas: Owls & Eagles

Salt Dough Nature Activities

My newest simple activity with the kids is doing salt dough.  I have found various recipes online, but basically it is 1 cup salt, 1 cup flour and up to a cup of water.  So far this fall we have made model hummingbird nests in the boys' first grade class, which I did as an activity to go along with my last months hummingbird lesson.  We also made cookie cutter ornaments that the boys then painted and are using for decorations.  Finally, I just read about a family that makes leaf print salt dough leaves and then colors them in with colored pencil once they dry.  I was thinking that next Thanksgiving this would be a wonderful table decoration.