After Christmas tree bird feeders

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Laura Eldredge

Here is an activity to go with the story “The After Christmas Tree” by Linda Wagner Tyler. The story is about happens to the family Christmas tree after Christmas is over. What do you do with it? Family members and friends take their Christmas tree into the backyard and decorate it with edible trimmings for the wild birds and animals.

This is something that families can do together or teachers can do with their classes. There are many ways to make birdfeeders (with pinecones or out of milk cartons). This birdfeeder is made out of biscuits.

Biscuit Bird Feeders

First, make biscuits according to package instructions (or buy them pre-made). Then, post a straw through the middle (this is where you will feed the yarn or string through for hanging).

Next, have children spread peanut butter or shortening onto the biscuit and then have them roll it around in the birdseed.

Put your Christmas tree outside and hang them on it for the birds and animals. You can also hang them on any trees that you have outside!

Making scented pinecone Christmas trees

Posted on December 1, 2016 by The SEEDS Network

We have been exploring “scents of the season” these past couple of weeks in preschool. As we get ready for Christmas, I saw these cute pinecone trees on The Wool Acorn blog, and I thought this would be wonderful for the children to make. But I wanted to incorporate a holiday scent for the children to explore … so we made sure our pinecones were scented!

I did intend to scent the pinecones myself (I really did!). The pinecones that were collected were a little damp and not yet open – so they were put them in a warm oven. They DID start to open … however the smell coming from the oven was not so pleasant, so we ended that process and ran to store to buy the pre-made scented ones. But I still do want to give this another try at some point (maybe after the pinecones dry out naturally). In any case, the store-bought ones had a lovely cinnamon scent. If you make them yourself, you can experiment with other scented oils.

So, we started off with having the children explore the scent and have them guess what the pinecones smell like. Some of the responses were “delicious” and “cookies” … other responses were “they smell like pinecones”.

Next, we placed the pinecones in a small paper cup (this helped to keep them upright while children were working on the project). It was also helpful because we could write each child’s name on their cup.

Then we poured a small amount of Tacky glue onto a paper plate. Tacky glue was a great choice for this project because it is thicker than regular white glue (so it’s less drippy). Also, children only need a small dab of Tacky glue and the items will stick very well to the pinecone. We showed the children how to take a pom pom (and other embellishments) and dip them in the glue – explaining that they only need a small dab. (Our 3-year old class still liked to put A LOT of glue on their pom poms!). This was great for fine motor practice. Then we had the children explore the materials and decorate their pinecone Christmas tree as they wished.

Once they are done decorating, we had them take a Q-tip and dip it in the glue and spread the glue around the edges of the pinecone. Lastly, have children got to sprinkle some white “snow” glitter on top.

The children still liked smelling their pinecone trees after they were finished!

Seasonal shadow boxes

Posted on December 1, 2013 by The SEEDS Network

As soon as I saw the nature shadow boxes from Teach Preschool – I just knew we had to do this! The idea of making a shadow box can be adapted to any season (winter, spring, summer, fall or for a certain holiday). Children can collect things from nature, bring in items from home or use collage materials from school. The shadow boxes we made here are Christmas themed.

First, we poured a layer of glue into each shoebox lid — that alone generated many “Oooohs” and “Aaaaahs” from the children! Next, we gave the children an assortment of Christmas themed items (such as small ornaments, candy canes, Christmas confetti, pine branches, etc). Oh yea … I still had some scented pinecones left over from another project, so we used those too! The children chose what items they wanted to put into their boxes.

Next, was the best part! The children were given green and red watered-down tempera paint in cups and they then dipped the paint into the glue. The children loved seeing the color spread as it went into the glue. This kept them busy for quite awhile! Some children chose to paint onto some of the items they put into the shoebox lid.

Lastly, they sprinkled red and green glitter into their shadow box, for a sparkly effect! These take a good 3-4 days to dry fully (depending on how much glue you use). As the glue dries it turns clear (and you may not see much of the paint color) – but the process of painting into the glue was great for the children as they explored how the paint reacted with the glue.

Afterwards, you can use these as I-SPY boxes. (ie. “I-SPY something red”, “I-SPY a candy cane”, etc.).

What other types of shadow boxes could you make? What materials would you use?

Playing with nature on a sticky table

Posted on October 17, 2013 by The SEEDS Network

I was very inspired to try making a “sticky table” after seeing the Pumpkin vines on the sticky table activity created by Deborah Stewart on the Teach Preschool site. I thought this would work very well with various items in nature that we have outside during this time of year.

To set this up, I cut a large sheet of clear contact paper and used clear packing tape to adhere the contact paper (sticky side up) to the table so it wouldn’t move around. To have some variety of items, I brought in a collection of leaves, pine branches and small pinecones from home. The children also gathered other leaves and sticks from the playground outside. Depending on the season, you can select other items like flowers, clovers and blossoms.

Then we had the children explore their treasures on the sticky table. They played around and noticed that some things didn’t “stick” so well (like larger sticks). But it’s great for them to explore that. They loved the small pinecones I had found from home — and they had to learn to press down on those to make them stick. Most of the children just liked “sticking” the items to the contact paper. Others tried to fill up all the open space. And some children tried to make shapes of other things out the materials – one girl arranged some small red leaves like flower petals. I heard another say “Look, mine looks like a dragonfly!”. And still others liked walking their fingers across the paper and feeling how they stick!

The contact paper allowed for children to explore the items and be able to move them around (it’s sticky – but items are repositionable). After they were done playing, we folded over the contact paper and sealed it. This makes for a good display to be hung in the classroom or put into the science center, where children can touch it and feel the impression of the items underneath.

I think in the Spring I’ll bring the contact paper OUTSIDE and attach it to a picnic table and make a nature collage there!

What other kinds of things can you do with a sticky table?

Helping preschoolers deal with hurricanes (and other natural disasters)

Posted on October 31, 2012 by The SEEDS Network

Many of us on the east coast have been affected in some way by Hurricane Sandy. (I am actually writing this post in the dark using generator power!)

In a preschool classroom setting, depending on the extent of the impact of the storm, teachers and caregivers need to be sensitive to children’s concerns and fears about the storm and its aftermath. It’s a time of uncertainty for some children – for others, it’s an exciting learning opportunity. During times of storms, large and small, I found some online resources that can be helpful to you in talking with and teaching the children in your care.

Sesame Street Hurricane Toolkit

The folks at Sesame Street have put together a resource called a Hurricane Kit, which has videos, activities and tips for talking to children about hurricanes. Some tips they give are try to keep a normal routine, limit children’s viewing of media coverage and paying attention to signs of stress in your child.

How to talk to children

Amanda Rock at about.com gives some advice for talking to young children about natural disasters – because even if you are monitoring what they are viewing on TV, it’s very likely that they are aware and hearing of what is going on, and probably not fully understanding it.

Using books

Some children are more than likely fascinated with the weather, and a big storm can be an opportunity to learn more about it. Using books to help children learn about “big weather” (such as hurricanes), is one way to help children understand and even prepare for what to expect from a storm. You can choose books that talk about how storms are formed – or focus on stories that discuss how adults and children can prepare for the storm so everyone stays safe. See some suggested book title over at Scholastic.com.

My heartfelt prayers go out to all those who have been affected by Sandy … some families are facing some really challenging times ahead. Stay safe … and keep your children close.

Watching seeds sprout in preschool

Posted on May 4, 2012 by The SEEDS Network

A few months back, Tressa and I each filmed a video series for ehow.com on various preschool-related topics. The topics we were asked to do were based on what people were searching for on their site. We’ll be sharing some of the video clips from time to time here on our blog.

The first one we wanted to share is appropriate for this time of year … here in the Northeastern US, we are starting our season of planting! Weather is getting warmer … hopefully no more frosty evenings! At our school we are doing a lot of planting now as we recently had some planter boxes built on our playground (this was a part of my son’s Eagle Scout project … yes, I’m a proud Mom!).

Above is a picture of my son with the finished planter boxes – one square for each of our preschool classes to use. We only just started the planting process … so nothing is growing just yet!

So, outdoor planting is a great long-term project for children. It is one that takes a bit of time (and patience … and dedication) to see the results. But often times, young children benefit from seeing a “faster” result in a short-term project. To that end, Tressa explains some preschool projects you can do with “fast-growing” seeds (that can be done INDOORS) in the video clip below. Enjoy!

How to Plant Fast Seeds With Preschoolers — powered by ehow

Wonders of nature summer camp ideas

Posted on July 22, 2011 by The SEEDS Network

I am currently in the middle of planning summer camp for our preschool and child care program. It can sometimes be a daunting task to plan engaging activities for 5 full days a week for 8 weeks for both preschool and school-age children. I want them to have fun, be active and maybe even learn something while they are here.

Each week of the summer will have a different theme, and the one I am in the middle of planning right now is called “Wonders of Nature” (pretty broad, can really incorporate a lot of different ideas here). So far I have some ideas for a “Pond Life” day and a “Growing Nature” day. I thought I’d share some of the ideas I found:

1. Frog Food – A fun snack idea when we talk about animals that live in the pond.

2. Froggy, Froggy Catch the fly – Children use party blowers with velcro on the end to “catch” plastic flies!

3. Indoor Pond Adventure“ – We’ll set this up in the sensory table for children to explore all week long.

4. Paper Plate sunflowers – We’ll make these after reading “The Sunflower Parable”.

5. Nature’s color wheel – Love this idea from Deborah at Teach Preschool – we are going to have children bring in some colorful nature items from home to make this beautiful color wheel.

6. Seed fingerpainting – Great creative and sensory experience idea from “NotJustCute” blog.

7. Nature bracelets – Wrap a piece of masking tape around each child’s wrist sticky side out before going outside. Go on a nature walk and have the children stick nature pieces to it as they find them outside (leaves, acorns, grass, hay, small rocks, etc).

That is as far as I’ve gotten in my planning … so far. That’s where YOU come in (should you feel so inclined … smile!). I know there are many of you out there with great ideas … would love for you to share them here! Feel free to comment or use the linky below if you have a blog. What other “theme days” do you think would go well with the overall “Wonders of Nature” theme?

Please add your “Wonders of Nature ideas” here!

1. Butterfly Life Cycle Bracelets

2. Ice cube bugs

3. Outdoor Play at An Amazing Child

4. Tin Can Forest

The SEEDS Network

Supporting Early Educators with Dynamic Solutions

Category Archives: Nature