Birds and eggs

Welcome song
Letter of the Day- B and E (for bird and egg)

Did you know that birds are really special? They fly freely in sky. They sing beautiful songs. Birds hatch from eggs. They have feathers and wings, and they have beaks.

Song: Little bird, little bird
(two children stand in the middle holding hands, with their hands up high forming a bridge. The other children run under the bridge while we sing the song. At the end of the song, the two children in the middle let their hands down, in order to catch one of the kids in their arms).

Little bird, little bird fly through my window
Little bird, little bird fly through my window
Little bird, little bird fly through my window
Find molasses candy
Fly through my window, my little bird
Fly through my window, my little bird
Find molasses candy

Insert different types of birds in the place of "little bird" such as:
Blue Heron
Duck
Swallow
Sparrow
Starling
Crow
Eagle
Raven
Quail
Pigeon
Dove
Hummingbird
Chiadee

Game:
Duck, duck goose

Story: Tell the life cycle of the duck with the paper bag puppets. Give each child a puppet and tell the story from reproduction to reproduction. Have the children stand in front and hold up their puppet while you tell the story.

Role play: Let's pretend to be birds! Fly, build a nest, sit on eggs, catch worms, sit on a branch, call like a bird, etc.

Poem:
There's a wide eyed owl
With a pointed nose
Two pointy ears
And claws for toes
He lives high up in a tree
And when he looks at you
He flaps his wings and says...
"Whoooo whoooo!"

Books:
Birds
No Two Alike

Lesson Plan- Fall time

Welcome Song:
Hello___________, hello _____________, hello ______________, welcome to nature school.

Name necklace:
If you haven't made a tree ring name necklace, I brought the supplies. Feel free to make a necklace with your name on one side and a picture of the other (parents help their child write their name clearly). This will help us all learn one another's names.

Introduction:
Does anyone know what season it is? Fall! Today is the first day! What are some special things that happen in the fall? Colder, days get shorter, leaves change color, Halloween, Thanksgiving.

Letter of the Day:
L for leaf. Does anyone have an L in their name?

Songs: Whitney

Dance: Roxanne

Lesson:
I have a special story to share with you today! Once upon a time there was a beautiful, big, strong tree names Oakie. In the spring, Oakie had little buds that would grow on the tips of her branches. As the days got warmer, the buds would open up into lovely green leaves. Oakie LOVED her green leaves so much. When the wind would blow, her leaves would rustle and dance in the wind. In the summer, Oakie's leaves provided food for fuzzy cute caterpillars. Her leaves were a safe place for birds to build nests in.

You want to know what was really cool about Oakie's leaves? They made special tree food for her. When the sun shined on her leaves, they would turn the sunlight into food (with the help of Chlorophyl). At the end of the summer, the days got shorter, so there wasn't as much sunlight for Oakie. Her leaves couldn't make as much food. With less food, Oakie started feeling really tired. Oakie wanted to go to sleep for the winter.

Pretty soon, the leaves started falling down and Oakie couldn't make anymore special tree food, so Oakie took a long, long nap. Even though her branches were bare, she wasn't dead or hurt. Just sleeping! Before long, it was spring again, and the days started getting warmer and longer and Oakie began to wake up. Soon, little buds started growing on Oakies branches again, new leaves to make more food for Oakie!

Books: Leaf Man

Exploration: Give each child a paper bag. We are going to make our own Leaf Man. Go ahead and collect some leaves, acorns, twigs, seeds, nuts, and put them into your bag. Take time to notice things around you. The smell, the wind, the sun, the sounds. When you get home, you can use some glue and paper to glue your collection into a Leaf Man or any other thing you observed.

Fall Lesson Schedule

We've got a fun line-up of lessons scheduled for this fall! One thing I'm doing different with Berkeley Nature School than Seattle Nature School, is I've asked the parents to take on different sections of the lesson each week. In Seattle, we had amazing Mandy leading us in music, but I took care of leading the other portions of each lesson. With Berkeley Nature School, I've asked parents to volunteer to lead movement/dance, music, snack, art/craft, and taking photos. It's so inspiring and fun to see what everyone brings to the lesson! As I blog the lesson plans, I'll insert the name of the parent who lead a specific activity to give them credit. As a safety precaution, I will not be listing the locations of our classes until after our class has taken place.

Here is our lesson line-up:
Week 1- Fall time
Week 2- Leaves
Week 3- Seeds
Week 4- Apples
Week 5- Farm Animals
Week 6- Spiders
Week 7- Water
Week 8- Mud
Week 9- Being Thankful for our Earth
Week 10- Trees
Week 11- Birds and Ducks
Week 12- Hibernation
Week 13- Changing Seasons

Lesson Plan- Welcome to Nature School!

I've decided to start up Nature School again! The blog has been quiet for awhile, as I've had some big life changes. My family and I moved to the Bay Area of Northern California (we live in the Berkeley area) about two years ago. Both of my older boys have been in school and my youngest was just a baby when we moved. She is now two and a half, so the time has come to dive into Nature School again! We have a terrific group of friends who are joining us, which makes me so happy and excited! There really is nothing better than a group of friends who want to go tromp around in the beautiful outdoors together. Our first lesson was last week, so it was an introduction to nature school theme. Here's the outline:

Welcome song:
Hello _____, hello ______, hello________, welcome to nature school!
(to the tune of Goodnight Ladies)

Nature School Rules:
1. Stick together (so no one gets lost)
2. Be kind to the Earth and living things
3. Listen to one another. When a friend is talking or sharing, be kind and respectful

Craft:
Name tags with wood discs and hemp cord

What is Nature School?
Nature School is a fun time for you, kids, to explore and be outside! We are going to learn about our beautiful, wonderful Earth too.
Air- Take a deep breath. Earth has clean, fresh oxygen for us to breath
Water- Look around. Do you see water? Why is water important?
Soil/Dirt- Use your hands to touch the dirt. Smell it. Why is soil important?
Plants- Give us clean air, shelter, paper, food, clothing, bed, home, etc.
Animals- Food, clothing, and friends/company
Insects- They pollinate the flowers, make honey, help decompose
Birds- Let's al sit quietly for a moment. Do you hear any birds? Listening to the songs of birds makes me feel peaceful. Do you feel peaceful? Birds inspire us- Long ago, so one saw a bird flying and thought "I'm going to invent something that will help me fly like a bird!"
Sun/Moon/Stars- Helps warm the planet, give us light, warmth, waves, inspiration
Humans- Turn and give your neighbor a big hug. Wouldn't it be lonely if we were all alone? It's nice to have people who love you

Song:
Earth's Gifts (to the tune of The More We Get Together)
The earth gives us water, water, water
The earth gives us water to drink and to play
The earth gives us air, air, air
The earth gives us air to breath in and out
The earth gives us plants, plants, plants
The earth gives us plants for food and oxygen
The earth gives us soil, soil, soil
The earth gives us soil to grow a garden
The earth gives us animals, animals, animals
The earth gives us animals for food and for pets
The earth gives us humans, humans, humans
The earth gives us humans to learn how to love

Hike/Explore:
At some point during the hike, give each child a paint sample and invite them to find the matching color in the nature around them. During the hike, let the children explore and take time to notice the details around them.

Snack and Book:
Popcorn, apples
"The Grasshopper and the Ants" by Jerry Pinkney

Movement/Dance:
Music playing, pick different animals and move and dance like them.

Lesson Plan- Forest exploration

September 16, 2015

Forest Exploration

Welcome Song

Review rules of nature school:
1. Stay with the group while hiking
2. Be kind to the earth- don't hurt living plants or creatures
3. Respect your friends when they are speaking or sharing

Today we are going to be forest explorers! What is a forest? Who lives in the forest? (let the kids list off animals). A forest is a special habitat, or home, to many animals. A forest has lots of trees, shelter,  protection, water, food, and other animals to keep one another company.

The letter for the day is S for squirrel. Does anyone have a name that starts with S?

Fingerplay:
Five little squirrels, sitting in a tree
The first one said "It's getting cold for me!"
The second one said" The leaves are falling down!"
The third one said "There are acorns to be found"
The fourth one said "We better not wait!"
The fifth one said "Fall is really great!"

Hike:
Let's be forest explorers and go hiking! What kind of animal should we pretend to be? As we hike, look for things that are interesting or exciting to share with our friends. Maybe you see a neat leaf or insect? You can tell the group and we can all share it with you!

Game:
Squirrels in the tree- Find an area with a number of trees that are close together. Each child finds a tree and stands near it. When an adult calls out, "change trees!", the children must run to another tree. This continues until they are tired of playing. Variations can include hoping, skipping, sliding, slowing walking, to another tree.


Getting to know our numbers:
Each child finds a parter. Hand out one, large outline of a numbers 1-9 to each pair (one number can be printed on a 9 x 11 sheet of paper). Each pair find 1, or 2, or 3, etc of something interesting on the forest floor. It could be acorns or leaves or twigs or blades of grass, fills in the blank number with the items, then shares with the group. For example, John and Sally are given the number 8. They search around until they find a bush with berries. They pick 8 berries, lay them on their sheet of paper so that the berries fill in the outlined number 8. Then, they share their number and discovery with the rest of the children.

Craft:
During hike, allow the children to collect a few nature treasures. Place the items in between two pieces of contact paper to create a sun catcher to hang up in window.

Snack

Books:
Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton
A Lead Can Be by Laura Purdie Salas

Lesson Plan- Trees and St. Patrick's Day

Nature School, March 12th, 2011

Trees are Special

Supplies: Trees are Special book, Crayons, Paper, Blindfolds, clover seeds,

Welcome to nature school today!! I’m so excited about playing in the woods with all of you today! I can see that many of you are wearing green! Why do we wear green around St. Patrick's Day?

Let’s sing our welcome song to everyone!

So today we are going to talk about trees. First, let’s use our bodies to pretend to be a tree. What should our arms be (branches) and fingers (leaves)? What about our tummies and legs (sturdy trunk)? What about our feet (roots)?
Now, our roots needs to suck up water. Let’s all make a big huge slurping noise! Now, the water travels up, up our trunk (crouch down with hands on ground, then stand up tall raising hands up high). Now our leaves use the sunlight and water to make sugar and oxygen. We let the oxygen out of our leaves for humans and animals to breath (take a deep breath) and the sugar, we trees use to feed ourselves and grow bigger and taller (stand up taller and puff out chest).

We are really lucky to have trees. What are some things that you love about trees?
-They give us oxygen to breath fresh, clean air
-The provide us with shade on a hot sunny day
-Trees are fun to climb
-Many things we use are made out of trees- our houses, toys, beds, paper, pencils, bookshelves, etc.
-Trees make our world a more beautiful place
-Many animals use trees to make their home- bird, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, owls, snakes, monkeys,

Nature Walk- take about 20 minutes to let the kids explore and be creative.

Picking a “special tree”. (Give each adult a blindfold, a piece of paper, and a crayon)
I want each child to find a tree that they want to get to know better. Take some time to wonder around and pick a tree that you find interesting. Once you have found your special tree, take a few minutes to be scientist, observe the branches, the bark, the roots, the soil around it, if there are cones or needles or dried up leaves on the ground beneath it. After a few minutes, have an adult put the blindfold on so the child can use he/she’s sense of touch to get to know his/her tree even better. Does the bark feel smooth or rough, wet or dry, cold or warm? Does it have cracks? Are they big or small, narrow, shallow, deep, long, short?
Bark Rubbing-crayons and paper

Let’s do our letter of the day! Our letter is “S” for St. Patrick’s Day, which is this week!

Let’s play a game called “Hiding the Shamrock”. I’m going to call on a child to be it. He or she will hide the shamrock while the rest of us close our eyes. When the child is done, I’ll say “shamrock” and everyone tries to find it. If you find it, you get to be the next to hide it and so on.

FIVE LITTLE SHAMROCKS
1 green shamrock, in the morning dew,
Another one sprouted, and then there were two.
2 green shamrocks, growing beneath a tree;
Another one sprouted and then there were three
3 green shamrocks, by the cottage door;
Another one sprouted,
And then there were four.
4 green shamrocks, near a beehive
Another one sprouted,
And then there were five.
5 little shamrocks, bright and emerald green,
Think of all the luck these shamrocks will bring.

The Plant Part Song
Tune: The Farmer in the Dell
written by Mrs. Jones

The seed makes a plant.
The seed makes a plant.
With soil and rain and sunny days,
The seed makes a plant.

The roots find the water.
The roots find the water.
With soil and rain and sunny days,
The roots find the water.

The stem holds it up.
The stem holds it up.
With soil and rain and sunny days,
The stem holds it up.

The leaves make the food.
The leaves make the food.
With soil and rain and sunny days,
The leaves make the food.

The flower makes the fruit.
The flower makes the fruit.
With soil and rain and sunny days,
The flower makes the fruit.

The fruit holds the seeds.
The fruit holds the seeds.
With soil and rain and sunny days,
The fruit holds the seeds.

Lesson Plan- Berries and Pollination

Nature School

August 29th, 2011

Welcome song

Letter of the Day- B. For berries, birds, beautiful, bee, buzz,

Today we are going to be learning about berries and pollination.

Pollination

Who remembers this word- Pollination?

What is pollination? Pollination is what happens when a flower turns into a seed, or a berry, or a fruit. The flower is beautiful and attractive and smells wonderful. Little insects come and get nectar from the flower. When they land on the flower, they get a little bit of pollen on them. Then they spread that pollen to the next flower they go to. That is exactly what the flower wants to have happen!!! Spreading pollen from one flower to the next is great!! Then the seed begins to grow.

We, humans, love to eat the seeds, berries, or fruit that come from the flowers of plants after they are pollinated. Do you want to see some seeds of some plants we eat? Can you guess what plant they come from?

Senses Walk

Use a bandana or scarf to blindfold your budding naturalists and then carefully guide them through the park on a hike. Encourage them to use their other senses to experience the trip. Guide them towards trees and have them touch the bark, leaves and branches. What do they feel like? Have them stand still and listen. What sounds can they identify? What do they smell? Now switch places and let your child guide you!

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Hand out papers and pens

Nature collection and berry picking

We are going to pick some berries while on our hike today. With those berries, we will make a special ink that pioneers used long ago. Blackberry juice was used to dye cloth navy blue and indigo.

So, i want you to collect some different things in your bag. Berries, of course! I also want you to look for natural materials that you can use as a paintbrush- leaves, grass, sticks, stems, dandelions and other flowers, evergreen twigs, etc. Be creative! Put them in your bag and we will use them when we are done with our hike.

Pioneer Craft:

Homemade Ink from Berries

True ink could be very expensive so many pioneers had to make their own. Inks were made at home from many different ingredients depending on what color was needed or wanted.

According to different sources, they used berries, powdered roots, nuts, and even chimney soot.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of ripe berries (blueberries, cherries, blackberries, strawberries, elderberries, raspberries, etc.

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Tools:

measuring cups and spoon

strainer

bowl

wooden spoon

Directions:

1. Fill the strainer with the berries and hold it over a bowl.

2. Using the rounded back of a wooden spoon, crush the berries against the strainer so that the berry juice strains into the bowl.

3. Keep adding berries until most of their juice has been strained out and only pulp remains.

4. Add the salt and vinegar to the berry juice. The vinegar helps the ink to retain its color and the salt keeps it from getting moldy.

5. If the berry ink is too thick, a tablespoon of water.

Craft:

Use the ink and the natural paintbrushes the children collected to paint a picture. Let the children incorporate natural materials into their picture using glue and scissors.