Nature School, Jan. 2nd, 2012
Water
Materials:
Letter of the day
One cotton ball for each child
Flat pan or tupperware (doesn’t have to be too big) with a little water in it
Cuttouts from “Drippy” story- raindrop, raindrop with captain hat, sun, tree, mountain
Chart with water/non water columns and cutouts of items
Welcome Song
Today we are going to learn about water! Our letter for the day is W (show paper with upper and lower case W on it). Talk about some other words that start with W or children’s names that start with that letter. Water, wish, wash, whale, whiskers, watermelon, where, etc.
Why is water important?
Why do we need water?- drink, clean, work, energy
Why do animals need water?- drink, habitat, clean
Why do plants need water?- growing, photosynthesis
Song-
There is something we need to live and water is its name-o.
W-A-T-E-R, W-A-T-E-R, W-A-T-E-R, and water is its name-o.
Story- Drippy the raindrop
Once upon a time there was a raindrop named Drippy (picture of drop of water). Drippy was having fun! He was doing his favorite thing in the whole wide world- lying on his back floating in the ocean. He looked up at his good old friend Mr. Sun, who had just come up (hold up picture of sun). Mr. Sun rose higher and higher and Drippy got hotter and hotter!
Just then, Drippy saw a big, dark cloud moving across the sky. “I wish I could go up to that cool looking cloud and cool down a bit!”
All of a sudden, Drippy felt himself rising up into the air! He was evaporating! Can we all saw evaporate together? EVAPORATE!
He landed softly on a huge, fluffy cloud. There were thousands of other drops of water too. One of the drops of water called out to Drippy, “Ahoy there! I’m Salty!” (hold up picture of another drop of water with captain hat on).
“I’m Drippy! Nice to meet you. Where are we headed?”
“We are going right toward those mountains over there and it looks like a storm is a brewing. If things get rough, just abandon ship. Jump right off the cloud and toward the earth” Salty said.
After awhile, things did start getting rough. Drippy got ready to jump. 1-2-3-JUMP! Drippy was raining now! He fell with millions of other raindrops down toward the forest near the mountains.
Drippy landed right on a tree (show picture of tree with roots). He slid down on leaf onto a branch and then down the trunk. Down, down, down he slid down the trunk and into the soil near the tree’s roots. Wow! What an adventure we was having.
When we reached the soil, he found lots of other water drops there too. They were filling up the soil pores. He sunk deeper into the soil and into an underground stream. Then, guess what happened? The underwater stream came out of the ground as a spring!! The stream was now above ground. The stream eventually led him out into the ocean again!
Drippy leaned back, floating on his back and looked up at his good friend Mr. Sun again. “Hello there, Mr. Sun!” What an adventure I’ve had! I’ve been through the water cycle. Can you all say WATER CYCLE? I’m learned so much and seen so much of our beautiful earth. What a wonderful world we live in!”
The end
Hands on Science
-Give each child a cotton ball to hold. Tell them to pretend they are hold a cloud.
-How does it feel- heavy or light, soft or hard
-Tell the kids to place their cotton ball into the container of water. When water evaporates, it travels up into the clouds and it is much colder up in the sky, so the vapor turns back into water and fills up the cloud.
- Ask the children the gently pick up their “cloud” from the pan. Ask how their cloud feels now? Heavy or light? Warm or cold?
- What is happening to the water now? Dripping out of your cloud. It is raining! At some point, the clouds cannot hold anymore water because the water gets so heavy, so the water starts to fall out of the clouds turning to rain!
- The water fall back into the pan, which we can pretend is a stream or the ocean, right back into the water cycle.
Chart- What is water/not water
Cutouts of the following- icicle, cloud, river, snowflake, steam, piano, hair, rock, blanket, mug, fork, human, animals, plant, etc.
Chart with two columns- one that says “Water” and another with “not water”
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Bats lesson plan
Nature School, December 12, 2011
Bats!
Welcome song
INTRO:
-What are bats? Bats are mammals, like us!
-What are bats good at? Bats are really, really good at hunting at night. They eat HUNDREDS to THOUSANDS of insects every night.
-Where do bats live? They live in old buildings, caves, hollow trees and roof spaces.
PRETEND PLAY:
Let’s pretend to be bats! Let’s stretch out our long arms, and flap them up and down. Now, we use our voices to sound like bats. We have really good ears. Let’s make bat ears! (Give each child a piece of construction paper, roll it up into a cone, tape it, place the small open end up to ear and listen to the sounds of the forest. Ask the kids to be very quiet for a few minutes. Listen- can we hear better with these big bat ears?)
SONGS:
Bats Are Sleeping
(Tune: Frere Jacques)
Bats are sleeping,
Bats are sleeping,
Upside down,
Upside down.
Sleeping in the morning.
Waiting for the night to come.
To fly around.
To fly around.
5 little bats
5 little bats went on a flight
by the light of the moon one night
Mama bat said squeak squeak squeak swack!
but only 4 little bats came back.
4,3,2,1
No little bats went on a flight
by the light of the moon one night
Mama bat said squeak squeak squeak swack!
and 5 little bats came flying back!
-Some people think that bats are blind. Bats are not blind, but they do hunt during the night when it is hard to see. So they use something called ECHOLOCATION. Has anyone heard that long word before? ECHOLOCATION means that they listen to the echo of their own squeaks bouncing off the walls of the caves or trees or other objects. By listening to how far away the echo is, they are able to fly around without crashing into things. They are also able to catch insects using echolocation.
Let’s play a game!
1. Ask students to stand close to each other in a circle
2. Select one child to be the bat
3. Blindfold the “bat”
4. Select four students to be insects and give them each a rattle
5. Have the bat say “beep”
6. The insects respond with a short rattle
7. The bat repeats beep and the insects repeat the rattle until found by the bat
8. Select a new bat and new insects
Bat, bat, who has my bat? Game
Have one child in the middle of the circle close his/her eyes. The other kids pass around a bat. When he opens his eyes he tries to guess who has it.
Craft-
Egg carton bat
Bats!
Welcome song
INTRO:
-What are bats? Bats are mammals, like us!
-What are bats good at? Bats are really, really good at hunting at night. They eat HUNDREDS to THOUSANDS of insects every night.
-Where do bats live? They live in old buildings, caves, hollow trees and roof spaces.
PRETEND PLAY:
Let’s pretend to be bats! Let’s stretch out our long arms, and flap them up and down. Now, we use our voices to sound like bats. We have really good ears. Let’s make bat ears! (Give each child a piece of construction paper, roll it up into a cone, tape it, place the small open end up to ear and listen to the sounds of the forest. Ask the kids to be very quiet for a few minutes. Listen- can we hear better with these big bat ears?)
SONGS:
Bats Are Sleeping
(Tune: Frere Jacques)
Bats are sleeping,
Bats are sleeping,
Upside down,
Upside down.
Sleeping in the morning.
Waiting for the night to come.
To fly around.
To fly around.
5 little bats
5 little bats went on a flight
by the light of the moon one night
Mama bat said squeak squeak squeak swack!
but only 4 little bats came back.
4,3,2,1
No little bats went on a flight
by the light of the moon one night
Mama bat said squeak squeak squeak swack!
and 5 little bats came flying back!
-Some people think that bats are blind. Bats are not blind, but they do hunt during the night when it is hard to see. So they use something called ECHOLOCATION. Has anyone heard that long word before? ECHOLOCATION means that they listen to the echo of their own squeaks bouncing off the walls of the caves or trees or other objects. By listening to how far away the echo is, they are able to fly around without crashing into things. They are also able to catch insects using echolocation.
Let’s play a game!
1. Ask students to stand close to each other in a circle
2. Select one child to be the bat
3. Blindfold the “bat”
4. Select four students to be insects and give them each a rattle
5. Have the bat say “beep”
6. The insects respond with a short rattle
7. The bat repeats beep and the insects repeat the rattle until found by the bat
8. Select a new bat and new insects
Bat, bat, who has my bat? Game
Have one child in the middle of the circle close his/her eyes. The other kids pass around a bat. When he opens his eyes he tries to guess who has it.
Craft-
Egg carton bat
Why I started a nature preschool
I had many reasons to start a nature preschool -
I grew up dirty! I remember always having dirt under my fingernails and toenails. I remember getting tree sap in my hair. I remember having really tough calluses on my hands and feet from climbing trees. I remember tearing holes in my clothes from scrambling through brambles. I remember digging holes in my backyard, trying to get to China. I remember catching snakes in the grass along our creek. I remember catching tadpoles and frogs in our backyard pond. I remember getting lost in my grandpas' gardens. My mom let my siblings and I play outside all day long. My dad took our family on camping and fishing trips every summer. I just really, really, really loved being outside. That love is what makes me want to help take care of our earth. That love is what has given me a deep appreciation for the natural world. Without my childhood experience in nature, I wouldn't understand where the food in the store comes from, why the animal food chain is important, why we must be kind to the bark of trees, ...
Being outside did something else good for me as a child. It helped me realize that I am a small part of a big world. I was not the center of the world, but played a part in a complex system. It gave me a sense of worth beyond what I saw in the mirror or what teachers and parents told me. Realizing that I was a part of this family of living organisms helped me find a place in the world. It also put things into perspective. Though the world is big and complex, the most magical thing I realized was if I was patient and quiet, the natural world would teach me all kinds of marvelous things. Things that would come into my mind and seem to be the most simple, clearest, perfect concepts ever imagined.
Before I became a mom, I worked at the Washington Park Arboretum as an outdoor educator. I loved teaching kids about plant systems, native northwest vegetation, wetland ecology, photosynthesis, pollination, etc. The people I worked with were terrific and tons of fun. We all loved being outside, working with kids, and learning about nature.
After my first son was born, I continued to work for about a year and then shifted to volunteering at the arboretum as balancing work with mothering became trickier. Eventually, while expecting my second child, I stopped volunteering to focus on being a mom.
Becoming a mom made me realize that I really wanted my kids to have some of the same opportunities to connect with nature that I had experienced as a child. We live in a little apartment in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle and nature is not at our finger tips like it was for me growing up.
I had started my two 1/2 year old son in a regular co-op preschool in fall 2009. It was a typical classroom setting. The teacher was wonderful, the kids were terrific, and the other parents involved were thoughtful, involved and friendly. But I had this terrible, gut feeling that I was not doing the right thing for my son. I prayed and pondered about it and finally came to the conclusion that I needed to pull him out.
Instead of spending three days a week in a classroom, what I really wanted was for him to be outside - picking up sticks, catching frogs, stomping in puddles, watching the wind blow through the leaves. He would have the rest of his life to be in a classroom!! Why start him at such a young age?
So I started this nature preschool, hoping to bring some friends on board to explore and learn with us. It's always more fun to have a couple of buddies when you are climbing trees, right? Plus, it's fun to have mom friends around, too. It's been super fun, for me and my boys. Wouldn't trade the experiences we've had together for anything else!
I grew up dirty! I remember always having dirt under my fingernails and toenails. I remember getting tree sap in my hair. I remember having really tough calluses on my hands and feet from climbing trees. I remember tearing holes in my clothes from scrambling through brambles. I remember digging holes in my backyard, trying to get to China. I remember catching snakes in the grass along our creek. I remember catching tadpoles and frogs in our backyard pond. I remember getting lost in my grandpas' gardens. My mom let my siblings and I play outside all day long. My dad took our family on camping and fishing trips every summer. I just really, really, really loved being outside. That love is what makes me want to help take care of our earth. That love is what has given me a deep appreciation for the natural world. Without my childhood experience in nature, I wouldn't understand where the food in the store comes from, why the animal food chain is important, why we must be kind to the bark of trees, ...
Being outside did something else good for me as a child. It helped me realize that I am a small part of a big world. I was not the center of the world, but played a part in a complex system. It gave me a sense of worth beyond what I saw in the mirror or what teachers and parents told me. Realizing that I was a part of this family of living organisms helped me find a place in the world. It also put things into perspective. Though the world is big and complex, the most magical thing I realized was if I was patient and quiet, the natural world would teach me all kinds of marvelous things. Things that would come into my mind and seem to be the most simple, clearest, perfect concepts ever imagined.
Before I became a mom, I worked at the Washington Park Arboretum as an outdoor educator. I loved teaching kids about plant systems, native northwest vegetation, wetland ecology, photosynthesis, pollination, etc. The people I worked with were terrific and tons of fun. We all loved being outside, working with kids, and learning about nature.
After my first son was born, I continued to work for about a year and then shifted to volunteering at the arboretum as balancing work with mothering became trickier. Eventually, while expecting my second child, I stopped volunteering to focus on being a mom.
Becoming a mom made me realize that I really wanted my kids to have some of the same opportunities to connect with nature that I had experienced as a child. We live in a little apartment in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle and nature is not at our finger tips like it was for me growing up.
I had started my two 1/2 year old son in a regular co-op preschool in fall 2009. It was a typical classroom setting. The teacher was wonderful, the kids were terrific, and the other parents involved were thoughtful, involved and friendly. But I had this terrible, gut feeling that I was not doing the right thing for my son. I prayed and pondered about it and finally came to the conclusion that I needed to pull him out.
Instead of spending three days a week in a classroom, what I really wanted was for him to be outside - picking up sticks, catching frogs, stomping in puddles, watching the wind blow through the leaves. He would have the rest of his life to be in a classroom!! Why start him at such a young age?
So I started this nature preschool, hoping to bring some friends on board to explore and learn with us. It's always more fun to have a couple of buddies when you are climbing trees, right? Plus, it's fun to have mom friends around, too. It's been super fun, for me and my boys. Wouldn't trade the experiences we've had together for anything else!
Welcome!
Hello! Thank you for stopping by the Seattle Nature Preschool blog!
In September 2010, I started a nature preschool with my two sons and a group of friends. It has been so much fun and such a blessing in my family's life! I will post lesson plans, pictures, outdoor activities, and resources on this blog. My hope it that people can come here to find ideas and inspiration about outdoor education for preschoolers. I know that the thought of taking little ones out into the wetlands or woods can be daunting. Hopefully this blog will help to make the experience easier and a little more fun. Maybe you'll even start an outdoor explorers group of your own!
In September 2010, I started a nature preschool with my two sons and a group of friends. It has been so much fun and such a blessing in my family's life! I will post lesson plans, pictures, outdoor activities, and resources on this blog. My hope it that people can come here to find ideas and inspiration about outdoor education for preschoolers. I know that the thought of taking little ones out into the wetlands or woods can be daunting. Hopefully this blog will help to make the experience easier and a little more fun. Maybe you'll even start an outdoor explorers group of your own!
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