Scavenger Hunt

With Earth day coming up I starting thinking about what would be a good way to explore the outside and learn a little bit about the Earth. A while back my kids and I went on a scavenger hunt while on a walk at our local lake. We did this as a way to get outside and explore. I created a little book with each page containing a number (starting at one on page one) and something to search for.

Found a pine cone!

When the kids found one of these things we put a sticker on that page so that we could remember what we had found. We did not fill the entire book because we got distracted by the joy of throwing rocks into the lake but we got a good chunk of the way done and enjoyed finding the different things along our walk.

Another pine cone

Something hard

Another something hard

This is a great activity to help with identifying different aspects of our surroundings. You can use things that you are working on with your kid like colors, weight, texture, length, the possibilities are endless. This is a great aide for learning about almost anything. I made up a little scavenger hunt that would work for just about any day but has a couple of things that lend to making a good list for Earth Day like finding litter (why not take a bag to pick some up along the way, and talk about why it is important not to litter) and finding things that need water (such an important limited resource that ALL living things need to survive and one thing that makes Earth so special).

Here is an example of a scavenger hunt list. You can print this out (I hope) and use small stickers to mark off when you find one of the things on the list.

 Most of all have fun getting outside and exploring :)

Winter Flowers

I don't know about you but I am ready for spring. I am ready to see the new leaves come out on the trees, have a sunny and slightly warm day, I am ready to plant some seeds with the kids and start watching them grow and I want to see plants sprouting and turning into flowers. Well I can't make any of those things happen, but I can get the kids to make me a bouquet of "flowers" for my table to add a little color and a big smile to my face every time I see them.

Today's craft is simple and yields very fun results. I encourage you to add or take away any elements from this that you would like.

What you need:
An empty egg carton with the individual egg places torn apart from each other (see the picture)
Glue
Paint
Paint brushes
Pipecleaners
Any odd and end craft decorations you have we used:
        Beads
        Buttons
        Small pieces of tissue paper
        Glitter and glitter glue
        Little fuzzy colorful balls
        Small pieces of cut up yarn

What you do:
First you make a hole in the bottom of the egg carton cup

Second you put the pipecleaner through the hold about 1/4 of the way down the length of the pipecleaner leaving enough room to secure it.

Either fold the pipe-cleaner so that it will reach back around to the "stem" and twist to secure or fold it in the center of the flower to crimp it and secure it. We also tried making a spiral by wrapping it around a finger.

Now you get to start the fun part of decorating the flower. There is no right or wrong to this part just let the kids go for it. This is a great activity to help with fine motor skills and to discuss colors, shapes, sizes, and textures. You could check out a book about plants and flowers and talk about the parts of a flower and compare it to the flowers that your child makes learning science. All of these things will help to increase vocabulary as well as increasing awareness about many concepts. I love how a simple activity can be so developmentally rich.

This craft would be perfect for the upcoming Valentine's Day working as a very cute Valentine to someone who lives near. It also would be good for engaging in a discussion about Earth day and recycling (reusing the egg carton). Mayday would be another great day to give these out, hanging them from the doors of loved ones.