Spring

Isn’t it wonderful the arrival of Spring ??  This week in Edutenango we observe the different signs of spring.  We take time to see the blossoms on the trees, the birds singing and the growing grass.  After the winter, this is a wonderful time to get out of the house.

Area Objective
Logic/ Math Review numbers
Language Listening to stories
Gross motor skills Movement activities
Fine motor skills Use of scissors
Art/Culture/Music Use of grains and fingers
Sciences / STEM  Gardening
Social Skills  Basic table manners: thanks, please, could you pass me.
Second Language
  • Me pasas XXX por favor?
  • Gracias/De Nada

If this is the first time you introduce a season, make sure to do the following two activities.  If you have done it before, you can skip them, or review them.

Four Seasons’ Tree

Start by explaining the four seasons, and how they could be different in other countries. Have them color each section of the tree that is representing each season. If your kids are older, you can explain them about earth’s movements, and how that causes the different seasons.

Materials: Seasons’ tree printable and crayons.

Weather Dress up Girl

If you can, laminate the girl and all the clothes.  Explain that we dress accordingly to the weather. Every day before starting homeschooling, look outside the window and have the children dress the weather girl appropriately for the weather.

Materials: Weather Dress Up Girl printable.

Birds and Nests

Nests

We started the week by building the nest, following the idea from this blog: Creek Side Learning

To do it we use a small swimming pool.  We cover it with Kraft paper, to make it look like a nest.  We place a blanket, pillows, and some plastic eggs on the nest.

With the children go around the house and looked for all the books that have birds, bugs, or seasons on them.  Once the books are gathered in the nest read them out loud to the kids. The nest is about to become the favorite spot in your home.  This week provide a lot of time for independent reading in the nest.

The kids will love to have this designated place set up for them to read. Even little babies can participate in this activity.   When they see the older kids reading, they can look at  baby books, and feel as a part of the team.  We tend to marginalize babies, feeling that they are too young to understand.  Many times they are more ready than we think.

By the end of the week, we added a little more joy to our nests, we added shredded paper. (Note to parents:  You will find shredded paper all over the house for the next week, but some sacrifices are worth the learning, and the fun, right? )

In our case, I was hesitant to include baby in this part of the activity, but under strict supervision, I let her go in and join the fun.   Was really nice to see her playing with the shredded paper, feeling the textures, and filling the eggs with papers, and transferring to another one.

Books recommended for this week:

My Nest is Best (by P.D. Eastman)

Are you my mother (by P.D. Eastman)

The very hungry caterpillar (Eric Carle)

Birds:

Every nest needs a bird. In the printable you will find a stencil that you could use to trace the bird.   Cut out the bird in one cardboard. And then glue it on top of another cardboard.   Provide the kids with different kinds of grains and glue, and let them fill out the bird shape.  Once they are done, add an additional layer of glue all over the bird.  It will need a day to dry, but will help to make sure the grains stay in place.

Feathers:

Practice the use of scissors by cutting feathers.  Give the kids the feathers printable, and let them do the cutting.  For the youngest kids, you could cut out the feather shape, and have them cut just the straight lines.  Once the kids feel comfortable cutting straight lines let them try to cut the outside of the feather too.

Gardening

Grass Crown

Grass and spring are one. It is beautiful when you start seeing the grass get greener, and so beautiful.  To make the crown, you will need to cut paper long enough to go around the kids head.  (Get those paper bags from your last shopping trip out, they are almost the perfect size).  Once the paper is ready, give the children yellow, green, mustard crayons, and let them color their crowns.  Participate with them.  You could also provide them some colors to do flowers, or bugs.  Once the crown has been colored, the kids will continue practicing their cutting skill by cutting straight lines to represent the grass blades.

Idea taken from the following blog:  Deliacreates.com

Growing a garden

The start of the spring is a great time to plant some seeds.   This week let’s play to plant some seeds, and while you do it, teach the kids what things plants need to grow: water, light and proper soil.

Practiced math by putting in each cup the amount of beans indicates in each cup.   Older kids can use tweezers to add some complexity to it.

Irrigation System

In little cups plant some real seeds too.  And then talk about how some plantations have irrigation systems that allow the plants to maintain the sufficient humidity. Try to create an irrigation system for the seedlings. As an educator, you can provide different ideas, but let the kids take important decisions. At this age, more than the final result, you want to teach them not to be afraid to create, to make necessary changes, to find alternative solutions. Give them materials that allow them to create: for instance: straws, cups, syringes, duck tape, and push pin.

Grass Head:

Let your little ones planted grass seeds to create a funny grass head. For this project we used the idea published in the following link: Red Ted Art
Cut the bottoms of the nylon stockings. Add seeds to the bottom. Add soil and tie a knot. Then with a plastic rubber you can shape the nose. Glue the eyes using a glue gun. And then you have to water it constantly. This activity teach the kids that to obtain results they need to work on it.  It takes around two weeks for the hair to start growing.

Flowers:

To review the number recognition, and practice the art of coloring we did this “color by number” activity.  Painted a flower by using the colors indicated on the key.  There are enough spaces, that gives the parent the opportunity to choose a number, and work together with the child. Sometimes it’s more fun, if you’re doing an activity that takes longer with someone else. Kids loved to team up with the parents.

If you see in the photo, our little monkey woke up very early the next day to work on his flower, which we had left incomplete the day before, that is the reason for the pajamas. He was very committed to complete it.

Dandelions:

This is a simple activity, but with cute results.  With a stamp pads, or markers color the fingers of the kids, and help them to stamp their fingerprints in each dot of the dandallion (Use the printable provided)

Cherry Blossoms

If you live in a place with lots of Cherry Blossom trees, this activity will help you recognize spring is there. This is also an activity that you can adapt to each season. You need a paper bag, some pieces of pink tissue paper and scissors. On the open end of the paper bag cut straight lines. For younger children, you could draw the lines and have them cut them. Then kids will need to twist the bottom of the paper bag to create the trunk, and the top of the bag will twist to create the branches.  Grab little pieces of tissue paper and twist them and glue them to the paper tree to create the blossoms.

Insects

We need to count the number of insect that are in each jar. Cut the ovals, and glue them on the lids of the jars matching the amount of bugs.  This activity helps the kids to link a numeral with the corresponding  amount.

Bees:

We want our kids to move around too. We want them to love to learn.  Activities that promote moving are great to accomplish this purpose.   For this activity, we put ourselves our bee’s wings, and stated to look for our way to the flower.  We made a path on the floor with masking tape. We encouraged the kids to do the path in different ways: jumping, running, jumping on one foot, moving their wings,  walking towards one side  Kids love to do move around the path.  Make sure to exchange roles, kids love to give the instructions to the ‘parent’ or ‘instructor’ on how to do it, too.  So, make sure to let them take the lead.

Butterfly:

One of the books we read this week talked about the butterfly’s life cycle. For this reason, we moved like the butterfly. First we explain the process, and then we act on it.

  • On the sheet there is a little egg, you are a tiny little ball.
  • That little ball stretches and becomes a long caterpillar. Can you walk like you were a caterpillar?
  • Then, this little caterpillar, stays still, without moving, and stay inside the cocoon.
  • A few days later, the cocoon breaks and a butterfly comes out. Can you move your wings very fast like the butterfly?

Snack

For this week we did sweet nests.   For this we used chow main noodles, butter, marshmallows and coconut flakes and chocolate chips (optional).

 

 Second Language

Pass the flower

We play a game called: “Pásame la flor” (Pass me the flower).  We use the following dialog:

  • Me pasa la flor por favor? (Can you pass me the flower please?)
  • Si  (Yes)
  • Gracias  (Thanks)
  • De nada  (You are welcome)

The participants of the game use dialogue, in which they pass a rolled towel. The first person holds it up with one hand, then the next person holds it just below the first person’s hand, and then that person gives it to the next person. Loses the person who is holding the towel when it stops being straight. (The flower wilts). Older kids and adults can use just one hand. Little ones can use both hands to grab the towel.

Fancy Dinner

Have the kids excited to have a fancy dinner at the end of the week to practice the new Spanish words.  By fancy dinner we mean you will set the table in a different way than usual.  (Maybe use different tablecloths, or use fabric napkins)  Then make sure to have some items that will need to be passed around during the dinner. (Do not serve the dinner in the plates).  Add nametags for these objects (We included some in the printables, if you want to use them).  The purpose of this lesson is not to learn the name of the objects, but to practice the following dialog:

  • Me pasa XXX por favor?
  • Si
  • Gracias
  • De nada.