Preschool Powol Packets

One of my children's all time favorite books about outdoor fun is Mercer Mayer's Just Me and My Dad : It has just about everything...camping, fishing, scary stories, and a very naughty little bear! Normally, I'd share some awesome outdoor-themed activities, experiments, or printables, but this month my kids and I have been on vacation, visiting family and celebrating my sister's wedding. Be sure to stop by these other bloggers for fabulous outdoor-themed activities and books!! Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ 3 Dinosaurs ~ To the Moon and Back ~ Planet Smarty Pants ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Growing in God's Grace ~ Chestnut Grove Academy  ~ Learning and Growing the Piwi Way ~ The Usual Mayhem ~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Monsters Ed Homeschool Academy ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Teach Beside Me ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ Kathy's Cluttered Mind ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Our Crafts N Things ~ Hopkins Homeschool  ~ ABC Creative Learning ~ Joy F

K is for Kingfisher!! Join us for some bird-watching, beak-studying, science activity fun! These beautiful Belted Kingfishers can be seen near lakes and rivers throughout North America and their cousins, the Common Kingfisher (pictured below), can be seen throughout most of the rest of the world! Aren't their huge beaks amazing?!  I remember the first time I saw one in "the wild" was actually in the middle of a city.  In a more calm neighborhood, you can walk right down to a river that runs through the city.  As I scanned the water for wildlife, I saw one perched on a branch staring intently at the water.  While I watched, it darted its beak into the water and came up with a fish! Take a walk (or drive!) to a river, lake, or pond and see if you can spot any kingfishers!  Tell-tale features on the Belted Kingfisher include the white throat, the two "belts" or stripes across the front, the large beak, and the "spiky hair."

The second bug in our Backyard Bug series is the Monarch Butterfly: Monarch butterflies are common throughout North America and several other world-wide locations. They are easy to spot with bright orange wings with black stripes and a black border with white dots. Monarchs living in warm southern areas spend their whole lives in the same relative area while monarchs living in the northern end of their range (in the northern United States and Canada) make a remarkable migration that they are famous for!  In the fall, the monarchs leave their colder habitats and fly south to Mexico and the southern United States.  They overwinter in a form of hibernation known as diapause , then return north in the spring.  Amazingly, the entire migration takes much longer than any one butterfly will live, so the returning butterflies are 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation monarchs! Diapause:  a "pausing" of growth, reproduction, and metabolism similar to hibernation that insect

The first bug in our Backyard Bug series is the Leaf-footed Bug: Leaf-footed bugs are easy to spot because their back legs are flattened in a leaf-like shape, There are actually over 1900 species of leaf-footed bugs with a variety of body shapes and lengths ranging from 1/2 an inch to 2 inches.  The southeastern United States has seven leaf-footed bug species. Most leaf-footed bugs are herbivores and enjoy fruits and plant sap.  They have pointy mouth parts that can easily suck up sap.  Some leaf-footed bugs can be major pests in fruit orchards. Leaf-footed bugs rarely bite, though there are reports of people claiming to have been bitten.  The leaf-footed bug's preferred defense mechanism is releasing a nasty smelling liquid on whatever is bothering them. What do skunks and leaf-footed bugs have in common? They can both make strong smells! Birds, spiders, and some bugs all eat leaf-footed bugs. Adult leaf-footed bugs can spend the winter under leaf

This summer I am super excited to bring you a brand new series inspired by my insect-loving kiddos: Backyard Bugs!!   Each Tuesday this summer, beginning next week, I will post about a "bug" that is commonly found in backyards.  Each post will include things like what they eat, what eats them, their life cycle, interesting biology, observation/learning activities for your preschoolers, and whether or not the bug is safe to pick up.  All the bugs will be linked to this post, so you can pin, bookmark, or favorite this post and come back to it to learn more about common bugs each week! I should also clarify that by "bug" I mean insects, arthropods, and other small crawly critters...not just "true" bugs.  :) So, are you excited?  I'm excited!! Here are the bugs I already I have planned...if you have any requests, feel free to send them to me!  And, each bug on this list will be linked to its post as its week comes up! Backyard Bug

Button snakes are a super fun Montessori-inspired preschool activity that you can easily make yourself!  When I started planning our Letter S day, I knew that one of our must-do activities would be button snakes...after all, "S" is for "Snake!"  Besides being insanely fun, button snakes are also fabulous fine motor exercise and great for letting your preschoolers practice buttoning!  You can talk with your children as they make their button snakes to review colors, shapes, and patterns too! Simple Supplies: * 8-12 inch elastic for each snake (You can also use ribbon or a piece of fabric.) * a large button for each snake * 8-20 squares of felt for each snake * scissors Easy How-to: 1.   Preparation :  Sew or hot glue the button ("head") to one end of the elastic.  Cut the felt squares.  Cut a slit just bigger than the buttons in each square. 2.  Present your children with their snakes and the felt squares.  Invit

I have a preschooler who has very high sensory input needs, so I am very happy to share our Scented Edible Paints as part of the 6 Days of Sensory Play series!  Mix up a set and you have a rainbow!! The olfactory sense, or sense of smell, is often over-looked in activities and projects.  These scented paints smell **so** amazing, and are really easy to create.  Also, since I have a toddler who tries to eat everything (and still wants to join in the painting), I used my favorite toddler-safe paint recipe.  This combination made for a scented, edible, bright, colorful, and fun painting project! We had some kids that dug in with their fingers and toes:  And some kids that asked for paintbrushes: And some even went for both: My 1-year old did indeed taste it, but that was okay too...since it is edible!   Making scented edible paints is super easy and requires very few ingredients.  Here is the quick how-to: Simple Supplies: p

The vestibular system is one that is rarely included in lists of the senses, but it plays a huge role in children's growth and development.  What is the vestibular system?  Let's find out... The vestibular system is made up of vestibular receptors in the inner ear and the pathways that connect them to the rest of the nervous system and brain.  It is a powerful system to activate and can have an effect on your children hours after it receives sensory input.  Activities that provide sensory input include things like spinning, swinging, and rolling. Today I am joining several other bloggers to bring you sensory activities that activate the vestibular system!  Our activity is a rope swing: The rope swing is easy to set up...simply tie a rope to a tall tree or other structure.  Your children will figure out the rest!  So far, our kids have used the rope for swinging, climbing, and hanging upside down! Besides providing amazing vestibular sensory input, the ro

We had the opportunity to review the Chuggington StackTrack Koko Safari Adventure Playset and the new Explorer Koko DVD, and were thrilled with the free play fun they inspired and the fabulous math tools the train set became! Preschoolers absolutely learn best when they are playing, so today I am sharing 7 ways you can use your train playset to teach math concepts!  And first I'm sharing a review of the Koko Safari Adventure Playset and the new Explorer Koko DVD! Our  Koko Safari Adventure Playset  arrived in the mail, and our kids were so excited by the picture on the box that we had to assemble it immediately...on the floor!  I helped them set up the track in this format first, but they have since re-assembled it in at least three different layouts!  The track pieces are sturdy and yet easy for small hands to connect, disconnect, and re-connect.  The many options for assembly are inspiring, and all our kiddos have played with it every day  since it arrived.