The Pre-K Reporter: On A Spring Time Hunt with My Five Senses

On A Spring Time Hunt with My Five Senses.

Helping preschoolers understand the concept of different seasons, especially Spring, can be easily accomplished when using our five senses.

The weather feels wonderful, nature is calling with it's variety of animal sounds and the Earth is blooming with a fun sights, smells and sweet tastes!

Nature offers multiple opportunities for those ranging from sensory to linguistic learning styles to gain knowledge about Spring. The activities below are designed for children to use their five senses in an enjoyable and fun way!

Springtime Outdoor Fun

Introduce the concept of spring with your preschoolers by helping them utilize their five senses.

SEEING – Spend a day outside, observing spring. Look for things such as:

Buds opening

Birds returning

Spring flowers, such as; tulips and daffodils

Rainbows and rain clouds

Trees bending or kites flying

4K Extension: Always provide children with writing materials before heading outside so they are able to write, draw and express what they are seeing while on their Springtime journey!- Kelli Boniecki

HEARING – Have your children listen for the sounds of spring.

Birds singing

Wind blowing

Rain hitting sidewalks or the roof

4K Extension: Create a CD or locate a music/sound CD that offers multiple sounds one may hear outdoors.
After their outdoor hearing experience, have children come in and listen to each sound. Let them try and figure out what the sound is they are hearing. Provide multiple sounds for children. Some examples may include: train, bumble bee, cricket, bird, squirrels playing, lawnmower, beach, kids playing, fan running, trees swaying with the wind, thunderstorms, etc.
If the children are puzzled by one of more of the sounds, write them down on a chart and let them go back outside and listen for the sound or have it be an at home project to enjoy with their family.- Kelli Boniecki

FEELING – What can they feel when they go outside this time of year

Rain falling

Breezes blowing

Soft new grass

4K Extension: Feeling Discovery boxes are perfect ways to add sensory games to this activity. Take an old cloth bag, feelings box or shoe box and place items in the box that pertain to the Spring season and what we would find outside this time of the year. Have the child turn away from the box, place their hand in the box and try to guess what the item is he/she is feeling. Suggestions for items: leaf, moss, grass, pine cone, seeds, soil (pour some in a zip lock bag and have them feel the outside of bag), sand shovel, ball, suntan lotion (pour some in a zip lock bag and have them feel the outside of bag), rocks, etc.

If the children are puzzled by one of more of the mystery items, write down their description of the item on a chart. At the end of the activity, have them work together in trying to figure out what the mystery items really were during the activity!- Kelli Boniecki

TASTING - This one is a little harder but they may be able to come up with some tastes.

Easter eggs and candy

Green eggs and ham

4K Extension: Enjoying the fruits of their labor is such a fun experience for children. How about letting children taste their fruits and vegetables is a garden has been grown and ample time has been given for the seeds to mature into a produce item. Allowing children to create their own salads whether it be a fruit or vegetable one is so much fun and rewarding!
If a garden was not planted this year, picking up a few different fruit and vegetable items from the local Produce Market will prove to be enjoyable as children can make taste testing samples of the items purchased. They can sort by colors, textures, and taste!- Kelli Boniecki

SMELLING – This one is also a little hard, I hope you did better than I did.

Smell of fresh grass after a rain.

Smell of manure or fresh plowed fields.

Themed Activities

BIRDS

BIRDSEED FUN

Identifying Colors: Place birdseed in small bowls for your children to examine with magnifying glasses. How many different colors can they see?

Making Counters: Use a squeeze bottle of glue to draw individual numerals on 4-by-5-inch squares of construction paper. While the glue is still wet, help your children sprinkle the numerals with birdseed and tap off the excess.

Pouring and Measuring: Place some birdseed in a large tub. Give your children a set of plastic measuring cups to use for pouring and measuring experiments.

BIRD NEST MATERIALS

In spring, birds search for items to use in building their nests, such as short pieces of yarn and string, dried grasses, and balls of hair shed by pets. Let your children help the birds make their nests with these activities. Place items such as those above in a mesh vegetable bag and pull the ends of the materials out through the holes. Hang the bag on a branch outdoors for the birds to discover.

Lightly weave short pieces of yarn or string around the outsides of pine cones. Twist chenille-stem loops onto the pine cones and hang them on outdoor branches.

CARDBOARD TUBE BIRD FEEDERS

For each of your children, stand a short cardboard tube upright. Punch two holes in the tube across from each other near the top. Help the children cover their tubes with creamy peanut butter and roll the tubes in birdseed. Then thread a chenille stem through the holes in each tube to make a loop for hanging on a tree branch.

(C) Jean Warren http://www.preschoolexpress.com/

GARDEN

VEGGIE GARDEN GAME

From felt, cut out five or more each of different veggie shapes, such as carrots, radishes, squash, and cucumbers. Mix up the shapes and place them in a pile. Let your children take turns sorting the veggie shapes by kind and “planting” them in separate rows on a flannel board or a carpet.

PLANTING GARDENS

Let your children try one or more of the gardening ideas below. Encourage them to care for their gardens by watering and weeding. Some suggested seeds: marigolds, beans, peas, and radishes. (Check a local nursery for other easy-to-grow seeds for your area.)

Eggshell Garden: Plant seeds in eggshell halves placed in an egg carton. When the seeds sprout, plant them—crushed shells and all—outdoors.

Windowsill Gardens: Plant seeds or seedlings in small containers. Group the containers together in decorated shoe boxes and line up the boxes on a sunny windowsill.

Container Gardens: Plant seeds or seedlings in containers outdoors. Use one container for flowers and one for veggies.

PLANT THE GARDEN- Song

Tune: “Frere Jacques”

Plant the garden, plant the garden.

Watch it grow, watch it grow.

Count the pretty flowers,

Count the pretty flowers

In a row, in a row.

Plant the garden, plant the garden.

Watch it grow, watch it grow.

Count the yummy veggies,

Count the yummy veggies

In a row, in a row. Heather McPhail

Extension Tip: Before singing, arrange felt flower and veggie shapes in rows on a flannel board. Count the shapes at the end of each verse.

GARDEN SNACKS Let your children enjoy the fruits of their labor by helping put together a garden fresh salad using such foods as lettuce, tomatoes, celery, radishes, and cucumbers. Serve with a favorite dressing.

Help the children make an herb garden by planting herb seedlings, such as sweet basil, marjoram, and chives, in an indoor container. Let them add the fresh herbs to salads, spaghetti, and homemade pizzas.

FLOWERS

FLOWER PATTERN HEADBANDS
From construction paper, make paper strips to fit around your children's heads. Set out a variety of flower-shaped rubber stamps plus stamp pads in assorted colors. Invite your children to decorate their headbands with color patterns (red rose-blue rose-red rose-blue rose) or shape patterns (tulip-daisy-tulip-daisy). Tape the finished headbands in place when the children have finished.

COLOR CHANGING FLOWERS

Wind

LITTLE WINDSOCKS

Let your children decorate small cardboard tubes by gluing on torn pieces of colorful magazine pictures. Help them glue several long pieces of ribbon or thin strips of crepe paper to one end of their tubes. At the other end, make a hanger by tying on string or yarn. Have the children hang their windsocks outdoors to see which way the wind is blowing.

IS THE WIND BLOWING?

Explain to your children that wind is moving air. Ask: "Since we can't see air, how can we tell that the wind is blowing?" Some clues: clouds moving across the sky, tree branches swaying, wind chimes ringing, paper blowing down the street. As the children give answers to the question, write their responses on paper for them to illustrate later.

I Can Eat A Rainbow - Annabel Karmel

From Egg to Chicken - Gerald Legg

The Cloud Book - Tomie de Paola

Little Cloud - Eric Carle

The Wind Blew - Pat Hutchins

Ten Little Ladybugs - Melanie Gerth

The Grouchy Ladybug - Eric Carl

So Many Bunnies - Rick Walton

Quiet Bunny - Lisa McCue

Bunny Cakes - Rosemary Wells

South Carolina Gardening and Agricultural Resources

South Carolina has a variety of state and local resources designed to help provide educational assistance for children in learning more about our states agricultural resources. They also help students learn how to better appreciate the importance of gardening and how it impacts life for humans and animals in our own backyards.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/4h/

(Clemson Extension 4H Club Program)

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/county/

(County Clemson Extension Locations)

http://www.scsu.edu/1890/extension.aspx#4-H

(South Carolina State University 4H Program)

http://scfb.org/getinvolved/agintheclassroom.aspx

(SC Farm Bureau- Ag in the Classroom)

http://www.agclassroom.org/kids/farm.htm

(Ag in the Classroom Kids Page)