~ Ideas for learning about forest animals, trees, and leaves ~
Books
Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood
Owls
Bats
Bears
Birds
Snakes
Squirrels
Rabbits
Raccoons
Trees and Leaves
More
Owl Activities
Wax Resist Owl Picture
[Art]
After reading the book Owl Babies, we looked at the pictures in the book and talked about the art (the owls and the black night painted around them).
Children used oil pastels to draw a picture of the baby owls (white) and the mother owl (brown). Some children just drew the owls and some children
drew the owls sitting in the tree. They painted over the picture with black watercolor paint. This turns the picture into a nighttime picture.
Owl Listening Activity
[Literacy, Science]
Listening activities help children learn to listen for specific sounds. One child was chosen to be the owl, and turned away from the class. Children
took turns being the owl. One child in the group was handed a squeaky toy, and everyone held their hands behind their back. The "owl" turned around,
and tried to find the squeaking mouse. Real owls can hear a mouse squeaking from a long distance away.
Owl Babies Story Retelling
[Literacy]
After reading the book, Owl Babies, children drew a picture to illustrate some aspect of the story. They dictated a "retelling" of the story for
the teachers to write on the page.
Letter Tumble
[Literacy]
We used white painted beans with letters written on them (these were decorated to resemble owls). Children shook the beans in a cup and tossed on
black felt (which represented the night sky). They matched the letters on the beans to letters on a mat. Children were matching
uppercase to uppercase letters.
Educational Video
[Technology]
From United Streaming Videos:
"World of Nature: Owls: Hunters of the Sky"
Bat Activities
Mystery Socks
[Math, Sensory]
Children worked in pairs. Each pair of children had one sock and 4 bat rings. One child put 0-4 bat rings into the sock (without the other child
seeing), and the other child slipped his hand in to count the bats without peeking. Children who had difficulty counting blindly could slip each
ring onto a fingertip.
Alphabet Bingo
[Literacy]
We used bat rings to cover the letters on an alphabet bingo set.
Bear Activities
Bear Paintings
[Art]
We used several shades of multicultural paints and a special "paintbrush" (cotton ball clipped in a clothespin). The children dabbed the paint onto
their paper, making sure to make a body, arms, legs, head and ears. Later we added wiggly eyes, pompom nose, and yarn mouth.
Gummi Bear Sorting
[Math]
Children used a paper plate that is divided into six sections (I drew lines on the plate to make the sections). They sorted a bag of Gummi bear
candy by color, putting each color into one section.
Bear Sorting
[Math]
This is an activity we did on Teddy Bear Day. After we read Goldilocks and the Three Bears, we sorted the children's teddy bears by size
(Papa bear, Mama bear and Baby bear).
Internet
[Technology]
Kids' Bears Page: Children learn about bears on the WWW.
www.prekinders.com/bears_kids.htm
Bird Activities
Bird Beaks
[Fine Motor Skills]
Children used clothespins as little bird beaks to pick up small objects (bird food): sunflower seeds, yarn "worms", small plastic bugs.
Bird Feeder
[Science]
Children spread peanut butter on a pinecone or a bagel half and sprinkle on the birdseed. We put these in ziplock bags with
string so the children could take them home and hang them. If any of the children are allergic to peanuts, we make a bird feeder
with a folded paper box or milk carton, which the children can decorate, and scoop the birdseed into the box.
Snake Activities
Spiral Snakes
[Art]
Children decorated a paper plate with a spiral drawn on it. They cut the spiral to make the snake and drew eyes on the snake's head.
Play Dough Snakes
[Fine Motor Skills, Math]
Children rolled the play dough to form snakes. They formed snakes of different lengths to learn the vocabulary: long and short.
Model Magic Snakes
After practicing with the play dough, children also made snakes with Model Magic and painted them.
Mouse Count
[Math, Literacy]
Each child had a jar of mice (beans painted and decorated to look like mice). We read the story, Mouse Count, and counted the mice into
the jar just as the snake does in the story.
Sound Vibrations
[Science]
We talked about the ways some animals (such as snakes) use vibrations of sound. We tied a spoon to the middle of a piece of string.
Children worked in pairs. One child wrapped each end of the string around index fingers and placed fingertips in ears. The partner banged
the spoon with another spoon. Each child got a turn to try it. Last, we tried the activity again without putting our fingers in our ears.
Edible Snakes
[Cooking]
We used an edible play dough recipe and formed it to make snakes. We added mini M&M's for eyes.
Nutty Putty (Edible Playdough Recipe)
3 1/2 cups peanut butter
4 cups powdered sugar
3 1/2 cups corn syrup or honey
4 cups powdered milk
chocolate chips (optional)
Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips. Divide mixture into 15-20 portions, place into plastic bags and refrigerate. Children mold dough,
add chocolate chips for decorations, and eat.
*We do not do this activity if any child has a peanut allergy.
Squirrel Activities
Nut Sorting
[Science, Math]
Children used tongs to pick up each nut and sorted the four types of nuts into the four wooden bowls.
Thumbs
[Science]
Each child was given a peanut to shell and eat. We described how we got it open. Children were asked to think of a part of our hands that squirrels
do not have (thumbs). We then tried to shell a peanut without using thumbs (with our thumbs folded to our palms). We discussed how and why squirrels
eat differently than we do.
*We do not do this activity if any child has a peanut allergy.
Rabbit Activities
Zig Zags Movement
[Large Motor]
Rabbits run in zig zags when they are trying to get away from their enemies. In this activity, children run to a designated location in a zig zag pattern.
Zig Zag Drawing
[Fine Motor Skills]
Children can draw rabbit zig zags in the sand with a stick, or they can draw them on paper with finger paints or markers.
Listening to Volume
[Literacy, Science]
Children made rabbit ears on their head with their hands when they could hear the volume of the music turned up. They put their "rabbit ears"
down when they heard the volume go down.
Tree and Leaf Activities
Tree Display
[Science]
This is a display of all kinds of things that come from trees. The jars contained pinecones and different types of tree nuts. The pieces
of tree with bark were from our collection of "Tree Blocks". When the children discovered flower buds on the pear tree at school, we
brought in two branches for our science center.
Leaf Drawing
[Science, Art]
We first went on a leaf hunt around the school grounds to collect leaves. Children studied the leaves with magnifying glasses,
and drew pictures of different leaves with a fine-point black ink pen. I chose one leaf drawing from each child, scanned it,
enlarged it on the computer, and printed them out on white art paper. I printed several copies for each child. The children
decorated the leaf copies with different materials: watercolor paints, tempera paints, fine point colored pens, markers, and colored pencils.
Tree Observational Drawing
[Science, Art]
Children sat outside with clipboard and paper to draw a tree in each season.
3-D Trees
[Art]
Children made trees with paper towel rolls and construction paper.
Tree Paintings
[Art]
After we read the book, A Tree is Nice, and talked about different kinds of trees, we painted a picture of a tree. We used a long, narrow
piece of paper for our tree painting to resemble the tall shape of trees. (The pages of the book,
Leaf Sponge Art
[Art]
Children cut out a yellow leaf shape, taped it to a yellow piece of paper with double-sided tape, and sponge painted over the whole paper with
red paint. We pulled the red-painted leaf off to reveal a yellow leaf on a painted red background. We glued the red-painted leaf to yellow
paper. (Some children chose yellow paper with red paint, some chose orange paper with green paint.)
Play Dough Leaves
[Fine Motor Skills]
Children cut leaves out of green play dough with leaf-shaped cookie cutters. If leaf cookie cutters are not available, you can use real leaves
to press into the play dough to make leaf impressions.
Leaf Graph
[Math]
Each child brought a leaf from home. In class, we graphed the leaves by color.
Color Sorting
[Math]
Children sorted yellow, green, brown and red leaf cut outs by color. They glued each color in a section of the paper.
Leaf Symmetry
[Science, Math]
Children explored the symmetry of leaves using real leaves and mirrors.
Tree Rubbing
[Science]
Children worked in pairs. One partner held a piece of paper against a tree while the other child made a tree bark rubbing with the side of a
crayon. Then the partners switched roles so that each child had a turn to make a rubbing.
Educational Videos
[Technology]
From United Streaming Videos:
"A First Look at Trees"
"Art Tango: Fall Leaves: Working with Warm Colors and Crayons"
Art Tango: Inking Lines on Our Trees"
More Activities
The Mitten
[Literacy]
Children assembled the mitten and cut out the animals from Jan Brett's website
("Put the Animals in the Mitten" activity).
The children put each animal into the mitten as the story was read to them. As a group, the children tried to recall the order of the animals.
Nature Walk
[Science]
We went on a nature walk to find things, such as sticks, leaves, acorns, pebbles, birds, squirrels, etc. Children marked a checklist when they
found each item. The children were also given a small ziplock bag to collect items they found.
Camping Prop Box
[Dramatic Play]
Sleeping bags, Sticks, Maps, Back packs, Flashlights, Small tent, Cooking utensils, Play food, Butterfly net, Logs made out of rolled
brown paper with red, orange, and yellow tissue paper for pretend fire, Binoculars, Compass, Canteen, Paper plates, First-aid kit
Educational Videos
[Technology]
From United Streaming Videos:
"World of Nature: Nature's Foresters"
Brown Bear Book
After reading the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, we made our own version. Children chose a color and a forest animal to draw on the page. "[Brown bear, brown bear], what do you see? I see a [red fox] looking at me."
Resources
- Forest Animal Theme Cards: use for pocket charts, flannel boards, graphing labels, matching, games, beginning sounds, etc.
- Forest Theme Links: my bookmarks on del.icio.us
- Kumbaya: traditional song
- The Bear Went Over the Mountain: traditional song
- Peter and the Wolf: by Sergei Prokofiev
Music:
Teacher Resource Books
