Be a FAN of KinderNature!
It's winter! So, how can you incorporate environmental education at this
time of year? For preschoolers, try Snow Tots I,
Snow Tots II and Snow Tots III.
For toddlers, try Wild about Winter and Critters Close Up. Check
out Ground Hog Tots and Ground Hog Tots II, for Ground Hogs day and Nature Tots Rainbows and Colors for early
spring.
The KinderNature website has just
what you need for each season!
So, KinderNature was created to help
early childcare educators, care givers, and parents incorporate nature in their
curriculums and lives. All the activities were reviewed for age appropriateness
and the multiple intelligences. Representatives from the Iowa Association for
the Education of the Young Child, childcare providers, preschool educators, and
kindergarten educators made up our advisory team.
KinderNature's long-term goal is to
have a website targeting preschool teachers and child care staff to assist in
learning, developing, and implementing a well-balanced environmental education
(EE) preschool program. The intent is for childcare providers to have
developmentally appropriate programs which incorporate a variety of learning
styles and stimulate within the child an excitement for learning. Environmental
preschool programs can spark an environmental awareness and lay a solid foundation
for the school-age environmental education building blocks that result in
adults having the ability to make sound environmental decisions.
For the winter
try these activities:
- Blow bubbles. Do they freeze? What happens when they
land? Can you catch them? Skills developed: Fine and gross
motor, sense of sight, touch.
- Fill an old baby bathtub or basin with snow. Bring it
inside. Put mittens on children, then give cups, bowls, spoons, etc. Skills
developed: Fine and gross motor, sense of touch, taste.
- Make a snow cake. Ice it with bread crumbs and decorate
with apples, seeds, corn and twigs for candles. Skills developed: Fine
and gross motor, sense of touch, sight.
- Make snow ice cream. Skills developed: Sense of
taste, touch, smell, and sight.
- Bring pan of snow inside. Give child a pan of warm
water. Experiment with melting. Make a snowball, put it in freezer. Talk
about freezing. Skills developed: Observation, physical, thinking,
language.
- Catch snow flakes on mittens. What shape are they? How
big are they? Does each snowflake look alike? Skills developed:
Mathematical (comparisons, shapes), physical, sense of sight, touch.
"The years of early childhood
are the time to prepare the soil," Rachel Carson said in her book, A
Sense of Wonder. KinderNature is providing activities and ideas to do just
that!
We want to hear from YOU!
We encourage early childhood
educators to send “nature/science” activities that have worked in the classroom
or at home to us at lzaletel@storycounty.com. We’ll review them and
give you credit on the KinderNature website.
We hope you will check
out our links page, too. There are many exciting sites!