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!