KinderNature

Just in time for back to school, the KinderNature website is once again live. Search the over 300 activities reviewed by the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children for being developmentally appropriate and incorporating a variety of learning styles. Many activities will meet Head Start Performance Standards.

Activities range from songs about birds to making creature cupcakes to creating craft projects with leaves to playing a game to learn the roles of bees. They offer experiences such as discovery-based learning through play, sensory exploration, large and fine motor activity, creative expression, making friends, and developing social skills.

Featured Activity
FALL ADVENTURES
Students use their senses to observe signs of fall, size and shapes of leaves, matching seeds, animals that eat the seeds, and fall migration of ducks and geese.

Touching for Textures

Nature is full of a variety of textures – rought, bumpy, smooth, prickly, and slippery. Try these simple ideas to explore the sense of touch outdoors.

Texture Rubbings

Explore textures in your schoolyard or a local nature area. Help your students make rubbings of the textures they find. Experiment with various paper types and writing utensils to compare which works best. Have the children share out their experiences and show their texture rubbings.

Texture Creations

Add sawdust, crumbled leavers, coffee grounds, nutmeg or cinnamon to tempera paint. Make a masterpiece!

Mystery Box

Make mystery boxes by cutting two circles in the long side of each box so that a child could put both hands inside. Place one natural tree item inside each box (e.g., bark, cones, evergreen needles, leaves, nuts, seeds, fruits, paper, rocks). Each child reaches inside the box to feel an object and then describes how it feels to the class. Invite the children to remove the lid and look at the object.

 

Texture Board

Find several materials of different textures. Cut small squares of each type of material. Glue the materials to a poster board or large piece of cardboard. Explore the different textures. Talk with the kids about each texture. Examples of materials include: fake fur (soft, furry), vinyl (smooth), sandpaper (rough) and wood (hard).
 

Musical Texture Squares

Materials

12x12 squares of different textures (e.g., bubble wrap, carpet, cardboard, sand paper)

In a large area, tape one texture square to the floor for each child. Explain how the different squares feel. Play music while the children move from square to square. Instruct them to stop on a square when the music stops. Teach children a simple call and response. For example, you can ask, “Who is standing on a bumpy square?” and the children standing on a bumpy square can answer, “I am standing on a bumpy square!”

Textured Trail Mix

Mix together different textured fruits, nuts, or dry snack foods in a large bowl. Let each child scoop out an appropriate measure of the mixture to eat. While they are eating, ask the children how the different foods feel on their tongues (e.g., crunchy, smooth, mushy, or rough).

Reconnecting Children with Nature: Growing Up WILD trainings

This workshop leads you out the door and provides hands on activities and resource materials to help you lead your own nature explorations. Growing Up WILD activities use age appropriate practices and concepts to build on children’s sense of wonder and invites them to explore nature and the world around them. Specially written for children 3-7, activities include sections to address many learning areas: math, science, language, literacy, health living, play, and creativity.

September 19, 2015
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Cass County Extension & Outreach (805 West 10th Street, Atlantic)
Registration: Iowa Child Care Providers Training Registry— Click on Search Trainings, then search Reconnecting in the Title.
Registration Deadline: September 4, 2015
Registration Fee: $15 - your enrollment will be complete when payment is received: mail to Cass County Extension, 805 West 10th Street, Atlantic, IA 50022
For more information, contact Kim Branter at 712-542-7076 or brantner@iastate.edu

October 3, 2015
8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Heery Woods State Park (27887 195th St., Clarksville)
Registration: Iowa Child Care Providers Training Registry— Click on Search Trainings, then search Reconnecting in the Title.
Registration Deadline: September 25, 2015
Registration Fee: $10 - your enrollment will be complete when payment is received: mail to Allison office, 101 Cherry Street, Allison, IA 50619
For more information, contact Cindy Thompson at 641-229-6655 or epthom08@iastate.edu

October 3, 2015
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Page County Extension Office (311 E Washington St., Clarinda)
Registration: Iowa Child Care Providers Training Registry— Click on Search Trainings, then search Reconnecting in the Title.
Registration Deadline: September 18, 2015
Registration Fee: $10 - your enrollment will be complete when payment is received: mail to Page County Extension, 311 E Washington St., Clarinda, IA 51632
For more information, contact Kim Branter at 712-542-7076 or brantner@iastate.edu