On Tuesdays and Thursdays our son gets dressed in his WILD child gear. He always asks, “what do you think we’ll do today?” And gets excited listing the endless possibilities ..
At WILD Child Nature Preschool, our WILD Flower class (ages enjoyed a wide variety of sensory rich investigation stations involving apples as the season began changing from summer to fall. What is an invitation station? I’m so glad you asked! We set up stations with many open ended materials and invite students to explore and play. The amazing part is sometimes the children's play turns out completely different than the way we had intended it, and guess what? That is OK! Play can take on many forms, we try not to interrupt play and truly let their imaginations run wild.
Below I am going to walk you through some of our favorite apple investigations that are so fun to create at school, or home!
This a fun activity to do the same day you are taking a closer look at the insides of apples. Slice your apples in half, and provide plates of red, yellow, and green paints. Allow children to stamp anyway their little hearts desire. This art is all about the process, no need for perfect little prints.
Extension idea, if discussing patterns, you could encourage the child(ren) to stamp an apple pattern! Or start a pattern with real apples and have them continue the pattern with their paint.
Cut out a simple apple shape in different colors and work on patterns! These apple shapes are also great for creating name puzzles! Each day our friends have a morning sign in activity that helps them learn to recognize, organize, & write their names.
A huge crowd pleaser is our Apple Pie Sensory Bin! Students loved using 4 of their senses in this fun and engaging activity. The sweet smell of cinnamon is the perfect addition that’s sure to have your little baker exploring for hours! Grab your free printable of our recipe cards
Here’s what you’ll need:
Our students enjoyed using their big muscles to crank & core their own apples with this apple peeler. Talk about gross motor work! Last year we made homemade applesauce in the Instant Pot & this year they made their very own apple pies!
We love to incorporate cooking as much as possible with our kiddos. Reading a recipe, measuring, listening to directions, and patience are just a few amazing skills that kids are learning while cooking!
A super tasty extension activity! For this we gathered a variety of different apples and sliced them up for the class to taste! We chatted about describing words and asked the kiddos to describe how each variety tasted to them, we recorded those answers, it was fun to share with their parents! Next we made a graph on chart paper and polled the class on which apple was their favorite, and graphed the results!
Finally, take a trip to a local apple orchard for a field trip! Pack a picnic and enjoy the grounds, have your little one help pick apples and chat about counting as you go! On the way home talk about all the yummy things you can make with the apples you just picked! Some of our favorites are apple butter, applesauce, & apple crisp!
As the snow melted away here in Ohio, we flew into a new study: BIRDS. Our friends were so excited to take flight and discover new things about these fascinating winged creatures. We began our study by making a list of what they know, and what they wanted to learn. This is a great way to let the kiddos be “the teacher” for a moment and talk about what they know to their friends, it then allows them to make decisions and be in charge of what we’re going to learn about next! During our discussion, they determined they wanted to learn how birds make their nests, what they eat, which birds live “here”, and why birds make different sounds. I also like to do this brainstorming meeting towards the end of the week, giving me the weekend to prepare for our study!
Each week we have been choosing one bird to dive a little deeper on, we do this by reading picture books, checking out their page in our take a long guide 'Birds, Nests & Eggs' observing them in nature, listening to their calls, and some short fact discussions during morning time! Journaling can start at any age, and is a great way to allow kiddos to draw/ sketch their ideas, and narrate what they know. We also encourage some independent writing/ copying for our friends who are showing interest in this area of learning. We use teacher-directed drawing, which focuses on encouraging and modeling big shapes and some details in pencil first, color second. Our friends have done a fabulous job journaling about The American Robin & The Northern Cardinal.
Birds, Nests & Eggs - By: Mel Boring
Bird Builds a Nest - By: Martin Jenkins
Big Book of Birds - By:Yuval Zommer
This super simple, yet oh so fun, and sensory thrilling activity is one for any kiddo to try and hang in their own backyard!
MATERIALS NEEDED
DIRECTIONS:
Spread shortening onto the tube, then roll in birdseed. String twine through the tube, and hang on a tree! Easy peasy!
The book ‘Bird Makes a Nest’ is the perfect first introduction to bird nests. I was super impressed by the beautiful illustrations and simple-to-understand, yet informative text! We read it during our morning time, and got our friends excited about making their very own nests! We took a hike in the woods to collect materials for our nest, and stopped along the way to sit and listen to the birds! I love stopping in nature to get quiet and just LISTEN! Pro tip: close your eyes too, it adds to the fun!) During our hike, we encouraged our friends to think about the materials they were finding, and determine whether or not they thought a bird would be strong enough to carry that item or not! They gathered items like twigs, pine branches, moss, leaves, & grass.
MATERIALS NEEDED
ere pleased with the shape of their nest they used the loose material to decorate their nests. A few friends even made some mini air dry eggs for their nest. The end result was amazing and each one very unique.
Our “Loose Parts Cart” got a makeover for this unit! We filled it with tons of building materials, our favorite birds, and wooden eggs to invite friends to build their own pretend nests! It was such a fun invitation station our friends gladly accepted the challenge! They were so bummed at pick-up when it was time to clean this area up, and we quickly reassured them that this cart set-up was here to stay for a little while!
MATERIALS NEEDED
The beauty of process art is that it is more about the process than the product. We love setting up simple art like this, and letting the kiddos just “go for it” no rhyme or reason, just dive in and truly enjoy the process of creating something! Our friends pretended they were birds whose wings were dipped into paint and they were painting the sky with their feathers! It was great fun!
Have you ever noticed the smell of grass in the springtime, the taste of a raindrop on your tongue, the sound of a squirrel scurrying up a tree, the feel of the wind on your skin, or the sight of the clouds changing shapes? The children call this a “Mindful Minute” and we learn to use all five of our senses when we take a moment to stop and notice. This is such an important tool to learn at an early age. Research has shown that young children who learn these techniques have strengthened resilience, greater calm in stressful situations, have a greater ability to focus their attention, and even self-soothe. I strive to incorporate a mindful minute in every yoga class at Wild Child.
Breathing techniques are also an important skill we learn in yoga. The slow inhales and exhales we take as we trace the outline of a simple leaf we find while playing in the fall leaves can help our tiny bodies to learn a simple way for our nervous systems to calm. In springtime we may practice a breathing technique where we slowly inhale the scent of a fresh flower and slowly exhale as we blow a fluffy dandelion. Again, learning a simple way for our bodies to naturally relax and calm.
Yoga at Wild Child is not all about stillness, though. Children are naturally wanting to move and do not have the capability to be still and focus for very long. That’s why it’s important for us also to practice gross motor skills and balance. Fun movement songs, simple yoga poses, as well as balance skills keep the little ones engaged during our yoga sessions. Poses are usually based on seasonal themes. For example, child’s pose might be called leaf pose in the fall while we study leaves. Balance skills may be practiced while we practice “snowflake pose” on the ice that covers the small creek in the winter.
Respect for nature and the world around us as well as ourselves and others is the final component in a Wild Child yoga class. We practice this by using the well-known yoga word “Namaste” to end our classes. This word simply translates to “the light in me, honors the light in you.” It’s a simple reminder for all to remember that our own “light” shines bright as we respect ourselves and the wonderful world and people around us.
