Feed Me Books Friday: Activities for Observing the Seasons

Even When Spring is Being Stubborn
I’ve lived in the same city for 25 years, and we’ve never had clearly defined seasons. Much as I’d like to think a date on the calendar means it’s time to bring out the spring wardrobe, I know better. Doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed that the first week of spring has been gloomy, rainy, and colder than the several weeks prior that were supposedly winter! So how do I explain to B that spring is more than just a flower on the calendar square?

Look Around!

Though we may not live where crocus in the melting snow signal spring’s arrival, or red and orange leaves blanket the ground in the fall, we can still find outdoor indicators of the seasons if we look closely. We’ve been noticing buds appearing on the trees during our neighborhood walks, and B has compared color, shape, and even scent! He noticed late last week that the tree in our front yard is now full enough of buds and tiny leaves that he can hide behind it again without being spotted through the branches. The urn of lilies I received from the boys for Mother’s Day last year spent the winter on the patio, and with no encouragement what-so-ever from me it is full of lush new green growth. Choosing a particular tree, bush, or field to observe as the seasons change is an excellent way to help children become aware of weather, life cycles, and the passage of time.

• Join your scientific observation with scientific expression by drawing or painting the object of your attention several times a year.
  
• Develop language and vocabulary skills by drafting a list of descriptive terms for the object, then comparing and contrasting the descriptors that apply during different seasons. (The tree may always be tall, but it is only sometimes full or fragrant.)
  
• Photograph the object you are observing each month on the same date, and create a time-line of seasonal changes. Older children (and more organized parents) might even photograph once a week to observe more minute changes. A collection of such photographs would make an attractive calendar display or computer screensaver.
  
• Ask an imaginative child to consider how the object feels about the season and weather changes. Use as a writing prompt for older children or take dictation.

Just Ask!

If you’re not sure where to start with your hunt for spring, pick up a copy of Where Is Spring? by Yang-Huan. Orginally a poem written in Chinese, Yang-Huan lyrically describes the sights, sounds, and feelings of the arrival of spring. Illustrations by H.Y. Huang and A. Yang add to the airy and fresh feeling of the book. Each page highlights different spring details, and on several pages the text becomes part of the illustration as it flows down river, meanders through a field, or blows on the wind. The simple storyline begins with a boy looking for spring, and he relies on his kite overhead to “ask around,” and assist with the search. Each response offers a different poetic personification of spring, such as “mopping the sky bright and blue,” “putting new clothes on the fields,” and “smiling on the faces of flowers.” The language and the pictures are just beautiful and you’ll enjoy seeing spring arrive in the pages of this book even if it hasn’t arrived at your house yet.


Appropriate for: toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades.


What signs have you seen of changing seasons? Are you recording them in some way?








Look Around

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Feed Me Books Friday: Time is Flying

Ever Regret Being Anxious for Time to Pass?

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Spring and warmer weather and going barefoot. But then I catch myself and realize time is slipping through my fingers and I wish I could slow it down. B’s preschool experience is soon to give way to kindergarten. (Ack!) T is more and more little boy and less and less baby every day. So some days I wish I could pause, other days, I’m counting down to summer. But enough about me…

Keeping Track of Time

The cognitive concept of time is hard for little ones – just ask anyone who’s ever uttered the words, “just a minute” to a toddler. Minutes, hours, days, months, seasons, past, future: each more abstract than the next for a child living in the present. Simply discussing and acknowledging the passage of time is the first step to internalizing the concept. It’s easy to take notice of changes in the foliage, animal behaviors, and holidays. B continues to be fascinated by the calendar and countdowns, so he was pleased to bring home a library book all about the various ways to observe the changing season and celebrate Spring.


Chronology, Culture, and Crafts

Wendy Pfeffer’s A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox is the kind of non-fiction book that combines just enough illustration and intriguing detail to keep kids engaged while they learn the salient facts of the topic. In this case, Pfeffer’s topic is Sping, and she effectively explains both scientific and historic aspects of the season. The book begins with a poetic description of the arrival of spring, and then explains the science behind it in both clear narrative and helpful illustrations. Next, traditions and celebrations from several cultures are highlighted in chronological order.

• Learn about the connection between Chinese New Year and the arrival of Spring.

• Plant wheat for the Persian celebration of No Ruz. (I’m thinking wheatgrass on the windowsill.)
• Consider the origin of April Fools’ Day in and Indian tradition.
• Marvel at Mayan calendar-keeping.

• Enjoy warm, round pancakes to symbolize the sun during Russia’s Maslenitsa. (We like the 10 grain pancake mix from Winco!)

• Honor the berry as a harbinger of Spring like the Cree. (We planted blueberries this year!)
• Study the symbols of Jewish Passover.

• Even discover how rabbits and colored eggs came to be connected with the Christian holiday of Easter. (Can’t wait to try natural egg dyes this year!)

Instructions for several crafts and recipes complete the book, and I know I’ll refer to it again next year – there are too many fun options to try out at once. Several of the traditions do not take place on the equinox, but in anticipation of it before or celebration afterward. B is in a phase of being very curious about the habits and traditions of others, so books like this are a great way to encourage his exploration of diversity.
Appropriate for: preschoolers, primary grades.
**The construction of this post was interrupted by a 4 year old who couldn't sleep. I found myself sitting on his bed singing him a favorite lullaby: Evermore written by Sandra Boynton and illustrated by Alison Krauss. It speaks to both my longing for spring and my nostalgia for time.**
Link-up note: my apologies to anyone who had trouble linking last week. First, I got my dates mixed up (sorry Maggie!) then a coding glitch initially made the entered links invisible (thanks Shonda). If you have a chance to go back and visit some of the links from last week, their authors could use a little extra love!


Did you see my post on Saturday for the March Read-Along at Helping Little Hands? I shared a fun flap-book and craft.


Are you looking forward to the change in season? Are you feeling it in your weather yet or is it just another date on the calendar?

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Must See Monday (November 29, 2010)

Weekends are catch-up time for me: I catch up on my writing, I catch up on my laundry, I catch up with my husband, and if I have any time left over, I catch up on all the fabulous posts that accumulate in my reader during the week. Every week I find awesome crafts, fun books, and super giveaways! Last week was my inaugural edition of Must See Monday, and this week I have more to share with you after my holiday weekend catching up! (This weekend most of my catching-up was with family and friends – chores will have to wait!)
Enjoy!
Crafts:
Welcome to our Wonderland has a Christmas Book and Activity a Day project going on. I haven’t committed to following along every day, but there are some great ideas so far and coming up!
Teach Mama has a fun advent craft/activity to make and do. We’ll be adding the activity slips to our purchased felt calendar, but you could start from scratch if you’re feeling extra crafty! Or add these ideas to one of the calendars featured at the giveaway below! (We’re still counting down with our candy-surprise calendar as well!)
The always creative Vanessa at Silly Eagle Books shared a host of ideas for gifts kids can take part in making. Not only are they personal and inexpensive, but sure to be treasured by those who love your kiddos!

Ideas/Recommendations:
Get great ideas for making gift baskets inexpensively from An Oregon Cottage. I discovered it via Feels Like Home and added it to my bookmarks – great for the holidays, or birthdays and occasions throughout the year.
This Thanksgiving made me really want to focus on gratitude throughout the year, rather than just for the holiday. I’m very intrigued by the book In Every Tiny Grain of Sand, shared by the children’s book blog at About.com.
On a similar note, I am looking for ways to foster my attitude of gratitude. The Happiness Project suggests “measuring” the things we want more or less of in our lives.


Giveaways:
At 12 Crafts till Christmas, you can enter to win do-it-yourself advent calendar kits. There are four, but my favorite is the cone garland!
Science-at-Home has a giveaway for a kids’ Collector’s Kit. There are several other great suggestions of “presents for geeks” too!
Reading to Know has a Christmas book giveaway that could score you 3 Christmas stories! I know I can never have enough!
Also from Teach Mama, a magnetic poetry giveaway! I had magnetic poetry on my fridge in college – did you? I can’t wait to try it out with my boys!


Last week’s Feed Me Books Friday is still open if you want to add a book you enjoyed over your holiday. Time to put away the Thanksgiving crafts and get ready for Christmas!Come back tomorrow for a super easy (and inexpensive) Christmas card idea!

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Feed Me Books Friday: Early Edition

Tomorrow, we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house, and we’ll be spending time with other branches of our family for the rest of the weekend. My book pick for the week will be the many family photo albums and scrapbooks that come out each year. We will laugh, reminisce, and share some nostalgia. A sense of belonging is vital to emotional development, and what better way to foster it than by creating and reliving wonderful family memories?

If you need an activity to occupy your little ones while you prepare dinner (or when they’ve lost interest at the table) you might want to check out the latest offerings at We Give Books. I received and email this week reminding me to head over and read a book with B so that another is donated to a non-profit literacy campaign. What an easy way to give! And they’ve added some holiday themed reading selections to enjoy! Or, check out the Thanksgiving crafts I shared yesterday!

One more item to share with you – B adored his October countdown calendar, and we were already planning another when I saw an email from Parenting magazine with suggestions for using leftover Halloween candy. We created a countdown to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years! Each holiday got its own color scheme, selected by B, and he punched and adhered the numbers to the tissue. I assembled the paper cups on a cardboard backing and filled them with candy before gluing the tissue on. He is enjoying a surprise each day and never bothered to notice or ask where all the Halloween candy went!


Wishing all of my readers a blessed and beautiful weekend of gratitude, and if you’re here in the states, Happy Thanksgiving!


 
Have a book to share this week? Link it up here! If not, hope you'll be back to share next week!

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Calendar Countdown

How Many More Days?

We got out the fall and Halloween decorations on the 2nd of October. On the 3rd, I realized that B needed a way to track the days until Halloween or his questions might drive me bonkers. We have an advent calendar for Christmas, and we’ve used the wall calendar to talk about vacation plans, Daddy’s work trips, and soccer games, so it wasn’t our first foray into calendar skills - but we’re not experts either. At the end of September, I saw some adorable Halloween calendars over on Tip Junkie, but as my own crafts have taken a back burner to my boys and I wanted B to be involved in his calendar, I opted for construction paper over felt and ric-rac.


Dusting Off My Tools


So did I mention how far behind I am in my scrapbooking? I frequently remind myself that time with my boys is more precious than time with pictures of my boys, so my boxes of pictures and little scribbled notes will wait. However, it tickled me to be able to use some of my tools for B’s calendar. I used my circle and square punches for the letter and number tiles.

Then B used my letter and number punches in the center of each tile.

We started off with only yellow tiles, but as we worked, B told me about the pattern on the calendar at preschool, (apple, apple, book) and so we swapped out some of the yellow tiles for black. We made a little jack-o-lantern to mark Halloween with a black square tile and an orange circle tile, and we used scraps from the yellow number punches to make a face. We’re using tiny Halloween stickers from the dollar store to mark the days remaining until Halloween. He was so proud of his calendar (and its pattern) that we had to take a picture and share it with his preschool teacher!

Days to Months to Seasons


The concept of time is a tough cognitive concept: for toddlers wait a minute and wait an hour sound equally tortuous. Children are experts at living “in the now.” By preschool, most have some concept of present, past, future, but yesterday, last week, and last year sometimes run together. Calendars are an excellent way to make the passage of time visible, and teach all kinds of math skills. There was an excellent calendar post on ABC and 123 this week if you want more ideas. I, of course, love to read our way to concept-building as well, so I have a couple suggestions for pairing with calendar time.

Over and Over, by Charlotte Zolotow, tells the story of a little girl who is too young to quite understand the passage of time. She has snippets of memories about holidays and seasons, but they all run together. Each page describes a holiday or seasonal event, and includes her mother’s explanation of what will come next. The last event is the little girl’s birthday, at which she wishes that it will all happen all over again. So many children frame their understanding of months and seasons around holidays and traditions that this story seems a very familiar and accessible way to talk about the passage of a year. The little girl’s birthday wish is a clever way to emphasize the order and pattern of the calendar.

Circle of Seasons, by Gerda Muller, was one of our serendipitous library finds. I am in love with the concept and the artwork in this book. Each season is described with the changes that take place in nature as well as common seasonal activities. The activities are illustrated with small pictures next to the text, but the outstanding two-page spreads that depict nature and human activity in each season are beautiful and full of their own stories. There are two such spreads for each season, making for much rich discussion beyond the text, and truly a new experience with each reading. I’ll be on the lookout to pick up this one as a used book, but I also found that it was originally published as a four-book series (one for each season) and has been re-published as four word-less board books, a tempting option.

Appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers.


Do you have any fun count-down or calendar activities? B is loving this one, so I’m on the hunt for next month!


I’m linking this post with Show and Tell at ABC and 123, Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted Art, Fun on a Dime, and Read-Aloud Thursday at Hope is the Word.
Hope you’ll come back Friday to link up your picks for the week (or get some great ideas) at Feed Me Books Friday!

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