thewonderboom

[thewonderboom]

Sometimes I wonder how parents feel about their kids, like really, really feel. For instance, I know that parents have favorite children. They just do. And it seems that many times I’ve heard about historical situations where there were many children, more than 10, but one specific child was the apple of the parents’ eye. So I know that parents love their children -- but for instance, when thinking about Big L?

She smells like poop all the time. She won’t do any hygiene practices unless a teacher is watching her. She managed to get poop on the outside of her pants (she’s five!) and smear it everywhere without noticing or telling anyone. Not even Little Red, who has purposely squatted and pooped on the bathroom floor, has managed that one. And then when I have her change her clothes, her underwear are smeared, smeared with poop. Her teeth are always caked in crud, her hair is stringy, and she is annoying as hell. I mean, most of that is the fault of her parents. You can physically make a five-year-old take a bath. And they very obviously don’t. But sometimes I think . . . I know they love her, but . . . can they see that she makes people gag? How do they feel about that? Do they really know care because she’s their daughter? They’re not disgusted by her? She’s the only five-year-old I’ve ever seen sit in a crowd of her friends and just go to town on her boogers. No shame. Most five-year-olds have figured out that that’s not socially acceptable, but not Big L!

Meanwhile . . . Little Red has shown to me what being the apple of someone’s eye means. That little girl is a brat and a half but I look forward to work sometimes mostly because I know I will get to see her. She is the cutest, most charming little doll and I just want to be around her all the time. I want her to be happy all the time. And now I see how easy it would be to spoil a child like that because it makes me feel so so so happy to just . . . give her what she wants.

[thewonderboom]

I originally made this blog to catalog my preschool work ideas. But that’s proven difficult, and honestly, sometimes I just want to talk about my kiddos. My husband tries to listen, but he doesn’t know the kids. He can’t keep track of them! And my co-workers DO listen, but there is not enough time in our work day to just . . . talk about the kids. So I will use this to talk about them too.

It just occurred to me that my little PM class doesn’t have a leader anymore. The leader, a 5-year-old who I’ll call Bam Bam, moved away. He was smart, bizarrely diplomatic, and just a little bundle of wonderfulness (who developed a seriously I-am-clearly-above-everybody-else attitude once he became one of the oldest kids at the school -- but still, utterly lovable). And he moved, and it was heartbreaking.

Me and Mr. J pondered at the time who would be the new leader. I said that L would try, but she doesn’t have the charisma. L is strange -- very strange. She’s kind of dirty and inappropriate and an under-the-radar troublemaker who behaves strangely quite a bit. We’ve had a lot of discussions over how to handle her clear hygiene issues, and despite talking with parents and addressing it at school over and over there have been no improvements.

Anyway, I was right. Rather than be any sort of leader, she has instead sort of . . . preyed on two other girls. Their relationships are very strange. The two girls, Little Blonde and Basically-Elsa-from-Frozen (she has great hair that she wears in big chunky braids), are not really friends with each other. Little B is 3 and very clever and a little odd while Basically Elsa is 5! They have both taken on the role of essentially “child” while L is their coddling, manipulative Mother. It. Is. Weird. Elsa’s mother says that in all her friendships, she’s the dominant one . . . except the one with L. L is constantly telling them what to do -- but not in a bossy, dictator way. Instead, in this little baby voice. “Elsa, come with me.” Elsa looks away. “Elsa, let’s go play!” (whiny, baby voice). Elsa frowns (who knows why). I intervene to say 1. L, if Elsa doesn’t want to play, then you need to walk away and stop asking her over and over. But 2. Elsa, say something! You can say no! I will support you, so you don’t have to feel pressured. Elsa says nothing. L basically caresses Elsa’s cheek while cooing her name.

Meanwhile, Little B is always saying, “I’m scared!” of things that nobody is ever scared of and that make no sense. Like a piece of wood. So as a result, L hugs her and pats her and coos, “It’s okay! It’s okay Little B!” over and over. The relationships are unhealthy and I hate them.

Then there’s H, who is fairly new, who is 6, very smart, and who is basically Bam Bam but with a more mischievous streak, which annoys me. He could totally be the leader of all of them, but he’s not really. L and Birdy both clearly have some sort of a crush on him, but neither of them necessarily follow him around the way they did with Bam Bam (who they both also clearly had a crush on). L will sometimes follow him around being weird until I force her to sit down, but she’ll just as likely be coddling her two little babies.

H more often than lead the other kids ends up telling me he “doesn’t know what to do” because he wants me to get something special for him. It’s annoying.

Then there’s Trees, 4, who is a little monster with occassional glimpses of adorableness, who also doesn’t really lead anybody. In fact, he seems to pick fights more often then not because he will take people’s stuff and throw it or push people or whatever else he does. He ends up around H a lot because they are brothers, and H is generally pretty nice to him. Branches, 3, also fairly new, will copy everything Trees does. That means he’ll act like a little shit too, but he’ll also be calm and well-spoken and sweet. Trees doesn’t really seem to notice that Branches copies everything he does. They play together sometimes, but they’re not really their own little group.

Then Little Red just floats around the world doing whatever the hell she wants because she is literally the cutest two-year-old I’ve ever seen in addition to being a disobedient little mess who just loves to start shit. She’s always yelling at the other kids (including yelling at one of them hugging me, saying, “HEY! DON’T TOUCH MY WORK,” becuase she thinks of me as an inanimate object. but I’m pretty sure they all love her anyway because seriously, even the 4-year-olds can see that this little girl is going to rule the world because her hair is the best shade of red ever and she doesn’t take anybody’s shit.

Then that leaves my girls and Sweet J. Sweet J hops from group to group, a very sweet 5-year-old boy whom I just adore. He’s friends with Trees and H, but he’s also friends with the girls. But my girls have their own little group.

There’s Bit, 4, Curly, 4, RL, 4 and Birdy, 4. Birdy more often than not ends up the leader. And L and her little minions sometimes end up in this group too -- if L isn’t there, Elsa will almost certainly be a part of it. But Birdy tends to be in charge. After Birdy, Curly often tries to take the lead. Though it’s true that I have seen L barge her way into bits of this group and take control as well -- these girls just don’t play the I’m-a-little-baby-who-is-afraid-or-sad-and-needs-to-be-cared-for card, ever.

So there is no leader. Before, all the kids might be together with Bam Bam ruling the roost. But now there are more kids and so many different personalities mashed together.

I do miss the days of Bam Bam and my little group. With Trees and H, things have gotten hectic and way more exhausting. Add to that that I had to get a second teacher, Mr. Spinster, and it’s just not my cozy little group before. Before, it’s like we were all just hanging out. Me and my kids. Now there’s a second element who doesn’t always know and/or enforce the rules of our school. Also, there’s the part that he’s way nicer than the rest of us. But as I said yesterday, my compassion reserve is low. I can’t be compassionate to every child that demands it because as I’ve learned, If You Give A Kid Compassion, they will then proceed to do whatever earned them that compassion over and over and over again even in scenarios where it is abundantly obvious they are putting it on. I still can’t figure out the right way to react to a child telling me they miss their mother. I want to be kind and compassionate, but I have kids telling me that 20 plus times a day, telling me it inbetween widlly playing and laughing (pause, pout, I miss mommy! back to giggling and running) or telling me it when the rules are to be quiet and thinking it’s okay to yell it or whatever. Kids will suck you dry of kindness if you show that you will give them a lot of attention and care for every little thing. I used to do it. Now I implore kids to seek comfort from other kids or to manage it themselves. I feel like Spinster thinks I’m cold, but I know the kids love me, and I think they have leared quite a bit about emotion management. And I never flake on compassion when it really seems needed. I want the kids to know that I am on their side. But that doesn’t mean they get to constantly invent turmoil so they get more attention from me. I have too many kids to take care of to give each child the attention they all want. I give them a ton of attention already, including spending so so so so so much of my free time planning and preparing and buying things of rus to do.

Anyway.

[thewonderboom]

Preschool Field Guide

I recently made a field guide for our classroom, and I’m so excited about it.

When we see an animal or plant in our playground, we make a mental note of it. I will ask for volunteers to draw a picture of it (or for the younger kids, if they seem wary of drawing it themselves, to color it in -- if they are gung ho about it, don’t offer a picture; they can do it on their own!). I then label it and put it in the field guide. Children can look through it and add to it. If we see an animal that’s already in the field guide, we can look it up and compare it.

I’m still deciding if I want to include actual photos on the back of each drawing. I do not want to discourage children from their own drawings by providing a photograph to compare, but I do want to children to be able to use the field guide to discover the names of real-life animals. That will be hard using drawings alone.

[thewonderboom]

Crayon Melt

Requires adult participation to complete.

- Crayon shavings. - Bowl for the crayon shavings. - Wax paper. - An iron. - Blank paper.

Give each child a few bowls of crayon shavings and a wax rectangle folded in half.

Each child should sprinkled wax on one side of the paper. It must not be enough that the melted wax will fall over the page, so I suggest demonstrating how much to use. You may even want to have them all watch a demonstration of the entire project first.

When they have completed sprinkling wax paper, they must fold it in half and carefully bring it to you to iron. You will put it between two pieces of paper and iron it briefly. 

Once it cools, it can be returned to them. The older children will likely get experimental about the designs once they understand how the melting process works.

[thewonderboom]

Up Above Art

- A printout of a satellite picture of a continent. - Enough printouts of the outline of the continent for the children. - Only colored pencils that match the base colors in the satellite picture.

Talk to the kids about what the landscape look likes. Some will struggle with understanding that the photo is from very, very far away and they aren’t looking for familiar objects. But they can still understand that the tan colors are a desert; the green colors are trees, etc.

Put the satellite photo where they can see it, and tell them to color their own continent in so that it has the same type of land. Reinforce that “the top part is mostly desert, so that part will be yellow,” etc. Tell them it won’t match exactly, and it’s only important that they understand what most of the land is like.

I only had one 3-year-old not understand the concept. I truly believe the kids got a better understanding of the continent we were working on.

[thewonderboom]

Human Knot

I was skeptical my kiddos could do this, but they managed. I separated them into two groups, so each group had four to six kids. I had to separate them by height because the disparities were t0o large. I then instructed who to hold whose hand, until they were all tangled up. And then I told them to get untangled.

It did get rowdy. This will require maintenance so that they are not moving too quickly or shouting at each other. It’s also likely at one point, one child will let go without even thinking about it. But my four- and five-year-olds were determined to figure out how to get untangled, and they did.

[thewonderboom]

Cooperative Games: Building A Nest

I made up a game today for our study of Antarctica and quickly realized that it would work very well at any time. It’s modeled on one of Peaceable Kingdom’s board games. The game is mostly cooperative; I played the opposition, so the class was working together.

- numerous small objects (the same number as students) - spoon - tongs - chairs (amount varies)

On one side of the room or desk will be a pile of gems, or something else that can be picked up and moved with a spoon and tongs. The number of objects matches the number of children. On the other end of the room or desk, set up a number of chairs -- less than the number of objects, but the exact number can vary according to difficulty.

Different ages have different tasks. In my game, the children were instructed to waddle like penguins, so I had the 3-year-olds move the object (which were rocks -- they were building a rock nest) using only their hands. Without the extra difficulty of waddling, a 3-year-old will need a more challenging way to move the object. The 4-year-olds used the spoon and the 5-year-olds used the tongs. They had to move the object from one end to the other without dropping it. If they dropped it, the opposition, which was a seal in our game, would move one seat closer. If the seal reaches the nest before all rocks are moved, then the class doesn’t succeed. If the rocks are all transferred before the seal reaches the nest, then the class does succeed.

Students encourage each other in this game, and it helps develop motor skills. My kids really enjoyed it, and I thought it was successful. The only downfall is the children waiting have a tendency to want to interact with the opposition. To remove that possibility, you could use a doll or figure of some kind in place of the opposition so that it’s not an actual person that can respond.

[thewonderboom]

Storybook Guessing Game

I did this with Peter and the Wolf (storybook and CD), which was especially effective as the children were extremely engaged with the story. This game is not used to deepen the understanding of the story, but rather as a game requiring logic. You could use it after any story containing several prominent and distinct characters that seems to engage the children.

Each child gets a chance to come to the front of the group and select a character they want to be. They can select it from the book. Younger children may need you to hold the book open to a page showing their character so that they can see it but others can’t.

The class then asks yes or no questions to try to figure out which character the student is.

Each student in group can ask unlimited yes or no questions (one per being called on, however), but each student only gets to guess which character the student is once. After that, they can no longer ask questions. This will discourage random guessing.

You may want to give some sample questions in the beginning: “Do you have a tail?” or “Do you wear glasses?” etc.

The kids must think back to the story and consider the qualities of the characters, consider questions that will eliminate some characters and then reason out the answer based on previous questions. Younger children will struggle with the deduction, but if you explain why the answer is wrong, “He can’t be the duck because he said he didn’t have wings,” you’re reinforcing logical reasoning.

[thewonderboom]

Treasure Hunts

Small items

Copies of hand-drawn maps of the classroom or playground (or both)

This activity is all about spatial intelligence. It’s pretty straight-forward: Hide items around the area and mark (with an X!) the hidden spot on the map. Set the kids loose.

I separated the class into small groups and designated a leader. The leaders were all five except for one four-year-old. All of them ended up getting (temporarily, but more than once) disoriented, save for one clever five-year-old, who apparently plays with maps a lot at home (explained his mom). But five-year-olds and some four-year-olds are certainly capable of understanding and following maps. They just need more practice.

The science says three-year-olds can draw a connection between a representation of something and the actual thing, but they have difficulty rotating maps in their mind and following routes. If this activity were to be done with three-year-olds working on their own, the maps would need to be much more detailed and from a perspective that would allow the child to draw the connection (i.e., not birds-eye). I would not advise the same maps for the older children, however.

[thewonderboom]

Simon Says for Preschoolers

Three-year-olds and many four-year-olds do not understand Simon Says, but Simon Says is a great game to play to practice impulse control. I make up for this difference in my classroom by altering the rules a little bit.

In my game, nobody gets “out.” Younger preschoolers end up confused and hurt when they are told they out. They don’t understand why, as they did what they were told to do. Instead, we play round-by-round. At the end of each round, I try to point out who did the action and who didn’t. I don’t evaluate who did well and who did not -- the ones who know the rules know they did well and know that hearing, “She didn’t say Simon Says, and you didn’t do it!” means they succeeded.

I then pick the next Simon. I try to pick children that have been doing well. I also try to let the kids who don’t understand the game go first. I tell everyone that if their round goes on for “too long,” I will end it. For the younger preschoolers, the game becomes a simple leading game, and I let them know when they have one more order and then somebody else becomes Simon.

#preschool #preschool games

[thewonderboom]

Statues

Kids love this game, and it helps strengthen self-control.

Children stand in a circle. One child goes in the middle. For about a minute, the child in the middle tries to make the children in the circle laugh. The teacher is the judge and says a student’s name to indicate they sit down when they laugh or change their face or move too much. They are supposed to be like a statue, though I allow some fidgeting of the body. They must keep their face visible and eyes open, looking ahead.

The only rule beyond normal classroom rules is that they cannot touch the kids in the circle.

I love seeing the strategies the kids take. Some simply avert their eyes, while some contort their face into something angry or sad or slack-jawed. It gets pretty funny, and I’m consistently impressed by how well some of them do under such pressure.

#preschool #preschool games

[thewonderboom]

Ice

A lot of ice cubes (at least three per child)

Salt

Warm and cold water in containers.

On a hot day (it’s more fun that way), take the kids outside and give them ice cubes. You might give them ideas of “painting” on hard surfaces with the ice (or more accurately the water), but mostly just let them play with it. They will get really excited about how cold their hands are and how their ice is melting. If they don’t launch into their own experiments right away, ask them questions about ice melting, such as, “Why do you think ice melts?” “Will ice melt faster in your hand or on the sidewalk?” “What does ice turn into when it melts?” Some of these questions will be obvious to them, but not all of them will be.

Introduce containers: one full of cold water and one of warm. Let them put ice into the containers as they see fit. I doubt any commentary will be necessary.

Last, introduce salt. You might give each kid a small container of salt and let them explore on their own, but I poured the salt myself (at their request) to prevent their overdoing it. Let them play a bit and then talk about how salt changes ice. It makes it so ice must be much colder than normal to stay ice. Talk about icy roads and how salt is used in the winter. Kids will probably not fully grasp the concept, but they’ll remember that salt makes ice melt, and they will love it.

This activity encourages scientific exploration and thinking. My kiddos started doing their own experiments without any commentary or help from me right away, and they had a blast doing it.

[thewonderboom]

The Grasshopper & The Ants by Jerry Pinkney

This is a truly wonderful story. I recommend it for all preschool classrooms. The art is lovely (just look at the colors!), but the message stole my heart.

I’m sure most of us know the story of The Grasshopper and the Ant. It’s a good moral, often very applicable. The reader watches the grasshopper play with those around him work and prepare and give him many warnings. It’s not as if he wasn’t warned.

And yet, I would hope that my tender-hearted little kiddos would feel for the grasshopper as I do, as the ants do, as he wanders away into the snow alone. Empathy and kindness are important qualities, ones that keep the world by starving itself out of spite.

The ants had no obligation to share their stores and their warmth and their cheer with the grasshopper. They had all the reason to not, but they did anyway.

Some children’s books display character’s behaving badly, only to be cheered up by the very people they mistreated (Virginia Wolf, Hooray for Hat!). The only consequence for these yelling, grumpy people is that their friends do nice things for them.

I do not believe The Grasshopper & the Ants suggests it’s okay to do what the grasshopper did. The reader is made quite aware of the grasshoppers suffering and loneliness. Only after he’s been turned away do the ants venture out to share, and it is clear that they are doing so out of their kindness, not out of his entitlement.

So this Pinkney gem portrays healthy social behavior within a clearly logical story. Is it clear about fantasy and fiction? Talking animals are within my acceptance range of fantasy for children -- it’s too common and too easy to explain that animals in real life do not really live like humans. I also appreciate the note in the back, which explains the size issue of the grasshopper to ant ratio and nullifies the issue; just read that portion to the kids as well.

The Grasshopper & The Ants is a lovely story, full of opportunities to talk about the characters’ feelings, about compassion and about second-chances.

[thewonderboom]

Cut-Out Art

It’s hard to come up with unique art activities that children can do almost entirely on their own. There are large numbers of art activities online, but almost all of them entail making something pretty that matches a picture, ensuring a lot of parental intervention and guidance.

Missing Piece Art

Art mats

Markers, crayons or colored pencils

Previously cut paper

For this activity, simply cut shapes out of paper and give the children the paper with the missing piece to draw on. I’d suggest starting with circles but presenting them with different shapes as time goes on. 

This art project comes from Don’t Move the Muffin Tin, which, while not necessarily packed with unique ideas, is packed with truly kid-friendly ideas.

Frames

Art mats

Paper

Previously cut paper

Markers, crayons and/or colored pencils

Ripped pieces of patterned or colored paper

Glue sticks

For this activity, the children will end up with two pieces of paper. One is whole and one has something cut out of it, similar to the above activity. This activity has a little less freedom, however. The children are not allowed to add anything to the paper that has been cut. Their canvas is the whole paper, and the cut paper will be placed on top, leaving only what can be seen through the hole as their finished product. The shapes should start simple but get progressively more complex.

They can place and remove the overlay as much as they want throughout the activity, but to avoid children drawing on the overlay, place it at a separate desk and remind everybody that their materials must stay at their own desk. They can take their art to the table to see what the overlay will look like before continuing, but they cannot take it back to their desk with them.

When they are done, they will clean up their area and go to the overlay table to glue the overlay over their art.

#preschool #preschool activities #preschool art

[thewonderboom]

Storybooks for Preschoolers

I’m picky about the storybooks I think are good enough for my students’ absorbent minds. I love irreverent stories and disobedient characters as much as the next person, but when it comes to books I read at school, I think the most important thing is that they display and encourage healthy social behavior.

The second most important thing is that the story be logically connected, encouraging children to think about cause-and-effect.

The third most important thing is that the story be either obviously fiction or entirely or mostly realistic. For little ones still coming to understand reality, blurring the lines is dangerous. I’m not against fantasy for young children, but I don’t think that fantasy should be presented as very close to reality. 

And children need to like the book. It’s not least important thing, but it’s not most either. It’s just floating around there, somewhere, I suppose.

Most children’s books do not fit my criteria, but every once in a while, I find a winner. There are also books that don’t really fit into the “storybook” category and are instead concept books or non-fiction books. I’ll share the stand-outs in those categories as well.

#preschool #preschool books #picture books

[thewonderboom]

Animal Tracking

Animal Hunt

Animal tracks (printed or casts and large space to leave tracks).

Photos of the corresponding animals in which their feet are clear (get two copies if you think the children might need a reference).

Envelopes.

If you have actual animal track casts and access to a large outdoor area where they can be imprinted in soil or sand, wonderful! If not, you can print out animal prints and mount them on cardboard. Aim for realistic tracks over cartoonish ones. You will also have to do some research on how each animal walks to know how the print should be placed. For instance, beavers, in addition to footprints, leave a trail-drag mark. Start with familiar and local animals, but move to less well-known and more exotic animals as the children learn. As the animals gets less familiar, you will have to preface the activity with lessons or relevant books that explain the tracks.

Place various tracks around the school or outdoors, if possible. Make them partially hidden, but ultimately easy to find with minimal searching. Put photos of each of the animals into individual envelopes and seal them. Place the corresponding envelope in a hidden spot at the end of the track, as if the envelope is a resting animal. Separate the children into small groups and designate a leader, if you’d like.

Each group gets their own animal. They are to find the tracks that their animal has left. If any group is struggling, give them a copy of the photo of the animal for which they’re looking (I made the envelope copy color while the helper copy was black and white, just to make it more fun). The group must stay together. Once they find the tracks, and the leader agrees they are the right tracks, the group must find the envelope and return to the teacher. Emphasize that it is not a race; their only task is to find their animal, and they will not be able to check the work until everybody has found their animal.

Once everybody has finished and returned, each leader will open their envelope, one at a time. The photo in the envelope should match the animal they had.

Hopefully, nobody will end up with the wrong envelope. Creating groups with varied skill levels will help. If you do observe a group walking away with the wrong envelope, take them over to the tracks and ask them questions about the tracks and their animal until they decide to put the envelope back.

You could also give each individual child their own animal to find if you think all are able, but I liked the cooperative nature of this game.

Being able to figure out the animal responsible for tracks is a great thinking activity. The children must imagine the shape of the animals from a different position. Being able to search gives them something to do physically while learning, and learning actual tracking knowledge is information they could carry with them for years.

Track Match

A material in which to leave tracks.*

A tub to hold the material.

A variety of plastic animals.

* Admittedly, I haven’t yet figured out the perfect material to leave tracks in. Since plastic animals are so small, it’s important the material hold a good shape. I have not tried play dough, but I worry it would be too hard. I did try cloud dough, but it was too crumbly -- it worked, but I was not able to allow the children to leave the tracks themselves. It should also be easy to knead the tracks out and return to a smooth surface quickly. I hope to edit this when I find a good material.

Fill a tub with the material and collect a variety of plastic, realistic animals. The varied the better, but I prefer they all to be of a similar scale. I like these, from Acorn Naturalists, or the ever-reliable Schleich.

Excuse a child to a place where they cannot see or have them turn around. Invite the rest of the children to silently decide on an animal. You could give each child a chance to choose for the guesser. If the tracking material works well enough, the child could also make the tracks himself. Press the animal’s feet into the material and pull it out. Some will leave tail tracks as well, which is fine. The idea is that the guesser should be making a connection between the plastic animals in front of her and the marks it would leave behind, even if those extra marks are not representative of real-life tracks. Still, I think it’s most useful to stick with realistic figurines to emphasize the children are learning about a real-life skill.

Invite the guesser back and have her try to figure out which animal left the tracks. She can pick up any animal and hold it above the tracks, but she may not fit it in the tracks nor add any tracks herself. If she is struggling, ask her questions to help her think about the size and shape.

Being able to figure out the animal responsible for tracks is a great thinking activity. The children must imagine the shape of the animals from a different position. They will not learn as much real-life tracking in this activity as they do in the animal hunt, but they are making the same connections in a different form.

Paw Painting

A variety of plastic animals.

Tempera paints and saucers to hold the paint.

Art mats.

Paper.

Sponges and a water bucket for clean-up.

Have each child collect an art mat and a piece of paper for their seat or pass them out if they are not normally accessible. Give each table several animals standing on plates of paint. Ensure there are sponges available and a water bucket for messes.

Let them have at it!

You can either restrict each animal to one color or allow the children to mix the colors by double-dipping. I find the children usually don’t mind the mixed colors (in fact, they love it), so I let them do what they want. I really like giving them only primary colors and letting them experiment anyway.

This activity is really just an exploration of making tracks. For preschoolers who are able to imagine tracks of familiar animals well, try to use obscure and interesting animals. Since the children are given very little direction, some of them may make tracks or paint with unexpected parts of the animals. Let them! This activity is exploratory but does encourage them to think about the connections between tracks and what left them. (I do not think doing a similar activity with stamps or cut sponges is nearly as useful. I’d like the children to make the connection between the whole animal in their hand and the marks left behind.)

The children are responsible for their own clean-up, including washing the animals in the bucket.

Actual Tracking

This is not a possibility for everyone, but it may be for you! If you can, take the kids on a walk through a natural area and do some real-life tracking. You should be educated on local tracking so that you can talk them through what they are seeing (as an alternative, take the kids on a field trip where staff is educated and able to discuss tracking). Encourage the children to be “nature detectives” and predict what caused various things they may see.

Have moments of complete silence where they try to listen for wildlife they may not be able to see. Have them practice “fox walking” while they listen. (Fox walking is supposed to be done while barefoot, but it can be done in shoes for our purposes; it’s mostly useful for encouraging careful concentration in children. If it proves too difficult to walk silently, just stay still.)

If you have the time and find a viable track, you could also try making plaster casts. This activity would be almost 100% you, which is why I won’t detail it here, but I’m sure kids would enjoy watching, and then you’d have a cast for future activities.

#preschool #preschool activities #animal tracking