Child Care Circuit
Spring Has Almost Sprung!
One of the few gifts you can give your
charge that won’t break or wear out is the joy in nature.
By encouraging the children to develop respect for and love of
nature, helps them to develop attitudes needed to sustain the planet and
the human race. It’s time
to take a walk through a snowy field, stand in the filtered light
of a forest or wander on a beach together.
Spring symbolizes new beginnings and time for returns.
Everyone
Joins In:
Make a chart to be placed in the kitchen (maybe on the refrigerator) with spaces for the first robin, first crocus, first bush to get new leaves, first earthworm, first bud on your favorite tree, etc. The chart should include Items: Seen by: Date: Where Seen. Make a column under each heading and leave spaces for the child’s name who spots these items first!
Especially for Toddlers &
Pre-school Children:
On the first day of spring, have a springtime luncheon. Make a pear face salad. Place a lettuce leaf on the plate. Open a can of pear halves, draining the liquid. On each lettuce leaf, put a pear half face down. Use raisins for eyes, a mini-carrot for a nose, and an apple slice for the mouth. Add your charge’s favorite shredded cheese for hair. Add long hair for a girl and a short do for a boy. Cut a pineapple round in half to make ears for a boy (placing pineapple halves on side of pear head) or a collar on the bottom of the pear for a girl. Use a small amount of paprika to make rosy cheeks! Create a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with Ritz-style crackers. Serve cracker sandwiches and milk with pear salad. Enjoy! Enjoy!
All Ages:
Work together to start
seeds for a vegetable or
flower garden. Plant seeds
indoors in starter cups, flats or Styrofoam® cups.
Water and watch the plants grow indoors every day for a month or
so. Then transplant to an
outdoor garden when the weather is right.
As you and your charge work, you can talk about the things seeds
need to grow and why spring is the time when planting is done.
Pre-school and School-age
Children:
Make Seed Detective Badges of foil and cardboard and markers. Tape a safety pin on the back of the badge so it can be pinned onto your charges’ clothing. Their special assignments as Seed Detectives is to search for and collect seeds from food served over the next few days. Serve foods such as apples, grapes with seeds, oranges, tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, pomegranates, avocados and beans. Use a box lid to collect and display the growing collections. Ask the children if they’d like to plant the collection to see what might happen. Adding an outdoor dimension to this activity, you can have the children collect seeds outdoors from trees, bushes and dandelions to add to the collection.
Be a Wild Flower Locator:
Using
a field guide from either Random House Publishers or Audubon Society
Beginner Guides, you can take your charges for wildflower walks.
Identify what you see, take photographs or draw pictures, but do
not pick the wild flowers. A
magnifying glass helps with the details.
Keep a book of what they have seen on these outings.
Include the dates and places where the flowers were seen.
Be A Bird Watcher:
By early March, the birds that have spent the winter in other parts of the country should begin arriving. Even if you live in an urban area, there are many species you can spot passing through your neighborhood during the springtime. Have your charges use their ears to identify birds by their songs. Take bird walks, and keep a running record of the birds you see over the years. Use field glasses for better identification.
Go Fly A Kite:
Cut out a bird shape from a double layer of tissue paper. Glue the pieces together and attach a string at the head. Run in the wind and see what happens.
Serve a Seed Lunch:
Make your own peanut butter by shelling roasted peanuts, removing the
skins and placing
the peanuts in a blender with ˝ Tbsp. corn oil.
Blend on high and spread on bread, apple slices or pieces of
celery. Cook corn or beans
to go with your peanut butter. Point
out that they are also seeds. After
lunch take a package of corn and bean seeds to compare to the food just
eaten. Use the seeds to
design a spring greeting card or sign for your front door. Serve toasted sunflower seeds and spoon strawberries or
raspberries over the ice cream for dessert.
Find the seeds in the dessert!
Use your imagination and celebrate the rebirth of nature after a
long cold winter!