When I look out my window here in Pennsylvania, I see bare trees with snow on their branches. They are barren, yet beautiful. My children have come to learn that “the trees are sleeping for the winter”. As spring approaches, the trees will “wake up”, and buds will fill the branches until soft, new leaves emerge. In the summer, these leaves collect the sunlight and rain. They shake and whisper in the breezes. With fall, comes a beautiful array of reds, yellows, oranges, and browns that sweep across entire hillsides and valleys alike.
These changes in the trees are not only beautiful to look at, but they also signify the changing seasons. They are an excellent visual representation children can comprehend and use to learn about the four seasons and the changes they bring.
The book, The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree, by Gail Gibbons, offers a wonderful introduction to the seasons. Throughout the story, children are taken through the life of an apple tree as it changes during one year.
Have your child create their own tree using four copies of a bare tree (either hand drawn or photocopied off of the internet), white, green, pink, red, yellow, and orange tissue paper, and some glue. As you reread the story, help your child rip the tissue paper into small pieces roughly 2 x 2 inches square. She can then crumple each piece into a small ball, dip it in the glue, and press it onto her bare tree in order to create four different trees, one for each season of the apple tree.
If your child gets tired, it is okay to stop and come back to the activity later. You may even want to stretch out the activity over four days as little fingers may get tired quickly.
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Written by Laura on January 23, 2012
While taking a long car ride as a family, my six-year-old came up with a game that we now play almost anytime we are in the car for more than fifteen minutes. It is a simple guessing game, but it helps children learn and reinforce beginning letter sounds. It also gets them concentrating on a topic for a long period of time (Much more than the usual five minute attention span), and gets the creat
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Written by Laura on December 21, 2011
This alphabet game is extremely simple and requires only a set of letters to represent the alphabet (and even those materials are optional), but you may be surprised at the learning that can occur while completing this activity. You may be even more surprised to see how much your child enjoys doing it.
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Written by BRWI Staff on December 19, 2011
I wasn’t sure how my four-year-old would react to seeing The Nutcracker performed on stage. Although this was actually his second viewing of the production, I don’t think that at two-years-old he really understood what he was seeing. As it turns out, my preschooler was able to understand much of the story in Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece.
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Written by Laura on December 16, 2011
As your child is learning to recognize various shapes, challenge her to find them in her world around her. Here is an easy to make game that your child will enjoy at home or in the car.
Create a set of Bingo cards using the generator available at http://www.mathworksheetwizard.com/kindergarten/shapes.html. Each time you click on “Make Worksheet”, the program will create a new Bingo c
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Written by Laura on December 14, 2011
In our family, we have a list about about a dozen or so chores that our children help with when assigned to them for the week. One of the chores our kids actually fight over is setting the table. Our boys love this job because, if they are table setter, they get to decide which color plate each child receives and who gets which color of cup. These are very important decisions in the lives of yo
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Written by Laura on December 12, 2011
Here is an easy, long term activity you can do with your child to practice identifying letters and the sounds they make all while strengthening fine motor skills. My own son is very tactile and this has proven to be the best method for him to learn his letters. He enjoys working on this project a little bit at a time and seeing his work displayed when he is finished.
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Written by Laura on December 9, 2011
Most often throughout the day, I am very focused on all of the wonderful things my preschooler has to tell me. In any given day, I may learn about his new friend at preschool, a piece of artwork he just made, or why he is going to be a superhero, named Jack, when he grows up.
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Written by Laura on December 7, 2011
Christmas toy catalogs are taking over our house. My kids, like most others, love to look through them and ooh and aah over all of the possibilities that could make it onto their Christmas wish lists. They will spend hours pointing out their amazing finds to each other, as they circle dozens of toys in each catalog.
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Written by Laura on November 30, 2011
Whether it was a fear of new people or the white beard and red suit, I am not really sure. Either way, my son was not about to take the risk even if it meant not telling him what he wanted for Christmas. Thankfully, Santa still receives requests via snail mail, and each year I seize the opportunity to reinforce the steps necessary for writing a friendly letter.
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Written by Laura on November 28, 2011
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