Four Seasons of the Apple Tree by Candace Lindemann
(tune: The Farmer in the Dell)

The apple tree in spring,
has tiny buds of pink.
Those buds will start flower
before you even blink

The apple tree in summer,
is full and green and tall.
It grows tiny little apples
the size of a rubber ball

The apple tree in fall,
its leaves are turning gold.
The apples are delicious
to be picked or baked or sold.

The apple tree in winter,
the temperature is low
The roots rest for the spring
in a bed of snow.

Happy Children
(Tune: Did You Ever See A Lassie)

Happy children in the springtime, In the springtime, in the springtime.
Happy children in the springtime,
Sway this way and that.

Change springtime to other seasons and also change the action. We allowed the children to decide on each action: Swimming in Summer, Raking in Fall, and Skiing in Winter are all possibilities.

A Seasonal Song
Tune: When the Saints Go Marching In
Oh, when we build a big snowman,
Oh, when we build a big snowman,
The season is called winter
When we build a big snowman.

Spring: Oh, when we plant some tiny seeds…
Summer: Oh, when we all go to the beach…
Autumn: Oh, when we rake up all the leaves….

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
(to the tune of “This Old Man”)

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
There are seasons, four in all.
Weather changes, sun and rain and snow,
Leaves fall down and flowers grow.
Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
There are seasons, four in all.
Look outside and you will see
Just what season it will be!

Seasons of the Year by Meish Goldish
(to the tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”)

CHORUS:
Here we go round the year again,
The year again, the year again.
Here we go round the year again,
To greet the different seasons.

Winter is time for snow.
To the south, the birds will go.
It’s too cold for plants to grow
Because it is the winter.

CHORUS

In the spring, days grow warm.
On the plants, new buds form.
Bees and bugs come out to swarm
Because it is the spring.

CHORUS

In summer, the days are hot.
Ice cold drinks I drink a lot!
At the beach, I’ve got a spot
Because it is the summer.

CHORUS

Fall is here, the air is cool.
Days are short, it’s back to school.
Raking leaves is now the rule
Because it is autumn.

CHORUS

Children seem to tap into the change in the seasons.  They pick up on the weather and the rhythms of nature and enjoy exploring all the new wonders.

We created a “Seasons of the Apple Tree” craft.

Materials:

• White or blue sheet of paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• A cotton ball
• Brown non-toxic paint
• Green paper for leaves
• Pink tissue paper for buds
• Red tissue paper for apples
• Orange and yellow paper for autumn leaves
• White puffy paint (flour recipe from One Crafty Mumma or shaving cream recipe from No Time for Flashcards) and/or glitter for snow

Instructions:

1. Prepare your materials ahead of time, tearing up green paper for leaves and cutting up orange and yellow paper for leaves. Pour brown paint into a paper plate.
2. Fold the white paper twice, length-wise and then width-wise, to form quadrants.
3. Place the hand and part of the arm into the paint and then make four “tree prints”, one in each of the four quadrants.
4. In the first “Spring” quadrant, paste crumpled up pieces of green paper. Then, roll up small pieces of pink tissue paper into little “flower buds” and glue onto the tree.
5. In the second “Summer” quadrant, paste crumpled up pieces of green paper. Then, roll up small pieces of red tissue paper into little “apple” balls and glue onto the tree.
6. In the third “Fall” quadrant, spread glue along the branches and at the base of the “tree”. Sprinkle the orange and yellow “leaf” confetti onto the areas with glue and shake off.  You can also add a few apples to the tree and on the ground.
7. In the fourth “Winter” quadrant, use a cotton ball to apply puff paint to the tree and ground.  Sprinkle on glitter, if desired.

Educational Connections:

• Arts / Photography: Take a photograph of a favorite outdoor spot during the height of each of the four seasons.
• Science: How does the apple tree change with the seasons?  Discuss the role light, warmth, weather, and pollinators play.
• Science / Geography: What causes the seasons? Are the seasons the same everywhere on the planet? Study how the Earth’s orbit around the sun and your latitude affect the seasons.
• English Language Arts / Literature: Read and write nature haiku or other poetry about each season.
• History: Visit local historic properties and farms and find out how what the change in seasons meant to people in earlier centuries.
• History / Global Studies / Cultural Studies: Which of your family or cultural traditions mark the change of the seasons? How do other cultures throughout the world celebrate the change of the seasons?

While our craft dried, we sang Songs About the Seasons and read Books About the Four Seasons of the Apple Tree:

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall: Two sisters describe how their apple tree grows during the seasons until there are ripe apples for a delicious pie. The mixed-media collage pictures are perfect for illustrating the rich textures of nature. A lovely family of robins, some helpful bees, and other fauna also play a role in this tale.  A page at the end describes the role bees play in pollination and shares a recipe for apple pie.  My kids find the whole idea of an “apple pie tree” very amusing and this simple tale keeps their interest throughout the whole story.

The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons: Arnold enjoys the seasons in his own special apple tree. As he watches flowers bud and blossom and ripen into fruit and observes his tree with his five senses, he also hangs a swing from his tree, builds a tree house, juggles, weaves a wreath, and decorates his apples and tree, all in their proper season.  Insets describe the process of pollination, give a recipe for Apple Pie, and show how Apple Cider is made.  This simple book is a clear illustration of the seasons of the apple tree.  I love the idea that the gifts of nature keep Arnold “busy”–his play is his work.

I’m sharing this at Story + Art (stART). Check out all the great ideas linked there!

We climbed aboard our rocket ships and zoomed up to the moon, visited a few planets, and then swung by the stars.

Here’s how we made our rocket ships:

Materials:

• Cardboard Tube
• Tinfoil
• Poster Board (we used red and blue)
• Stickers (for decorating your rocket)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Jar Top or Glass (for tracing a circle)
• Pencil or Crayon

Directions:

Step 1: Roll the toilet paper in tinfoil.

Step 2: Trace two circles on your poster board and cut out the circles.

Step 3: Cut a radius in one of the circles and fold it to form a cone. Glue the cone on top of the toilet paper roll.

Step 4: Cut the other circle in half.

Step 5: Cut slits in the side of the toilet paper roll and insert the half circle into the slits.

Step 6: Decorate your rocket ship and enjoy! (The USA rocket is mine. The double pink star space ship is my 4 year old daughter’s work.)

We also sang some fun galactic songs and read some out-of-this world books! Here are a few of the Astronaut Books we read:

I Want to Be an Astronaut (Ages 0-3), by Byron Barton, is a simple description of what astronauts do on a space mission.  The bold colors and heavy cartoon-style outlines will catch the attention of young children.

Space Boy (Ages 3-6) by Leo Landry is a sweet tale of a boy who decides to escape the noise of his neighborhood with a picnic on the moon. He enjoys the adventure but misses his family and pet.  So, he returns to Earth in time for for bed.

Astronaut Piggy Wiggy (Ages 0-3) by Christuan and Diane Fox is a funny take that will get toddlers excited about space exploration. There is not a lot of factual information for older children but the authors do fit in a few key ideas: there is a countdown to liftoff, the objects float, astronauts require training for the controls, they wear space suits and make repairs on their ship. A warning for purists: Piggy Wiggy finds alien creatures on a distant planet.

More space books and songs coming soon!

I am sharing this as part of stART — check out more story + ART!

We have the good fortune to live near an organic farm (Garden of Eve) owned by young parents. The mom runs a summertime “Mommy & Me” that includes a circle time and a farm “chore”. One week the children picked blackberries and turned them into jam!

The process was fairly simple:

1. Pick the berries
2. Wash and dry the berries
3. Meanwhile, sterilize glass jars in boiling water
4. Crush the berries in a bowl
5. Add mixture to a pot and pour in pectin according to the recipe
6. Bring to a quick boil and stir
7. Add sugar according to the recipe and bring to a boil again
8. Ladle jam mixture into the sterilized glass jars.

Since we did not plan to keep the jams for a long time, we did not process them in a Boiling Water Canner.

Books About Jelly, Jam, and Berries

Jamberry (ages 0-3)

My daughter’s favorite book when she was a baby, Jamberry is a rollicking, rhyming journey through the land of berries.  With just the right amount of playful silliness, a boy and his bear pick blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries for jam.  Their journey through Berryland ends in an explosion of flavorful berries as delicious fireworks fill the night sky.

Blueberry Shoe (0-3)

A clever story that makes a connection between a young family’s berry-picking and the natural environment.  A young toddler loses a shoe hiking with his family and the local wildlife makes use of his unintended gift.  When he finds it again the following year, he brings a bit of nature home with him.  Amazon has this listed as a book for 4-8 year olds but despite the more advanced vocabulary, the simple sentence structure, short pages, and beautiful woodcut-style illustrations will keep younger children’s interest.

Jam and Jelly by Holly and Nellie (Ages 4-8)

This touching story focuses on the bond between a mother and her daughter.  Holly’s mother wants to make sure she does not miss a single day of school for lack of a warm winter coat and boots.  So, the pair gather the bounty of the forest to make and sell jams and other berry treats.  I love the focus on the importance of education, personal responsibility, and hard work.

More berry book suggestions at Gardenaut…

Educational Connections

• Mathematics: Measure out the ingredients.
• Science: What makes berries sweet? What is pectin and why is it important in making jam? Which fruits are highest in natural pectin? Why do we boil the jars?
• Ecology: What other animals eat the berries? What is the difference between cultivated and wild berries? (Remind children to never eat berries without confirming with an adult that the berries are safe to eat.)
• Colors: Even young toddlers will enjoy identifying which berries are ripe and which are not yet ready based on the color.

Here’s a song about snakes that I wrote, based heavily on typical preschool counting songs:

Five Little Snakes
by Candace Lindemann

(start with five fingers up)

Five snakes molt their skin to grow some more, (children can reach for the sky)
One slides away and now there are four. (hold up four fingers)

Four crawly snakes climb a tree, (put hands together to show a snake shimmying up the tree)
One falls off and now there are three. (hold up three fingers)

Three slithering snakes in the muddy goo, (make a slithering motion with hands)
One hides under a rock and now there are two. (hold up two fingers)

Two cold-blooded snakes bask in the sun, (look up and smile)
One goes hunting and now there is one. (hold up one finger)

One crawly snake goes to find his mother. (hug your child)
Now there is no other! (open hands wide to show there are no more snakes)

And here is a classic snake song (edited to add: Amy pointed out  on facebook, this is by Shel Silverstein!):

I’m Being Swallowed By a Boa Constrictor by Shel Silverstein

I’m being swallowed by a boa constrictor;
I’m being swallowed by a boa constrictor.
Oh no, he’s swallowed my toes.
Oh no, he’s swallowed my toes.
Oh gee, he is up to my knees.
Oh gee, he is up to my knees.
Oh fiddle; he swallowed my middle.
Oh fiddle; he swallowed my middle.
Oh heck, he is up to my neck.
Oh heck, he is up to my neck.
Oh dread; he swallowed my head!
Oh dread; he swallowed my…gulp!

I also found some fun snake songs on iTunes to play while the kids were crafting:

• Sammy the Snake (Sesame Street: Sing the Alphabet)
• Kassandra the Snake (Gretchen Parlata – A World of Happiness)

Educational Connections:

You can investigate some of the points brought up in these songs:

• How do snakes move without legs?
• Why do snakes molt?
• Why do snakes generally live in warmer climates and why do they spend so much time in the sun?
• How come snakes can eat prey so much larger than themselves?

PS: Yes, that is me, holding a snake, in Bangkok.

Tickly Octopus is the story of a fun-loving octopus who enjoys tickling his friends–but only the wiggly, giggly fish appreciate his tentacled-tickles.  When our octopus protagonist goes on an adventure to recover his friend oyster’s pearl, he discovers he has so many other talents, including zooming through the water, squeezing through holes, and squirting ink to confuse foes.

My daughter also enjoys the Gentle Giant Octopus, which is more of a non-fiction discussion of an octopus but with a narrative style and lyrical language that is appealing to children. Children under four will probably prefer the more lively Tickly Octopus but future marine biologists and children four and older will appreciate the detail in Gentle Giant Octopus. Be forewarned that this book reveals that the mother octopus’s life ends as her babies’ begins so the themes may not be suitable for some families.

We made a simpler version of these water bottle octopuses:

Materials:

• Empty plastic water bottle
• Scissors
• Tempera Paint and Glitter Glue
• Googly Eyes
• Glue

Directions:

1. Cut off the top of the water bottle.
2. Cut slits from the area of the removed top, stopping about an inch from the bottom of the water bottle, to form eight tentacles.
3. Paint the octopus any color you wish.  Add glue to paints if they do not stick.
4. Paste on googly eyes

Educational Connections:

• Mathematics: Count the tentacles of the octopus.  What other animals have eight legs?
• Science: How has the octopus adapted to its environment? What are some other examples of adaptation to environments?
• Field Trip: Visit the Aquarium. What other adaptations has the octopus made to its environment?

I’m adding this to a fun educational meme: Story + Art = StART! Check out all the other cool ideas.

Whether teaching your kids or students in the classroom, you usually have the advantage of knowing your partners in learning.  For my moms’ meet-up group, I have been organizing a weekly “Preschool Play Date”.  Today our preschool play date suddenly became a Toddler Play Date and I had to adjust our plans. The result was a fun and easy fish craft that even a toddler will enjoy.

Sea creatures are always a hit with little ones, especially if you have a decent aquarium nearby.  We’re members at ours and the children are mesmerized by underwater life even as young as one–so colorful, so different, so entrancing!

Materials

• Paper plate
• Scissors
• Strong Non-Toxic Glue (we used Elmer’s Glue All)
• Googly Eyes in two sizes
• Materials for decorating your fish (this could be torn paper fish scales or any crayons, markers, or paints…we used Elmer’s Squeeze N’ Brush)
• Thread or Clear Tape

Instructions

1. Decorate the paper plates. You could use squares of lightweight paper or tissue paper to represent scales.  My younger group enjoyed using the Elmer’s Squeeze N’ Brush paint pens–lots of fun!
2. Cut a small triangle from one side of the plate to form the mouth.
3. Glue the triangle to the other side of the plate to make the tail.
4. Trace a small circle (a baby food jar lid works well) on a piece of poster board and cut out the circle.
5. Cut a small triangle from one side of the circle to form the mouth.
6. Glue the triangle to the other side of the circle to make the tail.
7. Add large googly eyes to the plate fish and small googly eyes to the paper fish.
8. Suspend the smaller fish from the mouth of the bigger fish with tape, fishing wire, or white thread.

Depending on your age group, you might read one (or both) of two books:

Swimmy by Leo Lionni is a good choice for toddlers and preschoolers. It is a simple tale about fish that focuses on the food chain without being overly intense. Like many of Lionni’s books, Swimmy also highlights the importance of friendship and teamwork.

Children four and up will enjoy the greater detail in  The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten: A Book About Food Chains. If you are a fan of The Magic School Bus, you are already familiar with the 70s-era psychedelia and groan-out-loud puns that permeate the series.  Whether or not you appreciate the humor, the information is scientifically accurate at an age-appropriate level. For this field trip to the beach, the eponymous bus transforms into a dolphin and dives into the ocean, exploring the symbiotic relationships among marine life and the oceanic food chain.

Teaching Extensions:

• Field Trip: Visit your local fish hatchery or aquarium! (Brave Parent or Teacher Bonus Points: Get your own fish tank and stock it with fish of your own!)
• Biology: What is the difference between a mammal and a fish? What are some examples of sea creatures that are fish and ones that are mammals? What do they have in common and what separates the two?
• Ecology: What is the food chain?  How do changes to one part of the food chain effect the entire chain? How does pollution effect the food chain?
• Economics: Beyond food sourcing, how do human beings rely on the health of our oceans and other bodies of water? Visit a seafood market, interview a fisherman, dine out at a seafood restaurant.
• Current events: Research the connection between oil spills, the environment, and local economies.

This won’t be the last of my sea creature craft and book posts!  We have an entire library of fun sea creature books and lots of crafts to try.  I have a few octopus crafts I’m itching to make with a group of older kids (including this Water Bottle Octopus from Crafts By Amanda and a Yarn Octopus from Craft Stylish) and I’m brainstorming a possible shark craft and a hermit crab craft.

With our preschoolers, we made dyed pasta rainbows.  We also gave the toddlers in our group the option of making the craft with fruity cereal o’s on paper–but this generally resulted in them just eating the cereal!

Materials:

• Rotelle (Wagon Wheel) Pasta
• Food Dye
• Wax Paper
• Cotton Balls
• Glue
• Thread (for hanging)

1. Dye the pasta by mixing 1 tablespoon of vinegar with pasta and a few drops of food coloring.  Our pasta was very yellow and so that affected the colors.  I might try multicolored pasta next time. (instructions via Frugal Family Fun Blog)
2. Begin by gluing 3-5 of the violet/purple pieces in an arc on your wax paper.
3. Glue each color of the rainbow in order around the previous one. (my daughter stopped halfway through the orange and switched to red–but that’s okay!)
4. Tear cotton balls into two or three pieces and glue at the ends of the rainbows.
5. Once the rainbow is dry, run a needle and thread through one of the top pieces of pasta and tie in a loop. Hang on a window.

While the rainbow is drying, you can enjoy a rainbow of fruit and discuss how eating a rainbow helps keep you healthy and gives you energy.  We were out of grapes and kiwi but managed most of the rest of the rainbow.

We also made rainbow star melted crayons but these took longer than I thought they would (and I didn’t love the way my kitchen smelled afterwards). If you want to make layered rainbow crayons, try this process at Chica and Jo.

And we read books about rainbows:

• Duckie’s Rainbow: A cute story that follows Ducky through all of the colors and at the end the pages create the rainbow.
• Rainbow and You: A quirky book that covers how rainbows happen as well as the myths various cultures developed about rainbows.
• Mouse Paint: Not really about rainbows but a fun story about color mixing that the kids really enjoyed.
• We also read a cute little poem about Rainbow Fairies that is available in If You See a Fairy Ring: A Rich Treasury of Classic Fairy Poems.
• I haven’t read these yet, but I am eager to find: The Magic School Bus Makes A Rainbow: A Book About Color and The Rainbow Goblins

More rainbow crafts and recipes:

• Beaded Rainbow (My Montessori Journey)
• Recycled Paper Rainbow (No Time for Flashcards)
• Beaded Rainbow (Kaboose)
• Tissue Paper Rainbow (Kansas City Public Library)
• Fruity Cereal Rainbow (Kansas City Public Library)
• Rainbow Streamer Mobile (Kaboose)

Find a local Maple Syrup Festival or take a road trip!  If you are heading to Vermont, check out Find & Go Seek’s listings of Vermont Maple Festivals.

My family headed to Benner’s Farm for their annual Maple Sugaring event. My children had an opportunity to learn about the Sugar Maple Tree (which New York, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia share as their state tree), tap trees for sap, watch the sap being boiled, taste fresh maple syrup, and even watch them making maple sugar candy.  I think the candy was the highlight for my daughter.

If you have Sugar Maples at home or near your school, you can also make your own maple syrup–we used to do this at my school when I was a child.

Discuss the process of photosynthesis and how the Sugar Maple is part of its ecosystem.

Learn about the history of Maple Sugaring, from the role it played in the lives of the native people to its use as a domestic (and slave-labor free) sweetener for colonists.  Changing technology has allowed large maple sugaring operations to flourish but small-batch maple syrup manufacture remains a cottage industry for many Americans today.

Calculate how many gallons of sap you will need to make one gallon of maple syrup.

Watch the temperature rise and fall as the sap reaches it boiling point and then cools.  Discuss why different fluids have different boiling points and why boiling turns the sap into syrup (and the syrup into candy).

Check out some more educational activities for enjoying Maple Sugaring Season and some great lesson plans about maple syrup from photosynthesis to weather to history to marketing the finished product.

And then whip up a batch of pancakes or waffles and enjoy some tasty syrup or try another maple syrup recipe!

Photo Credit: Hounds in the Kitchen

Last year, we used a calendar “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” project to explore the concept of the changing weather.

March Lion and Lamb Calendar Directions

1. Print a blank March calendar.
2. Print/photocopy Lion and Lamb clip art and cut so each animal is on its own square. We got ours from The Big Book of Monthly Ideas : Preschool-Kindergarten : The Best of the Mailbox Monthly Idea Books (activity is modified from that book). This is a perfect opportunity to practice scissor skills!
3. Share the saying “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.”
4. Ask your child to describe lions (fierce, strong, roar) and lambs (gentle, friendly, baa) and what type of weather each might represent.
5. Each day: check the thermometer, select the right animal, and paste it on the calendar.
6. At the end of March, count up the number of lamb days and lion days or keep a running tally. For older kids, you could create a line graph.

Educational Experience:

• Science: Introduce the idea of the changing seasons and weather.  With children who are ready, discuss what causes different weather phenomena.
• Mathematics: Count or graph the lamb and lion days.
• Fine Motor Skills: Practice cutting straight lines with the scissor.
• Language Arts: Use adjectives to describe lions and lambs and the weather. Discuss different ways to describe rain (drizzle, rain drops, downpour), snow (blizzard, flurry), etc.

Extensions

• Science: Create a weather station board or windsocks (via No Time for Flashcards)
• Arts and Crafts: Create more Lions and Lambs.  Last year we cut the center from a paper place, glued lamb ears and cotton balls on one and lion ears and yellow and orange tissue paper squares on another.  Here are some more ideas: Lion Hand Print Craft (via Crayola); another lion and lamb hand print craft (via Thrifty Mommy); Lion and Lamb Poster (via Preschool Playbook)
• Culinary Arts: Make and enjoy Lion (pineapple manes) and Lamb (cottage cheese) salads.
• Life Skills: Each day, dress dolls (could be fashion dolls, paper dolls, felt board dolls)  in clothing appropriate for the weather.
• Theater Arts: Tape your children giving the local forecast (and e-mail it to the grandparents) or try this “Lion and Lamb” pantomime play from Scholastic.

Books

• Elmer’s Weather (Comes in a variety of languages)
• Oh Say Can You Say What’s the Weather Today?: All About Weather (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)
• Weather Words and What They Mean
• What Will the Weather Be? (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
• The Magic School Bus Kicks Up A Storm: A Book About Weather

Photo credit: NormaNack