Thursday, November 18, 2010

Acorns

We have been slowly continuing our fall themed activites.  This week, Arin learned more about acorns.  She thought they were just nuts and was not aware that they were actually seeds that would eventually sprout and grow into trees, if not eaten first.

We read:
 Dot and Jabber and the Great Acorn Mystery by Ellen Stoll Walsh
From Acorn to Oak Tree by Jan Kottke

Arin's favorite activity was our stick tic-tac-toe board with acorn playing pieces.  We have been on several nature walks in the past few weeks.  During one of them, we collected sticks that were about the same size.  Once home, I hot glued them together to form the tic-tac-toe board.  Then, to add a splash of color, I tied yarn around the sticks where they were joined together.  We have two types of oak trees growing near our house, so we were able to gather two types of acorns as playing pieces.  If we would have only had one type of acorn, we would have used the caps as the second type of playing piece.

I also gave Arin a set of oak tree life cycle cards, which she put in order.  As she was putting them in order, she named the life cycle stage that was on the each of the cards.

The last activity was an acorn addition math file folder game.  Arin played this when she was younger and I was surprised that see said she remembered it. 

Other acorn activities that Arin has done can be found here.

This is linked to Preschool Corner (&5k too!).

1 comment:

Michelle Gibson said...

I didn't even know there were two types of acorns! But that would have been a great idea to use the caps. Next year, I may try to talk you into sending me some! ;-) We don't have a single oak tree that I know of in our area. I could swap you for pine cones though (lol). :D