Summer has started to show signs it is coming to an end. Thankfully, our year at Nature Preschool is just beginning! The classes quickly found their stride and the children were ready to explore new areas on the trails and in the forest. They brought their nature journals to some of Irvine’s most special spots: one class got cozy in the Woodland Garden, others looked to the meadow for colorful inspiration and others trekked to the wetlands to paint with mud!
The different classroom insects (and arachnids) have been influencing much of our learning this past week. Movement activities naturally evolve when you are a “hopping cricket” or a “fluttering butterfly”! The children make extra personal connections to their class critter if they discover them in nature. If you are in the spider class, stumbling across a web is a treasured discovery! Other treasures on the trail this week were acorns, the first colored leaves to fall, multitudes of meadow grass and holey leaves that had us saying, “Crunch, munch, caterpillar lunch.”
Every day at Nature Preschool is an adventure! Explore the galleries below to see all the fun we had this past week.
In Fading Summer,
Nature Preschool at Irvine Nature Center
Outdoor Exploration
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- A is for “Acorn”
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- The Bee class explores the stream!
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- The Dragonflies balancing behind one another on the way to the meadow!
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- A nature journal is a great place to practice writing outside.
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- Mud Kitchen
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- Barefoot & Happy
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- Book Buddies
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- A Butterfly in a Boat
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- Mud Painting Rocks
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- Busy at the Mud Kitchen
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- Nature Journals in the Woodland Garden
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- The Bees made pokeberry mud paint!
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- The Dragonflies are in the meadow working in their nature journals!
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- Nature Journals in the Meadow
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- Milkweed Meadow Magic
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- The Beetle class smells spicebush on the trail!
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- Smelling Spicebush
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- Balancing Beetles!
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- One by one the Beetles cross this log on the valley wall trail!
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- The Beetles are in the shade of the lower meadow working in their journals.
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- Work of a Young Artist
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- New Friends
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- Mixing Mudpaint
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- Mudpainting the Trees
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- Ms Mepi and the beetles spot something in the woods!
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- Flying Down the Meadow
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- Scissor Snipping in the Meadow
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- Collecting Meadow Berries
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- Ms Meghan and the Beetles read in the meadow!
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- The Beetle Class
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- This “bee bed” is just too funny!
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- Chalk Drawing Spiders
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- Leaf Body Tracing – This took teamwork!
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- The bees head back to “the hive” for lunch!
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- Run and scream! Wahoo!
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- Spider Stepping
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- The crickets are hiding and hopping in the tall grass!
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- Sweepnets in the Meadow
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- Leaf Body Tracing
Discoveries in Nature
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- I say, “Crayfish.” You say, “Crawfish.”
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- We are curious about this leaf!
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- An insect in the meadow
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- Letters on this sign!
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- Our Letter of the Week “A”
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- Mud Paint
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- A Pepper from the Garden
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- Miss Erin and the crickets found mulch mountain
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- Look closely! He is holding a daddy longlegs.
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- A monarch caterpillar munching away on milkweed.
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- Milkweed Discovery
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- Ms Callie and the Dragonflies spot something in the meadow!
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- The Letter Y
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- Tall Meadow Grass
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- A Slug
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- A Slug and a Snail shell
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- Smelly Leaf
In the Classroom
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- Pipettes, watercolors and crumpled paper make a fun and tactile visual art invitation to play!
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- Taxidermy Provocation
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- Sensory Bin
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- Observation and Imaginary Play
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- Number Play at Imagination Stations
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- A Writing Invitation
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- Dress Up Fun
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- Drilling In Logs
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- Playdough Numbers
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- Painting on the Easel
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- Hand Drills and Bark
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- Playdough and Math Provocation
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- This boy loves his letters!
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- The mirror here almost makes it look like she is playing her reflection in this board game!
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- Self Portraits
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- Circle Time
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- Exploring Weight With Scales
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- Building Buddies
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- This crew of inventors worked together to make so many different machines!
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- Do you want to draw a self portrait?
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- Spiders reading in the loft!
