Keep Calm and Soldier On

*Lesson is appropriate for children ages 3-8 (tailored for my three children ages 3, 5 and 7).

Poetry:

• March 16- Riddle by Anonymous (from Sing a Song of Seasons) — this is similar to the Gollum riddle from The Hobbit
• A Rule For Bird Nesters (from A Child’s Book of Poems)

Read Aloud:

• A Nest Full of Eggs
• Eggs and Nests (from The Usbourne Complete First Book of Nature p16-17)

Music:

• Green Grass Grows All Around
• Baby Chickie

Math:

• Counting Bird Activity Set – This is an awesome FREE resource I found, from Life, Abundantly. Print and cut out ahead of time or have kids help cut out. I laminated ours for future use.
  • 7 year old: Rolling dice and multiplying them using groups of eggs in the nest. Picking a numbered egg and using anywhere from 2-4 eggs that add up to that number.
  • 5 year old: Lining up eggs and counting them. Rolling two dice and adding the total of those dice to the nest.
  • 3 year old: Lining up eggs and counting them. Rolling dice and putting that many eggs into nest.
• Eggs In A Nest Division Worksheet (7 year old)

Journal:

• 7 year old: “If I needed to build a nest…” (Who am I? Where? What will I use?) & draw a picture of your nest.
• 5 year old: Read and copy sight word sentence – “I see three eggs in the nest.” Draw a picture of your nest.
• 3 year old: Trace an egg and the word “EGG” & draw a bird inside of your egg.

Activities:

• Nature hike to collect nest supplies (i.e. small twigs, straw, grass, moss).
• Make homemade play dough, using this great recipe from Fun Learning for Kids. For a more natural look, don’t add food coloring. Let kids do all the scooping, pouring, stirring and kneading. I added cinnamon. It smells nice! And I added quite a bit of cornstarch while kneading to make the dough less sticky. It made it nice and soft.
• Make bird nests using supplies from hike and playdough.

Centers:

• Playdough
• Plastic easter eggs with corresponding colored counting bears
• Books – spring themed