For our third week of SVL (supplement-to-virtual learning), I decided to focus on all things Spring. The weather is perfect this time of year, so we needed to be outdoors. I was so grateful for the days of sunshine because it lessened the feeling of being sequestered during lockdown. We headed outside and got our hands dirty, learned a lot, and even decided to check out some of our buzzing and chirping friends, Wild Kratts style. If your kids have not seen the show Wild Kratts, I highly recommend it. Two brothers go on adventures in each episode learning all sorts of cool facts about different animals. In every episode, they reach a point where they say, “what if?” and it switches to the animated version with a team of kid scientists. They figure a way to construct suits that help them mimic all the characteristics of the animal they are researching so they get to experience what it is like to be a cheetah, for example, and not just observe one. My boys have enjoyed the show and have learned a lot. One day, we were talking about flamingos and I asked, “I wonder why they are that bright pink color?” My oldest said, “Actually mom, the algae they eat turns their feathers pink.” My youngest added, “it also comes from little shrimp they eat.” I looked at them and asked, “Is that true? How do you know that?” They both said, “Wild Kratts.” They were correct and I have been impressed with the facts they remember from the show, so if you are looking for something fun and educational, give it a try.
I need to stop and tell you a little bit about our back yard. It’s a nice big space but we have a section along the left going up a hill toward the back fence that is overrun with bamboo. I don’t know if you have had any experience with bamboo or not but if you do, you know it is extremely difficult to get rid of. We have a lot of bamboo. So much, so that it hides a chicken coop on that hill too. You have to hike through the bamboo jungle to find it. I would like to use that space at some point to grow some things like strawberries, blueberries and who knows what else. Maybe we get chickens, and maybe we clean up the coop, paint it and use it for something else but until we address the bamboo forest, we cannot do anything. It is hard to kill and very expensive to remove if you go deep and get all the roots (which you need to do, or it just comes back). My idea? Get a panda. I know what you’re thinking. Pandas are owned by China. Pandas are extremely expensive. Pandas are endangered and there’s no way they will let me have one. These are all great points. However, I found out that apparently you can get a panda if you’re famous, say for instance Jackie Chan. He has two pandas that he only paid around 150,000 dollars for, which is a bargain compared to the 1,000,000 per year that China charges most zoos. Pandas eat about 50 pounds of bamboo per day. At that rate I think I would just need to borrow a panda for a week or two, max. At that point it’s just panda-sitting. This is totally doable. I just need to reach out to Jackie Chan, who seems like a nice guy and make my proposal. Just drop them off with us while he goes on vacation. I get rid of my bamboo problem; I avoid the obvious Chinese government barriers and save a ton of money. Why am I rambling about bamboo? Well, I will tell you. Given that operation Shanghai Panda has not gotten off the ground yet, I have found a use for our bamboo in a couple of our fun SVL activities. This week was one of those times. Read on for five full days of spring activities where the boys learned about bees, birds, plants and how they grow, an accompanying Bible verse and me getting a workout cutting up bamboo.
I am including the basic schedule we stuck to most days while the boys did two zoom calls, school activities and our learning units so you can see how we juggled everything. We also stuck to our routine of reading about three books a day to continue with our reading goals and for my oldest to practice reading. I have included links to ones that are cute and appropriate for our spring unit.
Basic Daily Schedule
8:00-9:00- Up/eat and practice memory verses during breakfast.
9:00-9:30 -Big Brother has zoom call. Little brother does various activities while waiting on zoom call.
9:30-10:00– Bible story for the week.
10:00-11:00-Little brother has zoom call and while he works on his activity, big brother completes his assignments.
11:00-11:30-Main activity for the day.
11:30-12:00-Recess!
12:00-12:30-Reading
12:30: LUNCH!
Monday:
Introducing Springtime! Spring is a busy time. The temperature is warmer, and everything is coming alive after months of cold. Baby animals are born, birds and bugs are busy, and flowers are starting to bloom. It is a time for high energy! We started off by shaking it out with some dance tunes (yes, I made a playlist). You should make one too. Get your little critters moving in the morning. Some suggestions from ours include, “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” “Happy,” and “I Like to Move it.”
Then, we set the tone for the week by reading Matthew 6:25-34. These verses went perfectly with our spring focus. Jesus is teaching us not to worry about food or clothes or what tomorrow brings. He points out the birds and the flowers have what they need because He provides it. Then He goes on to explain that we are so much more valuable so we should not worry about what we need day to day. He will take care of it! A great passage to remind us of God’s provision. Jehovah Jireh is Hebrew for “The Lord Will Provide.” In the Old Testament, after God provided the ram for sacrifice in place of Abraham’s son, Abraham named the place Jehovah Jireh. As we went through the week, we got the chance to learn about the birds, bees, and flowers; how they grow and how they interact with their environment. It provided a great opportunity to talk about what these verses mean in terms of God’s provision.
For our art project, I think a good idea is to let them pick a subject. I suggested drawing a bee, bird, or flower. True to form, my little artists decided to do all 3. For recess, we played a little tag outside to run around and enjoy some fresh air.
Tuesday:
After our morning routines, we reinforced completing our chores getting ready for the day, making sure things were picked up and tidy. You can also play some fun tunes for motivation as the kids get these things done. For my little one, we went over the calendar and did a check of the weather as we reviewed our day and month while waiting for his class zoom.
How Does it Grow?
For today’s activity, we planted our own flower seeds in a pot. You will need a small pot, some flower seeds of your choice and some potting soil. I included a link below to some plastic pots on Amazon that your kids can actually decorate themselves if they choose. Grab any pot you like though and get to work. We got to talk about the main things plants need for growth including soil, water, and sunlight. We also introduced the concept of photosynthesis. We learned about a plant’s special cells, called chlorophyll (that make them green). Using these cells, the plant takes in sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make sugar, the plant’s food. Below are two videos that are some good options to help visually explain the process. We also planted some flowers in our longer pot for our window box. It is so fun to get outside and just get your hands dirty, and it helps put it all together as we put the seeds in the soil and watered our newly planted flowers. The plant encyclopedia book I have linked below is a Smithsonian book filled with all sorts of plants and flowers they can read about with beautiful pictures. For recess, we played a game of memory or matching inside since we spent some time outside planting our flowers.
Photosynthesis | Educational Video for Kids – YouTube
Photosynthesis | The Dr. Binocs Show | Learn Videos For Kids – YouTube
Trees, Leaves, Flowers and Seeds: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Plant Kingdom
Wednesday:
As we got dressed today, we put on yellow shirts because today’s focus were the bees. We reviewed our verses from Monday to reinforce the concept of God’s provision. After shaking it out to our dance tunes we settled in for quite the day of busy bee fun.
What’s the BUZZ?
In honor of Wild Kratts, not only were we learning about bees, but we also decided to become bees. I made the boys some wings and they got to have fun running around pretending to be bees. I included a link below to a Pinterest site. The site appears to have some wings you can buy, but honestly, I just used the picture as a template to make my own. I drew the wings on card stock and cut them out. For the body, I used black and yellow construction paper. I cut the body out of the black and glued strips of yellow on to each one. I stapled the wings and then all I had to do was make straps for their arms so they could put them on. Now, remember, this was during lockdown, so I used some old black knee-high socks and just stapled them on to the top and bottom of the wings. All they had to do was slide their arms through and just like that, my boys were transformed into bees.
Here are some of our other bee activities:
Learn difference between honeybee and bumblebees. We pulled up the following link and reviewed the differences. honeybees and bumblebees. Then, we made a list like the one below.
Bumblebee Honeybee
-Round and fuzzy -Small and thin
-Live in nests with hundreds of others -Live in hives with thousands of others
-Only in the wild -Can be in wild or can be kept by beekeepers
-Colonies in burrows or holes in ground -Hives in hollow trees
-Only the queen survives the winter -Entire colony survives the winter
-Does not produce much honey -Produces lots of honey
-Best at pollination -Better at communication: this bee dances
Why are bees important? We talked about pollination and how it is the transfer of pollen to another flower or plant that allows for fertilization. Pollination has a value of around 3 billion/year. Bees serve to pollinate plants and flowers that we need. Fun fact: Bees can perform ‘buzz pollination’ where they vibrate their flight muscles so fast it, shakes the pollen out of the flower. Tomatoes and blueberries require this type of pollination.
Make a Bee Habitat:
Here’s where the bamboo comes in. I read the article in the link below with engaging activities for kids exploring bees and decided to try this out using what I had on hand. I grabbed a paint can and painted it yellow with black stripes. Then, I cut some smaller older bamboo stalks so that I had hollow cylinders to stack in the can according to the instructions. I didn’t exactly fill it up because cutting bamboo was quite the chore, but we accomplished the basic idea. Then we hung it up! I have also included the link to that activity below from the original article as well. The first article has additional great suggestions on activities and books for learning all about bees. After all that we learned, we each chose our favorite type of bee.
Are you team bumble or honey?
20 Engaging Hands-On Activities Exploring Bees for Kids (homeschoolpreschool.net)
How to Make a Mason Bee Habitat – Perfect Life Cycle of a Bee Activities – Natural Beach Living
Below is a link to the Spanish Playground site to incorporate some additional spring focused vocabulary words into your learning.
Spanish spring vocabulary words
For recess the boys ran around buzzing in their wings and we made up a game where the bees tried to safely get back to the hive while avoiding the big bad wasp (me or grandma).
Thursday:
We kicked things off with our dance moves and taking care of our chores. After checking the calendar and the weather, we reviewed some geography on our map. We reviewed the seven continents and located them and made sure we could locate our country and state.
Today’s activity was all about hummingbirds. We reviewed the fascinating facts below including viewing a short video of the hummingbird hovering in slow motion.
- They are small, only weigh about 4-8 grams (average)
- Over 350 species and only in the Americas…where is that on the map?
- Some species flap their wings 50-80 times per second! When the dive, it can be as much as 200 times per second!
- Their heart can beat as fast as 1200 beats per minute.
- They have to eat a lot every day, about half their body weight. How many pounds of food would that be for you? They are always hungry and eat nectar, insects, and spiders. Their body slows way down while they sleep so they don’t starve.
- Stunning Slo-Mo Footage of Hummingbirds Hovering in Air
I had ordered a feeder and some nectar so that we could hang our own to attract some of these fascinating birds. I have included links for both items below which you can easily get on Amazon. We have enjoyed seeing some of these amazing birds and it was a fun activity for the boys after learning all about them. For recess, the hornet/bee game was back by popular demand. For reading, I recommend including Little Blue Truck’s Springtime. Grab it here: Little Blue Truck’s Springtime.
Friday:
It was finally Friday and if ever there was a reason to dance, it’s waking up to a Friday. After our normal morning routines, we did a recap of the week so far to see how much the boys remembered. I let each of my little ones tell me their favorite activities and why along with something they learned from our topics each day.
- How do flowers grow?
- What’s the buzz with bees?
- What did we learn about hummingbirds?
For our Friday activity, we decided to get creative. I asked them to write a story or make-up a song about spring using things they learned this week. We had fun and it reminded me of the time I was driving Wood home from daycare when he was just two. He asked me to sing a song about bugs. I didn’t know any songs about bugs but that wasn’t going to stop me. I made one up on the spot because that’s what we do, right? I’m sharing it with you because technically it has a bee in it so it’s relevant to this week’s unit. Sorry I can’t share the tune but feel free to use if you find yourself needing a bug song on the fly (no pun intended).
“Bzzz (make buzz noise), here comes a bumble bee; bzzz, here comes a fly
Bzzz, here comes a lady bug, who says she’s stopping by
Crawly, here comes a spider; crawly, here comes an ant
Crawly, here comes a roly-poly, and I JUST CAN’T!
Get away from these bugs!”
My little boy just smiled and said, “sing it again, mommy.” To this day, it’s our bug song. It’s also fun to tickle up their arms while doing the ‘crawly,’ parts.
Next, we made our own birds and nests. We followed the instructions in the YouTube video (link below) to make our birds. Then, we each took a paper plate and went outside to gather some small twigs and grass to form our nests. We also added some feathers from my craft closet and some cotton balls to add some soft cushion. Once our birds were ready we set them in our nests. We wrote out the first part of Matthew 6:34 on some note cards and added it to our nests as a reminder of God’s provision.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. “-Matthew 6:34
DIY paper toys | Easy paper birds – YouTube
I also recommend making these sprinkle cookies (link to recipe below). A lot of times, we headed into the kitchen on Fridays for an extra special treat and these were a hit. For recess, we headed outside to play in the driveway with sidewalk chalk. I ordered some chalk from Amazon and we got creative with no boundaries. It’s nice to not have to say, ‘keep it on the paper,’ or ‘be sure you have something under your paper if you’re using a permanent marker.’ With sidewalk chalk, they can just go crazy.
Super Soft Sprinkle Pudding Cookies | The BEST Sugar Cookie Recipe (cookiesandcups.com)
We had a great time with all of our spring activities this time last year. It was a difficult time with the pandemic, lockdown, and trying to work from home. I didn’t know what the days and weeks to come would bring and didn’t want their summer to be completely void of fun. We were thankful for the spring weather that allowed us to enjoy being outside. I was also glad for the opportunity to share with the boys that we don’t have to worry even in the midst of uncertainty. We know that God is in control and He provides. I hope you have enjoyed this post and that maybe it gives you some ideas of some fun things you can do this spring with your little ones.
Be sure to check out Wild Kratts if you haven’t already, pick a bee team, and feed some hummingbirds.
U2 reminds us,
“Its a beautiful day, don’t let it get away.”
And if you see Jackie Chan, tell him I need to borrow a panda.
Thanks for visiting mockingbirdmom.com!
