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Welcome 5
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0-1: A Welcome Note from Victoria 30 minLecture1.1
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0-2: Good Things to Know 30 minLecture1.2
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0-3: Why Literacy Outdoors? 30 minLecture1.3
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0-4: Ideas to Kick Start Your Literacy Garden 30 minLecture1.4
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0-5: Supply List for Reading, Writing, Listening, and Talking Outdoors 30 minLecture1.5
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Module 1: Gardens that Feed 5
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1-1: Welcome to The Gardens that Feed 30 minLecture2.1
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1-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture2.2
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1-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture2.3
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1-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture2.4
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1-5: Harvest Curriculum-on-the-Go Kits 30 minLecture2.5
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Module 2: Gardens as Outdoor Learning Stations that Inspire Themes 6
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2-1: Welcome to Gardens as Outdoor Learning Stations that Inspire Themes 30 minLecture3.1
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2-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture3.2
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2-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture3.3
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2-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture3.4
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2-5: Harvest Literacy Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture3.5
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LIVE Workshop #1Lecture3.6
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Module 3: Gardens that Attract Wildlife 5
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3-1: Welcome The Gardens that Attract Wildlife 30 minLecture4.1
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3-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture4.2
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3-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture4.3
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3-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture4.4
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3-5: Harvest Literacy Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture4.5
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Module 4: Gardens for Beauty and Art 6
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4-1: Welcome to The Gardens for Beauty and Art 30 minLecture5.1
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4-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture5.2
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4-3: Plant Ideas 30 minLecture5.3
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4-4: Grow Activities 30 minLecture5.4
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4-5: Harvest Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture5.5
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LIVE Workshop #2Lecture5.6
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61 Comments
My little ones love The Grouchy Lady Bug. There are a lot of directions we’ve taken just from this one book, we’ve talked about aphids what they are and what they eat, and of course lady bugs. We have no shortage of them around here so we are always luck enough to be able to look at real live ladybugs and compare the different colors and sizes. I have a group that loves bugs!
how to adapt wildlife insects need some knowledge on their habitat and life cycle. Take butterfly for example, they need warm weather to live in, some sugary fluids, some where to cling onto for metamorphosis.
I think this is a good opportunity to ask kids what is living and what is non living? what do living things need? then asking the following questions about environment and habitat. what is an insect? what do you know about the insects? Its also a good opportunity to ask about animal life cycles and comparing different insects. I think it is also a good opportunity to explore outside and ask what do you see?
Great ideas!
I think this is a really good book to get into many different things not only explain habitats but environments, shelters things like that. Also roles bugs can play within the world we live in. During our curriculumn, we did have a section where we not only explained about plants but the importance of certain bugs, for example bees and life cycles of a butterfly. We also got a chance to talk about different environment and how different things can support different animals and insects. I would say for this book I would go and explain the rich vocabulary within the book, and discuss the bugs themselves what they look like what they may or may not do, what they might feel like, discuss if something may be similar to something they might now. let them discuss of different habitats they may live in. also its a great idea for them to learn about different trees and how the log may com from a different type of tree an evergreen or deciduous tree etc things like that depending on the day. I might choose what section of the book to focus on.
Great adaptations and ideas.
The book What’s under the log gives the children and me a rich vocabulary and fills in a lot of gaps that I can’t really explain to children with any authority about.
When the children are with me we enjoy reading the hungry caterpillar. Along with it have a sock puppet and all of the food that he eats on his way to his cocoon. The food fits over their hand and arm and all the colors extend up their arms.
I think a great way for me to bring this book outside would be to decorate a caterpillar outside and have wooden pieces with the food colors or drawings on them
Awesome!
This is a great book to introduce children to different bugs and their habitats but it also is a great segue to helping the children learn and explore the role bugs and other creatures play in our environment. We use the children’s love of flipping over the tree stumps and rounds in our natural playspace to observe, record and explore the different species they find under there. Worms have been a valuable resource for more in depth learning opportunities as they are plentiful in our space. They have captured the interest of even the skeptics in our classroom. They love watching them move and borrow and hearing how they are an integral piece of how they help plants, fruits and vegetables grow by providing the pockets for plants to receive oxygen. This has also been valuable to show that worms are more than just slimey creatures that you might step on out of fear. They are in fact, live creatures just like bugs who help pollinate flowers and the very fruits children eat. I have overheard children yelling to peers and forming barricades to protect a lone worm misplaced on concrete from runners. This was a far different reaction before the books and discussion.
Wonderful reflections.
this a wonderful idea ,I work with younger kids ,so I think by reading the book to the kids on early age it is great way to start to teach them about the wildlife.
Great!
I have most of the books you listed. Another favorite author for wildlife is Jim Arnoskey and his Crinkleroot character.. For the last 2 years, I have asked my student’s families to donate nature guides to our classroom instead of getting me a present for Christmas. We received so many different ones–so exciting! I also suggest they donate a book in honor of their child’s birthday. They do that and still send in a special eating treat too.
After reading this book from the library, I tried ordering it from the bookstore but it’s not available. Where did you get your copy? It’s an excellent book and features many of the animals we have around here in lower Michigan.
Such a great way to get parents involved. Beautiful!
Well, l loved all the ideas you told here. I think all garden books for children can help us alot to create amazing activities. I like much very hungry Caterpillar, because the kids learn the life cycle very good.
The Very Hungary Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I love this book. It’s creative and amazing and it reminds me of my childhood memories when I was in elementary school. It is all about a caterpillar that eats a lot of one food each through one page at a time. The food as any kind that everybody loves and it goes by small to big.
The habitat of this book is a animal that can turn into something very beautiful. The insects I do recognize in this book only the caterpillar. The insects are new to me are nothing because I know them and it doesn’t have a lot of insects in them. The decomposition of this book is eating through a simple page that have one food on it. The consumer is this book is a shiny, silver-coated cover and wonderfully thick, durably pages by the same author Eric Carle. He first published by the World Publishing Company in 1969, but later then it was published by Penguin Putnam.
I can adapt these questions to work for my age group by going trough the whole story on what is this caterpillar doing and what is happening to that big insect that is going through each one of the pages.
Great reflections! I love this book too!
Reminds me of a field trip to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary where our guide flipped over a few logs and the kids observed what was hiding beneath. Mostly grubs as I recall.
Imagine that you could create the same experience in your own Outdoor Classroom.
I know the challenge with this sort of thing is that many of the kids will be grossed out by the bugs, but hopefully, adapting these sorts of lessons will help them to understand what the bugs actually exist for and help them come to appreciate what they do. And for the older kids, it would be informative for them to discuss how the bugs fit into their habitat and start thinking about how we humans fit into our world.
You hit the nail on the head. It’s the WHY this work is so important. Get past the “gross” phase and open up their worlds so they can understand and grow to love our earth.
This book can bring in many discussions. We can really get into details about what is a habitat. Show pictures of habitats and bring them outside to look for them. These questions are perfect for any age group, they really make the children think about what the story is describing
Great reflections.
This story is very interesting for children. Alexandria and I agree that this story is good for teaching children about insects and helping interest children in bugs. We think it would be helpful for children who have fears of bugs to learn a bit more were they come from. We would like to read this story to our children in the spring and then when we are outside extending that story into a further activity. Possibly rolling logs over and seeing what types of insects we may find.
Great! Make sure you have one or two logs that are designated as “observation logs.”
If I was to introduce the book, ” The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, to my group of preschoolers I would have to break these questions done very easily. For the first question what is a habitat instead of calling it a habitat for the kids I would ask the kids where does the caterpillar live. I believe for the second question I would as I am reading the book ask the students if they see any other bugs besides the caterpillar. For the last three questions I would change these to be so simple for the preschoolers. I would talk about different bugs besides the caterpillar mentioned in the book.
The book the very hungry caterpillar could potentially show kids that eating a large amount of unhealthy food can result in a stomach ache. In more elaborate terms the unhealthy food, in such great portions, is not good for your body’s digestive system due to the lack of nutrients within this select amount of food. But, eating healthy, for the caterpillar that is the leaf, could result in a full feeling and growth, becoming a butterfly.
Fantastic dialogue with kids.
Funny just discovered a book about rollie pollies to read to the class because we had some of our children flip over logs to collect them thot It would be a good book to read.
Oh…what is the name of the book?
For my age group I would prompt the students in asking them what do they find when you turn over a log? Based on the responses given I would come back to those responses while reading the book over to note those who mentioned certain bugs or animals that you may find!
We have many logs in our playground that are suppose to be used as seats. However, moving one of the logs into an observation station could be a good idea for the children to observe what happens to the logs that are being interacted with, versus the one in the observation station that is simply in nature. What bugs would we see? Mushrooms? How does the bark hold up on the logs we use daily versus the one we are “observing”?
Great questions. Make a sign for the observation station. Awesome ideas.
This actually gave the idea of wanting to do a club based on Insect gathering. It would be a great way for the kids to be outside and interact with the environment.
Oh my goodness! Great idea! Let me know how it goes!
There would be many ways we could adapt these ideas to my age group. Using simple words and pictures to describe that a habit Is a type of home. I’d show the children puppets or large posters of the insects used, a matching game to help the children recognize in the book (which could be done in many ways), I’d describe the concepts of decomposition and consumer using all types of visual prompts; posters, puppets and in class materials to get the point across.
Keep those ideas flowing. Awesome job!
In order to adapt it to my older children I think we can dig deeper into decomposition, consumer, and producers. We can also talk about different habitats. The kids could do research and model these habitats as an extension activity.
Great ideas!
I like the idea of a specific sitting area for kids. Refreshing children’s memory of past days might be a good idea for younger toddlers as well as appropriate books and songs.
Our kids seem to like making observations. and really enjoy looking back at our adventures through photographs
we did a butterfly curriculum in which we used the hungry caterpillar and got some caterpillars and watched them turn into butterflies the kids had a great time
I would adapt these questions to be more observational. For example I would go outside and just movie logs and have the kids get their hands dirty categorizing bugs and insects in the moment.
I really like the prompting questions. I would like to pair the younger children with the older ones. That way, the older children can act as educators and help the younger children understand what decomposition and habitats are.
Love this book and actually helped my Dad hollow out a stump and planted all kind of flowers. The different bugs and other crawly things were amazing
This is something I will be able to implement I love books and reading to the kids.
Having kids look at bugs under logs outside and draw/write observations about them would be a great activity to go with this book. Creating a diagram of the process of decomposition of logs would also be very educational and fun!
Love the diagram idea.
The kids are so fascinated by bugs and insects, that they would be very excited to learn all about the different bugs they may be living under the log and to learn about their habitats.
Science > what a great way to learn just using a log or stone ect….
In my tomato plants the children discovered worms in the garden and we talked about how the worms kept the soil healthy for our tomatoes. I am thinking I want to have a tank and worms inside this year so they can observe what the worms do down under the soil.
Our children would really benefit from learning more about the wildlife that’s around them while they’re outside playing!!!
Love Eric Carle books So many activities to base these on So many ideas
Me too!!!!
What a fun book, combining art, language, and science. I love the simplicity.
🙂
I really like the idea of creating an “Observation Station.” And there’s another sign for my kids to create! We will have to see what we can come up with; although I don’t think we’ll have any difficulty at all finding a log to use, after all these storms (having another one today, aren’t we, Massachusetts friends?) which have taken down so many trees and parts of trees. A-logging we will go! Jamie E., I was thinking that this might be a project that our 2 classes could collaborate on?? Would be fun, I think!!
Fantastic! This is such an easy way to add an outdoor learning station. If you have space you can add 3 logs…each in a different stage of decomposition. This is also a good way for all the children to see something when you are outdoors with the entire class. Love that you are thinking about this as a collaborative project with Jamie. 🙂
Good selection of books and questions to combine science and literature!
I just got the book: If You Plant a Seed. Very good book.
We go on a bug hunt and photograph the bugs we find. We laminate pictures of them an put them outside to see if we find them again and we research the bugs we find.
What do you know about this bug?
Where did we find it?
What was it doing?
Can you describe it?
Sounds fun!