Nanny Share Adventures

🐝🌼 Welcome to Our Insect Unit! 🌼🐝

Last month, we had so much fun exploring all things spring! 🌱🌷 We learned about the water cycle, birds, plants, and even experienced the exciting process of growing our very own flowers from seeds.

This month, we're diving into the wonderful world of fuzzy, crawly insects! 🐞🐛 And what better way to transition from flowers than by learning about one of nature's most important pollinators—the busy honey bee! 🐝

Today, we learned all about honey bees and the important jobs they do each day. We talked about how bees visit flowers to collect pollen and nectar, and what happens when they bring that nectar back to the hive. The children were fascinated to learn how hard bees work and how important they are for helping flowers, fruits, and vegetables grow!

After our discussion, we became busy worker bees ourselves at our bee-themed sensory table. The children scooped, poured, transferred, and used tweezers to fill their honeycomb cells and make their own "honey." 🍯

We also strengthened our fine motor skills, practiced counting, built honeycombs, and explored early math concepts through hands-on play.

Learning through play is always the sweetest way to spend the day! 🐝💛

We came into the classroom this morning and discovered something so exciting had happened over the weekend — our sunflower seeds have really started to grow! 🌱🌻

The children were thrilled to observe the tiny sprouts pushing up through the soil, and we spent time talking about all the things plants need to grow strong and healthy.

We can’t wait to continue monitoring our sunflowers each day and watching how much they change and grow!

Planting our sunflower seedlings!

Today we came into the classroom and discovered that our sunflower seeds are beginning to sprout roots! The children were so excited to grab their magnifying glasses and take a closer look at the germination process. We talked about how the tiny roots are the very first part of the plant to grow and how they help give the plant water and nutrients.

Once we noticed the roots starting to peek out from the seeds, we knew it was time to begin preparing for planting! Today we painted our flower pots and had so much fun decorating them with bright colors and creativity.

After painting our flower pots, we took a little field trip to our community garden to explore some of the plants already growing there! The children were so excited to see just how tall sunflowers can really grow. We also spotted strawberries, green beans, and a beautiful butterfly plant buzzing with life and pollinators.

The children had so much fun digging, exploring, and observing all the amazing things growing in our local garden. It was such a wonderful hands-on learning experience and a great way to connect our classroom activities to the real world around us.

Tomorrow we will plant our seedlings, and we can’t wait to continue watching our sunflowers grow and bloom! 🌻

🌻 Germinating sunflower seeds! 🌻

Today the children learned all about germination and why it is such an important first step before planting seeds. Using eye droppers and water, the children carefully wet their paper towels before adding their sunflower seeds. We then placed the seeds into ziplock bags and hung them up on our classroom window so they can soak up plenty of sunlight. ☀️

Over the next few days, we will closely monitor our seeds and observe any changes we notice. Once our seeds begin sprouting their tiny roots, we will plant them and continue watching them grow! 🌱

This hands-on activity is a wonderful way to teach little ones about the life cycle of a plant, while also learning what plants need to survive and thrive. The children were so excited to begin their sunflower growing journey! 🌻💛

Making some delicious flower petal soup! 🌸🥣

Today the children had so much fun collecting flowers, leaves, and other nature treasures to create their own “flower soup” at the water table!

As we explored and mixed our ingredients together, we talked all about the different parts of a plant, including the roots, stem, leaves, and petals. We also learned what plants need to grow big and strong, such as water and sunlight!

This hands-on, open-ended activity encouraged creativity, imagination, sensory exploration, and learning through play. The children loved taking the lead in their discoveries while creating their own special nature recipes! 🌿✨

Happy Monday! 🌱🌸

This week we are continuing our springtime fun as we begin learning all about plants and flowers!

Today the children had such a wonderful time digging, raking, scooping, transferring, and counting flowers to match the numbers written on each flower pot. Through this hands-on sensory activity, we practiced early math skills while also exploring how plants grow and change.

As we “planted” our flowers, we talked about the life cycle of a plant and the different stages it goes through, from a tiny little seed all the way to a beautiful blooming flower!

Later this week, we will be germinating sunflower seeds and preparing them for planting. We can’t wait to watch them grow! 🌻🌻

Finishing up our bird unit by making some delicious bird feeders to hang in our yard!

Some more birdie fun! 🐦🔍

Earlier this week we started making binoculars to prepare for our bird watching adventure! The children worked so hard painting their binoculars and adding the finishing touches with fun stickers.

Today we finally got to head out on our bird watching adventure and had so much fun spotting so many different species of birds!
Our favorite moment was when a big black crow flew right over our heads, he was so close we could even hear his wings flapping! Good thing we had our binoculars to get an even closer look. 👀

During our adventure, we also used our bird checklist to keep track of all the different types of birds we spotted. It was such a fun hands-on way to explore nature, practice observation skills, and learn more about our feathered friends! 🌿🪺

Birdseed letter trays! 🐦🌱

To continue with our bird unit, today we poured birdseed into our trays and used letter cards to practice drawing letters right into the birdseed!

This fun, hands-on learning activity helped build letter recognition and early writing skills while also teaching us about some of the foods our bird friends like to eat.

The children loved exploring the different textures and practicing their letters in such a creative way! 💛