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Home Activities for Learning About Nature

IF ROCKS COULD SING, by Leslie McGuirk: 

We had fun balancing the pebbles on our foam letters & practicing the letter sounds. The rocks featured in this book are REAL rocks the author took years to collect. How awesome is that? Our rock stash is store-bought though. I wonder if Singapore beaches have nice rocks like those in the book “if rocks could sing”.


THROUGH THE FOREST by Steffens Brocoli & Catherine Bidet

A choose your path to create your own story. We had fun reading this book even though QR has been running a fever with bad viral cough (super cranky). E.g to follow the squirrels, go to page 3, to follow the fox go to page 5. QR was mostly just having fun finding the numbers on the side tabs and end papers.


CHIRRI AND CHIRRA by Yuki Kaneko

This is a gorgeous book with the prettiest illustrations. The tiny details are clues to what’s about to come in the following pages it’s like a Easter egg hunt! We used a magnifying glass to check out the tiny details & talked about living in harmony with the plants and animals like Chirri and Chirra. Love that this magnifying glass can be propped up so I don’t have to keep holding it for QR.


INVITATION TO CREATE

I invited QR to create our very own special pebble after reading “On my beach there are many pebbles” by Leo Lionni. Turns out giving a 3 year old paint markers is a beautiful mistake. The way QR used them was so therapeutic to watch but I had to scrub his hands for a good 10 minutes with an old toothbrush to clean off the paint. Can you spot my single creation?


FISH PEBBLES. QR’s finished pieces from our invitation to create. He decided that the finished pieces matched Linda Kranz’s Only one you better so here we are!


NATURE AND DOUGH INVITATION

Rainbow home made playdough with nature loose parts for open ended play. No instructions, no expectations, no stress! We like a mix of structured and open ended activities. Okay the structured activities are mainly to satisfy my need to craft. It’s part of Mama self care you know. 


RAINBOW FOAM

This activity was inspired by @deedleandbuggotoschool on Instagram. I tried to make some with a small Daiso hand mixer. Well, it’s a fail! Small mixer = flat foam… But QR didn’t mind and still had fun. We used food colouring for the vibrant colours. Yes they do stain hands, but we don’t mind. For stain free version, try washable paint!


STANLEY’S STICK by John Hegley & Neal Layton 

I love the creative imagination of the boy in this story. And how he is able to let go and embrace something new. A simple extension activity for this book. Just.a.stick. 😄 the rest is up to QR to imagine.


COUNTING WITH NUMBERS 

We are adding in number words now that QR knows his numbers and can count 1-10 with objects. 1 step at a time!


Thank you for reading this! Do check out our PlayLeXue Adventures Instagram for our latest play ideas, and the Play乐学 Instagram for Chinese learning activities, as well as shop updates.

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