How Mother Nature Cleans

How Mother Nature Cleans
by Oscar H. Roesner

When Mother Nature cleans the sky
And makes it shiny blue,
So all the stars may twinkle bright,
The sun and moon shine through;
She sprinkles it with showers first,
Next scours with whitest snow,
And then with rough old wind for broom
She sweeps it clean you know.

Caterpillar On The Wall

 

Caterpillar On The Wall
by Marion Ryan

Caterpillar on the wall,
Fuzzy, furry yellow ball!

Don't I wish that I could spy
You turning to a butterfly!

Will you be a yellow one,
Sparkling, golden, in the sun,

Or a dusky tan and brown,
Fluttering lightly up and down,

In and out among the flowers
All the warm sweet summer hours?

Caterpillar, please don't go
Till you've told me how you grow.

The Merry Breeze

The Merry Breeze

by Enid Blyton

Round about the orchard went the merry

little breeze,

Playing with the butterflies and teasing all

the bees,

Sending showers of apple-blossom down upon

the ground,
And spilling half the dew-drops from the
grasses all around.

He ruffled up the feathers of the ducks a-sailing
by,
And hustled all the lazy clouds that floated in
the sky,
He swung the beeches to and fro, then darted
off again
To dry the shiny puddles scattered down along
the lane.

The chimney smoke he twisted in the queerest
kind of way,
Until at last the little breeze was weary of his
play;
He crept back to the orchard, where the
daffodillies peep,
And there it was I found him lying, curled up
fast asleep!

The Shadow

The Shadow

by Peter Parley

One sunny day a child went Maying-

When lo, while 'mid the zephyrs playing,

He saw his shadow at his back!

He turned and fled, but on his track

The seeming goblin came apace,

And step for step gave deadly chase!

Weary at last, with desperate might

The urchin paused and faced the fright,

When lo, the demon, thin and gray,

Faded amid the grass away!

'Tis thus in life-when shadows chase,

If we but meet them face to face,

What seemed a fiend in fear arrayed,

Sinks at our feet a harmless shade.

Babies Afraid of Their Shadows:

• Compilation
• Toddler scared of her shadow
• Baby scared of his shadow

Song to The Violet

SONG TO THE VIOLET

by James Russell Lowell

Violet! sweet violet!

Thine eyes are full of tears;

Are they wet

Even yet

With the thought of other years;

Or with gladness are they full,

For the night so beautiful,

And longing for those far-off spheres?

Loved one of my youth thou wast,

Of my merry youth,

And I see

Tearfully,

All the fair and sunny past,

All its openness and truth,

Ever fresh and green in thee

As the moss is in the sea.

Thy little heart, that hath, with love

Grown colored like the sky above,

On which thou lookest ever,

Can it know

All the woe

Of hope for what returneth never,

All the sorrow and the longing

to these hearts of ours belonging?

Out on it! no foolish pining

For the sky

Dims thine eye,

Or for the stars so calmly shinning;

Like thee, let this soul of mine

Take hue from that wherefor I long,

Self-stayed and high, serene and strong,

Not satisfied with hoping, but divine.

Violet! dear violet!

Thy blue eyes are only wet

With joy and love of Him who sent thee,

And for the fulfilling sense

Of that glad obedience

Which made thee all that nature meant thee!

On May Morning

On May Morning

by John Milton

Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger.

Comes dancing from the east, and leads with

her

The flowery May, who from her green lap

throws

The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose.

Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire

Mirth, and youth, and warm desire ;

"Woods and groves are of thy dressing,

Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.

Thus we salute thee with our early song.

And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

The Coming of Spring

THE COMING OF SPRING.

THE birds are coming home soon;
I look for them every day;
I listen to catch the first wild strain,
"For they must be singing by May.

The bluebird, he'll come first, you know,
Like a violet that has taken wings;
And the red-breast trills while his nest he builds,
I can hum the song that he sings.

And the crocus and wind-flower are coming, too;
They're already upon the way;
When the sun warms the brown earth through and
through,
I shall look for them any day.

Then be patient, and wait a little, my dear;
"They're coming," the winds repeat;
"We're coming! we're coming!" I'm sure I hear,
From the grass blades that grow at my feet.

Craft your very own butterfly kite!

My teacher's sample kite. This would look even nicer
with a black background I think.

     Children love to craft kites in May and I love to design templates for them use for these playful activities. Below I have included two of my own butterfly designs. Here is also an additional link to a similar project that you can watch on a video and here is also a similar butterfly kite project from mothergoose.com

Supply List:

• Printed copies of my butterfly patterns provided below
• wooden skewers (clip off the tips)
• long straws
• scissors
• white school glue
• masking tape
• a variety of bright magic markers
• crepe paper streamers (any color)
• stapler

Step-by-step Instructions:

1. Download, and print the butterfly patterns included below. You may need to enlarge these a bit more in a Word Doc by pulling a corner of the jpg. to the edge of the document's screen.
2. Color the butterfly kite prints with bright magic markers.
3. Fold the butterfly's body in half at the dotted line.
4. Fold out apart from the first fold each butterfly wing. 
5. Inserted inside the first fold a long straw. Apply a generous amount of white glue to this crease. 
6. Insert your kite string through the drawn circle (hole) behind the straw by pricking through the paper with the tip of your scissors. This straw will give your kite strength. Tie a knot with the string and include the amount of length that will allow a small child to fly the kite perhaps no more than five yards above his or her head.
7. The backside of your kite should include a wooden skewer pasted horizontally to the top edge of the kite. I glued mine down and then taped over it in order to reinforce my kite's strength. This is the detail that will actually insure your kite's ability to fly. Be sure to clip off the pointed tips of the skewer before gluing it down to the backside of the kite. You don't want any young students poking each other with the tips during the assignment.
8. Staple on some colorful crepe paper "tails" in whatever color pleases your students.

Far left, As you can see, the butterfly's body is folded in half at the dotted line and then the wings are folded out apart from the first fold. Inserted inside the first fold is a long straw. It is held in place with white glue. Next, Although I have colored the butterfly's body, I have left the hole white so that you may see that the kite string should be tied off here, behind the straw. Insert the string through this hole and behind the straw. The straw will give your kite strength. Center, The backside of your kite should include a wooden skewer pasted horizontally to the top edge of the kite. I glued mine down and then taped over it in order to reinforce my kite's strength. This is the detail that will actually insure your kite's ability to fly. Far right, Staple on some colorful crepe paper "tails" in whatever color pleases your students.

Two butterfly kite patterns for young students to assemble and color.

Click directly onto the image in order to download the largest possible file size.

My young students enjoyed coloring their butterfly kites with bright colored markers.

I assembled the kites ahead of time for these little ones so that the only work they would
need to do would be to color in their butterflies and staple on the crepe paper tails.

Find More Spring Butterfly Crafts Here

Nature Inspired Field Trips

      Although our preschool has not scheduled a visit to Powder Valley, I thought some of our parents may be interested in visiting this local nature center with their kiddos on weekends.
       Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center in Kirkwood, MO., is a wonderful place to take preschool/kindergarten students to learn about God's world. They have both family and classroom-size self guided tours and classes. Classes specifically designed for Preschool through Kindergarten at the center fill up quickly, call ahead for a reservation at 314-301-1500. 

      Teachers may wish to design their own lessons and tours; I recommend you visit ahead of time to plan what you will do. There are also trails designated especially for little people and outdoor facilities to meet in if you prefer these to indoor classrooms. 

      There are many interactive displays, a puppet theater, aquariums and even a giant tree house!

Nature Inspired Art and Activities For Early Learners:

• Nature Bracelets
• Acorn Jewlery by 5 Orange Potatoes
• Bugs made from seed pods
• How to make your own grass heads
• Nature-Inspired Crafts for Kids
• Make Bird Seed Shapes from Cookie Cutters
• Earth Day Sign
• Make A Bird Feeder From A Pumpkin
• Craft a paper robin toy for Spring
• Frogs, Toads and Pollywogs for Spring
• Craft a birch bark birdfeeder
• Dangling nut head people
• How to safely string pumpkin seeds etc...

More Related Links:

• Missouri Department of Conservation
• Powder Valley Nature Center

Learning to Draw Birds

In drawing, all objects should be studied under the general heads of:

• The Copy, or Imitation.
• The Object, or Observation.
• The Memory and Imagination.

       In general, these three divisions should go hand in hand, each helping to explain and make clear the others. But if an order is followed in the study of birds, the best one for young pupils is as follows: (1) The copy; (2) memory and imagination; (3) the object.
       This order, however, is not intended to be arbitrary. If the object is something that can be leisurely studied, like a leaf, or a flower, then an order similar to this should be followed: (1) The object; (2) the copy; (3) memory and imagination.
       The principle of the construction of all birds is, in general, the same ; the difference is in the proportion and minor details. By learning the proportions and general features from pictures and drawings, much time will be saved, and the work made more effective and less discouraging than if the study is attempted from the living bird alone. This does not mean to blindly copy the drawings of others, but to study them intelligently, to study them with a view of learning their form and proportion and the general principle of bird construction. To learn such points  the following: The size of the head as compared with the body; the movement of the tail, head and body; how the feet are placed under the body to give perfect balance; how the wings rest on the body, and their movements when flying. All of these can be studied from drawings coupled with observation, and then verified on the real bird, much better than from the real bird alone. It is doubtful if one untrained in drawing can make very much headway learning to draw from such a restless bit of animation as a live bird, with its multiplicity of markings and numberless details. One must have both knowledge of the bird and skill in drawing to do this.

• Balance
• Character
• Divisions of Study
• General Directions
• Drill Exercises

       Here is a simple sketch of how to draw a bird. Memorize how to draw birds from these instructions and soon little birds will be dancing across your notebook in no time.

More Related Content:

• Steps for Drawing: A Pelican
• Drawing birds from John Muir Laws
• How to draw a bird from easy-drawings-and-sketches.com