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If you have an animal-lover like I do, then you probably study animals of all types in your homeschool science lessons.
I know that preschool and early elementary teachers like to study animals with their students, as well. There are so many related activities to do with animal themes. If you’re teaching about forests and/or woodlands, you’ll love the Over in the Forest activities and printables featured below.
Over in the Forest by Marianne Berkes is a fun book for the preschool and early elementary crowd. Not only are kids introduced to various animals that live in the forest, but there are so many ways to bring in some fun learning opportunities.
Little ones will learn about the names of different animal babies. They will practice counting to ten. And, they’ll learn how various animals move throughout the forest.
Over in the Forest Activities
Hands-On Activities
After reading Over in the Forest with your little ones and completing some of the activity pages in the printable below, choose one or more of the activities below to bring the story to life.
- Teach your little ones how to tell how old a tree is.
- Have your students collect branches on your next nature walk. Then, let them create unique textured paintings with nature’s paintbrushes.
- Make a fancy stick crown!
- Make some Waldorf-inspired nature blocks from old tree limbs.
- Follow this tutorial to make stick picture frames. This is yet another activity that uses nature found in the forest.
- Go on a walk (alone) and gather fallen leaves. Now, give those leaves to your child and see if they can find the tree that matches the leaves.
- Kids will enjoy working together to create forest fairy tales.
- Gather leaves, twigs, nuts, and cones. Display things that come from trees on your classroom nature table.
- Create a story tree with story baskets. These baskets are perfect for encouraging storytelling, language skills, sequencing, and more.
More ‘Forest Friends’ Fun
Snacks and Treats
These snacks and treats are super fun and go perfectly with a forest/woodland theme.
- Bear crackers
- Hungry owl crackers
- Apple turtles
- Cute and easy snail lunch
- Cute lunch idea: Beaver
More Forest-Themed Story Books
You can find these books at your local library or bookstore. If not, you can order them on Amazon by clicking the links provided.
Grab Your Freebie
Your little ones will love this forest-themed pack! It’s designed for preschoolers and kindergarteners and can be adapted for others, as well. Inside this pack, you’ll find the following activities:
- Counting practice
- Handwriting practice
- Animal action cards
- Beginning sounds practice
- Coloring pages
- and more!
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