trees

Maple Leaf Activities

November 1, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

Maple leaf paint print activities. Art, math, and display ideas for maple leaves.

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Maple trees flourish in eastern Canada and turn vibrant colors in autumn. But I happily settled for these deep green maple leaves from a tree that can survive our harsh Alberta winters. When painted, they produce striking leaf prints. The prints look stunning displayed but can also be used for other maple leaf activities.

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Maple Leaf Activities

Leaf Prints

Early learners can join in making maple leaf prints. Set out orange, yellow, and red tempera paints, paintbrushes, and large pieces of sturdy paper. Invite your little learners to paint the leaves, turn them over, and press them onto the paper. Encourage them to gently rub all over each leaf before removing them.

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Glitter can be sprinkled on the leaf prints to add a dose of glam before they dry.

Glitter added to tempera paint maple leaf prints.

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Painting the back of a leaf, and pressing it on paper clearly reveals the midrib and veins.

Maple leaf paint print with red tempera paint.

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Unexpected colors of paint, such as black or blue can be offered.

Maple leaf paint prints with blue tempera paint.

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Maple leaf paint print with black tempera paint.

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After the leaf prints dry, cut some out for other activities.

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Maple Leaf Person

Have your little learners bring a leaf to life by adding wiggly eyes and a permanent felt pen smile.

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Canadian Flag Art

The maple leaf is part of our Canadian flag, so it’s extra special to me.

Your early learners can help make a leaf print Canadian flag. Select a big red leaf to glue onto the center of a large, rectangular piece of paper. Have children take turns adding smaller, red leaves on each side to complete the flag.

Canadian flag art made with maple leaf paint prints.

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Maple Leaf Math

Select different sized crafted leaves for your early learners to order from smallest to largest.

Leaf size ordering with different sized maple leaf paint prints.

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Use some leaves for counting fingerplays.

Counting leaves with maple leaf paint prints.

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Leaf Art Displays

Mount cut leaves onto a white piece of paper with double-sided tape. Add a paper background in a contrasting color. Display the art on a shelf or wall.

Displayed maple leaf paint print art. Cut prints are attached to a paper background with double-sided tape.

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Hang trimmed maple leaves from a twig tree, or a decorative branch hung on a wall.

Leaf display on a twig made with maple leaf paint prints.

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Do you have a favorite tree to introduce early learning activities with? Share in the comments section below.

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Celery Science Experiment

October 14, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky 2 Comments

Celery and food coloring science experiment.

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This classic and colorful celery science experiment is easy to do and has quick results. It works well as a “color-changing celery tree” activity in autumn but is awesome to perform at any time of the year. Your early learner will be thrilled with the speedy and dramatic results of the experiment.

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Supplies To Collect

leafy celery stalks
glasses or jars
food coloring hues
pitcher with water
knife
cutting board

Celery and food coloring experiment supplies.

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Procedure

Cut the bottoms from celery stalks.

Invite your early learner to generously squirt food coloring hues into glasses or jars, and add about 4 centimeters of water to each one.

Have your child place a celery stalk in each container, and use it to stir the liquids.

Set the jars or glasses with celery on a table or windowsill.

Celery xylem are clearly visible in this closeup photo.

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Invite your little learner to look at the celery after a couple of hours. There will be a noticeable change in celery stalk and leaf colors.

Observe the celery with your child the following day. The leaves will be a darker shade of the water hue their stalk was set in than the day before. Colored lines running from the bottom of the stalks to the leaf tips will be clearly visible.

Add a little more water to each container if needed. Study the celery together a day or two later. The leaves and lines on the stalks will be a deeper color still.

Try the experiment with other food coloring hues. The leafy inner stalks below are dipped in turquoise, purple, and green-colored water.

Celery and food coloring experiment using turquoise, fuschia, and green colored water.

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Admire the transformed celery.

Color change in celery as a result of adding food coloring to the water.

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Variation Of The Celery Science Experiment

Cut off the ends of celery stalks, and split the bottom half of the stalks into two parts.

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Invite your child to squirt blue, yellow, and red food coloring into glasses or jars, and mix each hue with a bit of water.

Carefully place a section of one split celery stalk in red water, and the other in yellow. Put the bottom halves of another split celery stalk into yellow and blue water.

Celery stalks placed in two different jars of colored water.

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Observe the celery with your little one after a couple of hours, the next day, and two days later.

You will see colored lines that extend from the bottoms of the celery stalks to the leaves. Each stalk will have lines and leaves in two different colors.

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The Science Behind The Celery Color Change Experiment

Celery stalks lose water through their leaves. More water gets pulled up from their roots to thirsty leaf tips through a network of hollow tubes called xylem.

The normally invisible process of water transport becomes visible when water accessible to celery stalks is colored.

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The little dots on these celery slices are xylem tubes.

The colored dots on these celery slices are xylem tubes that transport water.

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Ninja Theme Facts And Activities

October 24, 2019 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

This ninja theme draws inspiration from the picture book “Wink, The Ninja Who Wanted To Nap”, written and illustrated by J. C. Phillipps. The book is filled with energy, wisdom, and tidbits about Japanese culture. For young children, the story is a captivating read. The illustrations provide inspiration for multicultural story extensions.

Ninja theme featuring sensory, small world, art, large motor, and pretend play activities. Ninja facts and picture book inspiration included.

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In the story, a little ninja named Wink is excited that he is a famous circus performer. But he cannot get in a much-needed nap because his fans follow him everywhere! He walks through a garden of cherry trees, and moves through and hides in different parts of town, but his followers persist.

Back at Summer Moon School For Young Ninjas, he comes up with a plan inspired by Master Zutsu’s mentoring. With help from his fellow ninja students, his fans are detoured so he can nap. His stuffed panda is along for the adventure.

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“Wink” Inspired Ninja Activities

Cherry Blossom Tree Small World

Offer children accessories to create a small world on a decorative cloth-covered table with

Wooden tree blocks

Pink flower blossoms

Pink and white gems

Ninja figurines

“Safari Toob” panda bears

Paper folded Japanese home

Cherry blossom tree small world with pink flowers, gems, and panda and ninja figurines.

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Cherry blossom tree book-inspired small world with pink flowers, gems, and panda and ninja figurines.

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For the ninjas, take apart Wall Crawlers, available at dollar stores. Remove the jelly-like insides, glue the upper and lower body parts together with a hot glue gun, and glue in pipe cleaner hands and feet.

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Ninja Dress Up

Collect ninja-themed props for dramatic play and photos ops. Include

Ninja masks (Dollar Tree)

Throwing stars (Dollar Tree)

Ninja vests (Dollar Tree)

Foam swords (Dollar Store)

A stepping stool to stand on and pose

Ninja themed masks, vests, throwing stars, and foam swords for pretend play.

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Pretend Play Printable

Download this free printable to inspire ninja-themed pretend play. It works best printed on cardstock paper.

The mask can be cut out and decorated with crayons or felt pens. It can also be traced onto and cut from colored paper. Attach an elastic string so the mask can be worn.

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Ninja Mask PrintableDownload

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World Landmark Geography Center

Create a center inspired by Wink’s circus performer travels and his sleeping area at home.

Display pictures from around the world on a wall above a table. Add a rice sensory bin with:

Safari Toob “Around The World” landmark figures

Ninja figurine

Panda bear figurine

Loose parts (gems, beads. bells, and shells)

Ninja book-inspired rice sensory bin featuring Safari Toob "Around The World" figurines.

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Tree Placemat

Set out ninja figurines, panda bears, pink gems, and a tree placemat so children can create a cherry tree garden scene.

Ninja-themed loose parts tray with panda bears, ninja figurines, and pink and white gems.

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Tree placemat scene invitation to create with pink gems and ninja and panda bear figurines.

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A similar scene works with eraser figurines and gems.

Ninja themed placemat scene with gems and eraser figurines.

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Other Book-Themed Accessories

Keep your eye out for accessories that complement a ninja theme.

Story accessories to compliment the picture book "Wink, The Ninja Who Wanted To Nap" by J. C. Phillipps.

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A Little Ninja History

Ninjas …

were spies/warriors active from the 12^th century to the early 1600s.

were specially trained. Their skills were handed down from father to son, and from teacher to a small group of trainees.

were exceptional students. Only top students were picked for training in schools.

were extremely physically fit.

were skilled at using swords and throwing discs.

were good at keeping secrets. To this day little is known about their training.

were great actors. They pretended to be someone else in their daily lives and were good at making surprise attacks.

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“Wink, The Ninja Who Wanted To Nap” is a follow-up story to the delightful picture book “Wink, The Ninja Who Wanted To Be Noticed.” To view a video of the first book read by author J. C. Phillipps, click here.

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To see how to make a toilet roll ninja craft featured on the website www.kidsactivities.com, click here.

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Book Inspired Tree Art

August 14, 2018 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

Tree Art inspired by the storybook "Wow! Said The Owl" by Tim Hopgood. Papercraft art using a variety of colors and textures.

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Inspiration For The Tree Art

Trees are a popular art theme, and I love using tree art in a mosaic pattern on a bulletin board display.

Over the years I’ve done a few tree displays celebrating our four Alberta seasons. This year I chose an art project based on the storybook “Wow! Said The Owl” by Tim Hopgood. In the story, an owl stays up past his bedtime one summer night and notices the beautiful colors of early morning, midday, and dusk. The owl loves all the color schemes but decides the night colors are still the best. As I read the story, I was saying “Wow” right along with the owl, because the illustrations featuring the owl and tree throughout the day are gorgeous!

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Follow me on Pinterest for more early learning ideas.

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Art Set-Up

Paper supplies to make the tree art pictures. An all-ages book inspired art activity.

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Based on the colors in the book, I used heart-themed paper punches to cut a variety of leaves. I used circle paper punches for the sun and moon. Butterfly paper punches came in handy for the midday pictures. A sticker owl was available to complete each picture.

For the art project, I used four different blue shades of 9 x 12 fade-resistant paper. This size displays perfectly as a mosaic pattern on a feature bulletin board I have access to. I cut tree trunks in different shades of brown and glued one on each piece of blue paper.

Then children got a little bag with shapes to create a tree scene. Paper pieces were attached with a glue stick. Some children questioned why we were using heart shapes for the leaves, so I showed them heart-shaped leaves from real plants.

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Tree Art Themes

Children completed at least two of the following projects.

Sunrise paper craft tree inspired by the storybook "Wow! Said The Owl" by Tim Hopgood.

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Mid day paper craft tree inspired by the storybook 'Wow! said The Owl' by Tim Hopgood.

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Sunset paper craft tree inspired by the storybook "Wow! Said The Owl" by Tim Hopgood.

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Nighttime paper craft tree inspired by the storybook 'Wow! Said The Owl' by Tim Hopgood.

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Some of the completed pictures were saved for each child’s memory album; others were saved for the bulletin board display.

Tree art projects arranged in a mosaic pattern on a bulletin board.

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A second bulletin board idea…

Tree art bulletin board idea inspired by the storybook "Wow! said The Owl" by Tim Hopgood.

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Tree art depicting the seasons of winter, spring, summer, and fall is always a stunner. And it is easy to display on a bulletin board for parents and children to admire.

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