Are you ready for another leaf activity for preschoolers? Let’s make these leaf sensory bottles.
We started with this outdoor activity and ended up here for part two, ending in leaf sensory bottles.
My preschoolers had a blast outside, and now it was time to take our leaf collection back inside for some sorting and classifying.
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Let’s sort our leaf collection.
By Kindergarten, children using the Common Core will be asked to classify objects into given categories.
You can do this with your preschooler now!
Preschoolers love to classify, sort and count. We do it all of the time:
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Nature sorting is exciting for preschoolers.
The joy of classifying objects into a particular category is so satisfying.
As my preschooler sortied, I used conversation starters such as:
What is different about the leaf here vs. the leaf you have here?
Do the leaves feel the same when you touch them?
I wonder what type of tree this bark came from. Let’s look it up!
Finding ways to prompt my preschooler’s thinking with open-ended questions will allow him to extend his thinking beyond the task of finding objects in the backyard.
Next, we began to place our leaf and nature findings into our Sensory Bottles.
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Supplies:
We dived into the recycle bin and found some pureed tomato jars that worked great! If you don’t have any jars, you can also use these:
Let’s set up our leaf sensory bottles.
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Place one jar with distilled water next to each sorted object.
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Allow your preschooler to begin filling each jar with leaves, sticks, and anything else they picked up outside.
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Close the lid on each jar.
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Place the jar on a shelf to watch over time.
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Over time, we began to discuss:
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Which materials decompose the fastest?
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Which materials look precisely the same over time? Any?
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Which jar holds only one nature finding without overflowing?
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Which materials do you observe a color change?
This leaf activity held our attention on a day that we stayed at home. It was a fun way to connect with my preschooler using the outdoors.
We have an entire collection of outdoor supplies that you will love.
When will you head outside to collect leaves and make nature sensory bottles?
