Tree

Today we were learning about letter "T", therefore I envisaged the idea of creating a tree using sticks and leaves collected from the park. Prior to our outings I attempt to explain to the boys, to induce some sort of semblance of order, what is going to happen, because it seems my boys like to follow direction and be disciplined. Hence I explicated the purpose of going to the park and their important task. I gave each one of them a bag and told them they should pick up small sticks, green leaves and dried leaves. 

As we were walking to the park they visualised a shadow of a tree on the ground and redirected my attention to it. Last Friday, we had a shadow puppet theatre, which I posted on my blog, and we talked about what causes the shadow. It wasn't a sunny day so I couldn't take the boys out to see they reflection on the ground, so I said we could do it another day when it's sunny. It made me very content, because it means a lot to me they had recognition of the previous lesson I taught. I promised them next time we would take chalk with us and draw our shadows on the ground.

After our shadow lesson, we started picking up leaves and sticks. The boys were grabbing big sticks to pretend it was a sword, but it didn't last long as I asked them to focus in on our task and go forward seeking the small ones :)))).

After 15 minutes of hunting we got 3 bags full of sticks and leaves. We also stopped in front of a tree and I asked them to analyse their findings and look at it's composition made of: the trunk, branches and leaves as I wanted them to make theirs similar to the real ones.

Each one of them had its preparation process with leaves and sticks and also paper grocery bag.

They spread the glue over the paper and started to glue the sticks on.

Then glued the leaves.

This is the final artwork of my son.

The following photo shows the final creation of my oldest nephew.

The picture below shows the conclusion of the work made by my youngest nephew.

I thought, good job!!!!! I gave the instructions, they followed it and I just needed to monitor and guide them. 

A simple, fun and inexpensive activity that helps improve hand and eye coordination, designing, team work, recognition of a letter, in this case "T", as well as being able to differentiate big and small, and also textures.