ANIMALS IN OUR NATURE

Our oldest group, after getting acquainted with animals that live in our forests and surroundings, has decided to travel across the world, stop at each continent and discover  what animals live there. They travelled across land and through oceans and sees to find it out. Their new knowledge and impressions they have depicted in their artworks.

 ANIMALS IN OUR NATURE

There are lots of movement activities in Latvian about animals which we use in our sport lessons to reveal to children the characteristic behaviour of animals ad their relations with other animals. Here we offer only a tiny amount which we have used in our sport activities.

For 1.5-3 years old.

"Hare's house"

Whilse there is a song playing about a hare (teacher can also sing it), children-hares are playing and jumping in the wood (sport hall). When the music stops (or  the drums beat) children-hares must find one house (hoola hoop or air pillow) to hide themselves from wolf or just to stay for the night.

For 3-4 years old.

"Diligent squirrels"

Children (squirrels) are divided into 4 teams. Each team is standing near their hollow (hoola hop) in which there are placed equal number of nuts, chestnuts or acorns in each. After a signal squirrels go to other hollows and, taking only one nut (acorn, chestnut) at a time, bring them to their own hollow. The teacher is counting to 10 and says STOP. After that no nut can be taken. Now squirrels count how many nuts there are in their hollow. The team which has the biggest number of nuts has won.

For 4-5-6 year old

"Cat and mice"

One cat is selected the other children are mice. Mice put one end of a twine in their sport trousers to make mice tale. The cat tells two lines of the rhyme and starts catching the mice. Cat must pull out the twine - then the mice is caught. The caught mice go to rest.

For 4-5-6 year old

"Hare and fox"

Children stand in hoola-hoops in pairs. There is also one fox and one children is hare - holding one in hands. The fox chases the hare. It runs away, it runs up to one pair gives a hair to one child and then this child must run away from the fox. Then this child who has the toy hare now, tries to give it away to another child, then this child runs away from the fox.

"Birds in nests"

Children stand in pairs in hoola-hoops that are placed in circle. One child is a tree (arms are put in the waist), the other child is the bird - he puts his arms on the "tree's shoulders". There is one bird without a tree (without nest).  The teacher says "All birds are flying" and all birds fly in the middle of the circle. The teacher says "All birds in nests" - each bird tries to find his tree and place hands on the shoulders of the "tree". One bird stays without nest.

After a while trees and birds chnge their roles.

Animals in our nature - Animals in Croatia

 

Our exploration of animals in Croatia started with a group of children conversing about animals that they have seen when they were on summer holiday break.

One girl saw some big fish jumping out of the sea while she was on a ferryboat. That fish was a dolphin. And one boy saw chickens while he was with his grandma in the village. He remembers the name of the chickens because they have unusual names. They are called Croatian Hen.

We then watched a few documentaries that talk about animals that are specific to our country.

The animals that children found the most interesting are: boar, lynx, fallow deer, boškarin cattle, bear, donkey, Croatian hen, salamander, viper, Lipizzaner horse, dolphin and olm.

The children have never seen most of these animals in person and they wanted to do something to help them remember them. We decided to make a poster. The children drew animals, wrote names and pasted animals on part of Croatia where the animal lives.

 

 

Sinilille group visited Estonian Nature Museum

Sinilille group is working on a project "Exciting and rare animals".

During the project they decided to visit Estonian Nature Museum exhibition "Terribly Adorable Bats" (13.10.2021).

The exhibition brought them the mysterious life and situation of bats. They walked in the night forest, watched a bat feeding by the lake, visited a winter cave in the comfort of room and flew with a bat on a summer night!

It was very interesting to listen to the guide who told a lot of exciting and new interesting things about  bats. They found out what the bats are, what they eat, why they sleep in the winter and much, much more interesting things.

When the listening time was over, it was a moment of playing, exploring and discovering.

The children played fun and developing games, all of which helped to better understand and remember the stories they heard about bats and their way of life.

You can read more about the exhibition here! 

Pirita kindergarten Sinilill group in Nikolai von Glehn park

 Park founder Nikolai von Glehn

The founder of the park is Nikolai von Glehn, the founder of Nõmme (part of Tallinn). In the early years of Nõmme, at the end of the 19th century, Glehn built a castle in the style of a medieval fortress on the slopes of Mustamäe and started building a park next to it. The aim of the founder was to turn the area into a cozy summer area, several species of trees and shrubs were planted in the park, alleys and roads were built. Today, it has become a forest park, where, in addition to the castle and palm house, there are statues of Kalevipoeg and Crocodile and an observatory built according to Glehn's ideas. The park is part of the Mustamäe landscape protection area and is popular among summer and winter health sports enthusiasts.

https://www.visittallinn.ee/est/k%C3%BClastaja/mida-teha/k%C3%BClasta/muuseumid-vaatamisv%C3%A4%C3%A4rsused/177324/glehni-park 

Warm autumn days invite you to enjoy nature. The children of the Sinilill group were able to get acquainted with the beautiful park, castle and statues built by Mr. Nikolai Von Glehn.

The surprise and joy of the children was great when a big and strong KALEVIPOEG statue began to appear between the trees.

Kalevipoeg has animal skin with horns pulled on, and it's no wonder he's considered the devil. 

Isn't it nice that Mr. Glehn had such exciting plans. Now is a great opportunity to ride a crocodile, pat his red tongue and even climb into his mouth.

But that was not all. From the top of the higher hill there is a tower. This is the Glehn Lookout Tower.

From there you can study the stars and the moon or watch the children play across the sea in Finland.

It is also a very nice place to practice climbing. 

Ants also like Mr. Glehn's Park very much because the castles they built are no worse than Glehn's Castle.

During the walk in the park the children were able to learn about nature (plants, animals) and do some outdoor games.

THE SINILILL GROUP THANKS THE BEAUTIFUL AUTUMN DAY! 

 OUR FOREST

Everything children study about, they try to depict in their creative works of art. The theme of our forest is not excluded. It is a good practice to train their observation skills and learn about the characteristic features of animals and birds. Here are some of their works of art connected.

                 

                                        

OUR FOREST

 "Sunflower" group examined the footprints of diverse forest animals, tried to recognize them. They searched for the footprints in flour and found the match. After that they went to the forest to hunt for the footprints of animals - and found indeed! Who they belong to?

After that they studied about the bear that was about to wake up from its winter snooze. They created the bear's passport so that everybody knows how it looks like - muzzle, fur and footprint.

After that children made a little video telling what bears look like and what they eat.

CLICK: Story about the bear

 OUR FOREST

To create better the image how horns look like, how it feels to touch wolf's fur, how large are wild boar's tusks and of other items connected with forest, teachers have collaborated with a local hunter and asked to have a forest collection in their group.

 OUR FOREST

Starting to explore the forest theme the oldest of our children clarified what animals they already know that live in the forest and tried to depict them in diverse techniques in their works of art.

They also clarified about the bird life. Working in teams, children gathered information about one bird and made informative posters: one read the information, another wrote down the most important, the third one drew the picture.

Children practiced making birds from yarn and paper to decorate their group and veranda of the group.

Our sea - Estonia is a sea state!

Theme: Estonia - Sea state part II.

Children age: 5-6 years

Objectives: The child gets acquainted with the biggest mammal of Baltic sea. The child is creative and knows how to make cooperation in groupwork. The child send knowingly their sad thoughts to the sea. The child gets to know new concept - expedition. The child can measure with measuring tape. The child explores with family members more about gray seal and crafts it (draws, models, sews, folds) at home.

Tools: three about 5 meter ropes. Three measuring tapes. Three A4 size thicker paper, on one written Saaremaa, one Hiiumaa and one Muhu. Warm and comfortable clothing and shoes.

Preparation: Previous days the children have investigates the map of Estonia and compared the three islands (Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, Muhu - size, position, shape).

Activity: The teacher lets the children know that staff meeting will be in 5 minutes.

They all clean the room and they go to the "office". In the beginning of staff meeting one "worker" says todays date and day. In the meeting they learn that today they are going on expedition - "The Baltic sea biggist mammal". Who could it be? How big can grow a gray seal? Has anybody seen a gray seal? What it looks like? We look pictures of gray seal.

What does mean expedition? Discussion about it.

Before they start to go on expedition the members prepare themselves with yoga. It balances mind and gives strength and power for the expedition.

They go to the seaside with a brisk walk and following traffic rules. Finally on the beach.

Who wants can make a sad thoughts sending away ritual on the beach. Sending sad thoughts with good words to the sea and getting back good feeling and happy thoughts.

Then the group leaders (chosen in the morning) gather their group. On the will of the lottery each group gets one island what they will make with the help of a rope. This time it is important to look where they are located. 

Then the groups made gray seal from the ropes on the sand. And measured it with measuring tape.

The first crafted gray seals the children made at home with families: