ANIMALS IN OUR NATURE
Sometimes the theme of the day pups up itself, like it was in our Hedgehog group.
When removing the Christmas tree in the group, what a surprise!!! it was noticed that there is a nest in it. Teacher and the children talked over what could have lived in it, what it is made of and why there is noone in it at this moment. The nest was taken as a visual material for the group, but children tried to depic that in their artworks.
Our kindergarten is surrounded by greenery, large yard with various trees and an orchard.
Therefore, there are a large number of birds in our area, some of which we are
able to see throughout the year. We primarily wanted to stimulate children's
interest in this theme, so we started by observing birds in the yard and around
our kindergarten.
The mini project "WE AND THE BIRDS" begins with the observation of resident birds and migratory birds in our environment, talking about birds (where they live, what they eat, what they are covered with, how do they survive the cold days, etc.). To make birdhouses, we used old cardboard boxes that we first covered with paper mache and then painted with tempera.
To make birds out of leaves, children collected leaves in the yard of our kindergarten then dried it, arranged the mosaic (on hard cardboard) and glued it.
OUR FOREST
"Forest is an apartment for all the animals" - says Alice (5), when asked what is forest. We want to live in good conditions and so do the animals. Sometimes people help wild animals, for instance, build houses for birds. We noticed that bird houses in the territory of our kindergarten are old and not suitable for our little friends. So we asked our parents for help - and we received it. Thanks to them birds will have new houses which will hang in the trees of our playgrounds.
OUR FOREST
To be able to observe birds, their looks and behaviour children went to forest equipped with binoculars. They tried to find out which are the most common birds in our surroundings. This eqippment let children to observe birds from distance in their natural environment and birds were not so frightened by children muffled cries of joy. Children liked bird watching through binoculars very much. They did it even from the inside of their group during any free time they had. A nice habit to be encouraged and supported.
