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Tag Archives: spring activities for kids

Spring Texture Hunt

4 / 9 / 184 / 10 / 18

Spring Texture Hunt | Mama Papa Bubba

Whew…  After a long, snowy winter here in the Okanagan, I *think* spring might actually be here and I can’t tell you how good it feels!  We arrived home on Good Friday after a week in Vancouver to find nearly all of our snow gone and despite the fact that it briefly snowed on both Easter Sunday and Monday, I feel like we’ve officially turned a corner.  Sunshine, warmer temperatures, and little bits of green beginning to appear after months of snow and grey skies?  Yes please!

Spring Texture Hunt

In celebration, we spent a good part of our weekend outside…  We brought the kids’ bikes out, set up our trampoline, did some yard work, and best of all – we did our very first nature activity of the season – a spring texture hunt!  I can’t tell you how sweet my two little nature explorers were out in the yard searching for different textures with their clipboards in hand.

Spring Texture Hunt

Now at 2 years old Sam absolutely didn’t need a clipboard or printable to collect / record his findings, but because he wants nothing more than to be exactly like his big sister at the moment, I decided to make him a modified spring texture hunt printable too and thank goodness I did!  The moment he saw Miss G with her pencil and page clipped on her board, he shouted his go-to, ‘Too!  Too!  Sam too!’ and was pleased as punch when I passed him a clipboard of his very own.

I’ll share both down below, but for Grae I designed a more open-ended observation sheet that allowed her to sketch out the nature items she found  plus come up with her own words to describe their textures.  For Sam, I simplified and gave him boxes pre-labelled with texture words.  Now for his recording sheet you could very well have your child draw the items, but Sam’s not there yet of course and in an effort to keep it as tactile and simple as possible, I decided that we’d help him glue his nature items right onto his sheet {which actually worked out really well}.

Spring Texture Hunt

Kids, clipboards, and a glue stick in hand, we headed outdoors to see what we could find as far as interesting textures in nature go.

Spring Texture Hunt

Needless to say, nature is FULL of all kinds of amazing textures and finding a bunch of different ones was a breeze right off the bat.  I followed Sam’s lead and went off into this little corner filled with rocks, shrubs, a tree stump, and our little patch of remaining snow and together we gently touched things and talked about how they felt on our hands.  I will say that while the whole clipboard part of this activity is totally unnecessary for little ones like Sam, the actual touching and describing part is fantastic. He carefully ran his little hands over the items and listened so intently as I used words like ‘bumpy’, ‘rough’, and ‘hard’ to describe them – so awesome for his vocabulary development!

Spring Texture Hunt

Miss G immediately got to exploring, feeling things along the way, and recording the ones that really stood out as having an interesting texture on her observation sheet.

Spring Texture Hunt

She really enjoyed coming up with words to describe the different textures and many times she had several words to describe a single nature object. This very cool leaf, for example, led to words like, ‘fuzzy’, ‘soft’, ‘furry’, and ‘tickley’, though in the end, she decided that its softness was its most prominent feature when it came to touch.

Spring Texture Hunt

Sam actually really enjoyed adding to his observation sheet too.  Brad or I would put a thick layer {or little clump} of glue down in a box, and he’d run over with his nature item and really press it on to ensure it would stick.

Spring Texture Hunt

More than anything this was just a fun way to display his little collection of nature items he was so proud of.

Spring Texture Hunt

Now I will say that not all of the nature items the kids found were necessarily ‘spring’ items (the crunchy brown leaves that have been hidden under the snow since fall, for example), but I decided that that really didn’t matter.  It’s spring, the items were found during spring, and that was good enough for me!  If you were doing this activity with your kiddos or students and wanted the focus to be specifically on spring items, however, you could of course specify that.

Spring Texture Hunt

This whole idea, believe it or not, was inspired by a show the kids have been watching {and loving!} lately called SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids.  Have you seen it before?  Now if you know me, you know I’m not a huge fan of television for kids, but my kids do enjoy watching a show now and then {Grae especially} which leaves me bouncing between Netflix and Common Sense Media trying to find something that is not only appropriate, but also hopefully little bit inspiring or motivating too?  {A tall order, I know…}

Well, I’m so glad I came across SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids.  In the series, Scout, a sweet and smart mouse introduces the Gumboot Kids to a collection of clues that leads them outdoors to uncover the wonders of nature…  Things like sunflowers filled with seeds, echoes, falling acorns, shadows, and constellations – all of the most important things!

Our spring texture nature hunt was inspired by this episode, The Soft Rock.  Take a watch and let me know what you think.  Easily my favourite thing about SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids is that the episodes truly inspire you to get outdoors with your kiddos – and how many television programs do that?!  I also really love that each episode includes a mindful moment {something Miss G has been practicing since Kindergarten} and music by Jessie Farrell that is actually really enjoyable {because we all know that not all kids’ music is – hah!}  I also really like that the episodes are around 5 minutes each and best of all?  At just over two and at 7 and a half, both Sam and Grae find the shows interesting and engaging – win!

{US friends, you can watch by subscribing to Curious World or Kidstream.  You can also subscribe to Kidstream via Amazon or Comcast Xfinity.} 

Spring Texture Hunt

In addition to SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids, I was lucky enough to preview two ‘spin off’ shows – DAISY & The Gumboot Kids {a crafty version filled with nature DIYs and led by SCOUT’s best friend DAISY} and JESSIE & The Gumboot Kids {a fun music-focused version featuring the talents of the same artist, Jessie Farrell who just released her third children’s album, Sparkle & Shine} and both are every bit as wonderful and inspiring as the original!  Fun fact:  SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids has won several awards both here in Canada and internationally, and while DAISY & The Gumboot Kids is brand new, it’s already been nominated for both Canadian and international awards too!

Spring Texture Hunt

Alright, now back to our hunt…

Spring Texture Hunt

Here’s how things ended.  Grae probably could have kept on texture hunting for another hour or so, and Sam found a bunch really cool nature items but was ready to move onto other things before his collection sheet was fully complete – perfectly age appropriate in my opinion.

Spring Texture Hunt

If you’d like to try this activity with your kids or students, feel free to use our printable observation sheets:

BLANK SPRING TEXTURE HUNT OBSERVATION SHEET (Grae’s)

LABELLED SPRING TEXTURE HUNT OBSERVATION SHEET (Sam’s)

Spring Texture Hunt

Enjoy your time outdoors with your little ones and be sure to check out The Gumboot Kids series when you have a chance!

And if you already have little SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids fans like I do, be sure to check out their new merchandise line.  Miss G and I recently picked out a few things and she’s anxiously awaiting their arrival in the mail!

Spring Texture Hunt long | Mama Papa Bubba

This post is sponsored by The Gumboot Kids.  As always, all opinions and stories are my own and I only ever share things that we truly enjoy.

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Spring Muffin Tin Scavenger Hunt

3 / 20 / 174 / 2 / 17

Spring Muffin Tin Scavenger Hunt | Mama Papa Bubba

Well hello, spring!  You have no idea how much we’ve been looking forward to you!  To celebrate, Miss G and put together this fun little spring muffin tin scavenger hunt and headed outside in search of the first signs of the season.

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Plastic Cup Greenhouses

4 / 21 / 164 / 22 / 16

Plastic Cup Greenhouses | Mama Papa Bubba

One of the things I absolutely love doing with kids come springtime is growing plants from seed.  That being said, I’m most likely the worst gardener on the planet.  Like really, really bad.  Cactuses, succulents, and other kill-proof plants?  Give them to me for a week or two and I can almost guarantee that they’ll be dead.  It’s terrible.

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Simple Spring Nature Exploration Station

4 / 6 / 164 / 20 / 16

Spring Nature Exploration Station | Mama Papa Bubba

Okay, so this is quite possibly the simplest activity ever, but it was thoroughly enjoyed and I was blown away with what Miss G did with it.  Earlier today, as Grae was cleaning up from quiet play time, I quickly popped outside to the yard to see what sort of spring nature items I could find.  I knew I was definitely going to be borrowing a blossom or two off of the beautiful tree we currently have out front, and I managed to find all sorts of other pretty things too.

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Cupcake Liner Flower Wreath

5 / 15 / 155 / 23 / 15

Cupcake Liner Flower Wreath | Mama Papa Bubba

Our apartment door has a little hook attached to the middle of it, so naturally, it needs a wreath.  In the fall we usually have our poppy wreath out there, then in winter we switch it up for the Christmas wreath Miss G made long ago, and then in spring, we usually have a little egg carton flower wreath Miss G made back when I was teaching classes at Bright Minds.  This spring, however, it was time for a change.  We needed something a little more bright and colourful {and we needed to use up all of the pretty Wilton cupcake liners we brought over from Canada}.

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Spring Garden Play Dough Set

3 / 10 / 153 / 19 / 15

Spring Garden Play Dough Set | Mama Papa Bubba

Spring on the horizon means that it was finally time for us to say au revoir to the Christmas and winter play dough kits we’ve had around for months…  New season, new play dough sets  – that’s what they say, right?? ☺  

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Coffee Filter Flowers

5 / 8 / 135 / 10 / 13

Coffee Filter Flowers | Mama Papa BubbaGracen and I have been spending a whole lot of time at the beach lately (yay!), but this afternoon, we finally got around to finishing off a fun little project we started days and days ago.

IMG 8942It began like this.  Coffee filters, coloured water, and a plastic dropper out, creative table-style.  Simply left out for her to discover and explore when she felt up to it.

IMG 8944Of course it didn’t take Grae long to find a table full of fun materials to experiment with.  Without hesitation, she began using her dropper to slurp up coloured water and spew it back out on the filters.

IMG 8960She really loved watching how the colours spread and mixed with one another.

IMG 8969So much in fact, that she fully covered upwards of 30 separate filters.  Thank goodness for a big laundry drying rack!  We placed the filters on the rack in our solarium, and they dried in no time.

IMG 9528After tucking them away for several days, we came home from the beach today {some of us still sporting our bathing suits and sandy fingernails} and dug them out for a quick pre-nap project.  We also gathered a pair of scissors, some long green pipe cleaners, and some short colourful pipe cleaners (regular pipe cleaners cut into thirds).

IMG 9530To transform our beautiful watercolour-y filters into flowers, we started by carefully folding them in half three times. 

IMG 9532Then Grae would give me some sort of petal description (‘long and skinny!’, ‘pokey like the rose bush!’, ‘big, big, big, big, BIIIIIIIG!’, and ‘you know…..like….ummmm….like the little circle circle ones?’ were a few) and I’d cut the curved edge to match.  I also snipped the very tip of the point off at this point too.

IMG 9534Then came her very favourite part – carefully unfolding the cut filter to reveal its shape.

IMG 9560IMG 9561Here are a few of the other shapes we came up with together.

IMG 9538Next, Grae would pick a small pipe cleaner, bend over the top so it was no longer pokey, and place the bottom through the tiny hole in the centre of the filter.

IMG 9539Then she’d bring the filter up around the pipe cleaner and pinch it at the base.

IMG 9567While she held it tightly, I’d wrap a long green pipe cleaner around the filter and short pipe cleaner to form the stem.

IMG 9568Fun, right?

IMG 9546Every flower turned out completely different from the last…

IMG 9571And by the end we had a beautiful bouquet of colourful flowers perfect for the mantle, a table centrepiece, or a Mother’s Day gift. 

♥ 

For extra fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.

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Radish Top Egg Heads

4 / 24 / 134 / 26 / 13

Radish Top Egg Heads | Mama Papa BubbaWhile we made grassheads using my tried and true nylon method last year, this time around we decided to switch things up a little with an egg shell version.  Not only is this method very simple {and therefore more toddler friendly}, but afterwards you can remove the googly eyes, give the shell a good crunch, and plant them directly into your garden!

IMG 8146Here’s what we used for the project…  Eggshells (washed well), craft glue, googly eyes, quick sprouting seeds of some sort (we went with radishes), a couple of Sharpies, and some soil.

IMG 8152Gracen started off by gluing a pair of googly eyes to each eggshell using craft glue and a Q-tip.

IMG 8158After letting the eyes dry a little bit, she used Sharpies to add on little button noses and pink smiles.

IMG 8161Then we carefully set all of the little egg heads into an empty carton, making sure to be mindful of the still slightly wet eyes.

IMG 8166Using a small spoon, Miss G then filled each of the egg heads with potting soil.

SeedsNext up was the addition of seeds.  While you should probably only plant a couple of seeds in the space an eggshell provides, one or two sprouts wouldn’t make for a very good head of hair.  With that in mind, Gracen sprinkled them generously. 

IMG 8175Then she covered them with another sprinkling of soil and patted the surfaces down with her finger tips.

IMG 8184One of our last steps was finding them a good, safe spot with lots of sunlight, so on a crate in front of our living room window it was.  Grae gave them a good misting, and we hoped for the best. (When having kids water seeds, I always opt for using a spray bottle.  It’s fun, it’s great for motor skill development, and it’s nearly impossible to overwater.)

Day 3  4Counting the afternoon we planted as day one, here’s what we had on days 3 and 4.  Not bad, right?

Day 6And here’s after a couple more days…

IMG 8596By day 7 (today), here’s what we have.  Little egg heads with wild green hair.  Before long, it’ll be time for a hair cutting session (which is half the fun), and the best part is we’ll have some delicious radish greens to add to a salad or smoothie. ☺

♥ 

For extra fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here. 

 
 
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{Muffin Tin} Spring Nature Hunt

4 / 22 / 134 / 23 / 13

Spring Nature Hunt Using a Muffin Tin | Mama Papa BubbaIn honour of Earth Day, Miss G and I took to the streets of our neighbourhood for a little spring-themed natured hunt today.  It was the perfect way to spend our afternoon…soaking in some sunshine, taking in the fresh air, and observing the nature around us a little more closely than we usually do.  

IMG 8423Beforehand, while Grae was napping, I gathered up a few things…  A muffin tin to serve as a collection receptacle, a print out of nature item tags sized to fit in the bottoms of muffin cups, some scissors, and some tape.

Screen Shot 2013 04 20 at 8 53 38 PMIn order to create my tags (which were printed on paper from our recycling bin…hence the holes), I simply created 12 circles sized to fit in our muffin tin (4.5 centimetres in diameter for ours), found some clipart via Google Images, and added some text.  

Muffin Tin Nature Hunt | Mama Papa BubbaThen I printed them off, cut them out, and stuck them into the bottoms of the muffin tin cups with small pieces of rolled tape.

Seed SearchingWhen Gracen woke up, she was eager to get outside and get searching.  We quickly went over the items we’d be on the lookout for and headed out.  First stop? The backyard to see if there were seeds underneath our plum tree.  Sure enough, there were!

IMG 8445Dandelions and grass were easily collected in our yard, and then it was off down the street to one of the few trees that still has blossoms on it.

IMG 8447After each new find, Grae would take inventory, decide on a couple of new things to focus on, and head in a particular direction.

IMG 8455This time she decided we’d better head back to the backyard to collect some flower buds, moss, and soil from the garden – success!

IMG 8464One of our last stops was to collect a few clovers from a little patch growing through some brickwork in the front of the house.

IMG 8466At this point, we had done pretty well, but as hard as we’d looked, we hadn’t yet found a mushroom or a feather.

IMG 8482We decided we’d take a little break in order to some sidewalk chalk art, and Gracen would ask Papa to take her out again once he returned from work for the evening.  Low and behold, they returned with the entire tray full!

IMG 8486Gracen really enjoyed this activity and we’ll definitely be using the muffin tin method in games and hunts in the future.  It gave a clear visual of what was needed and what had been found, our items stayed in place and were organized, and Grae really liked everything having its own spot and filling up the entire tray. 

♥ 

For extra fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here.

 
 
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Spring Flowers Felt Board Set

3 / 15 / 133 / 22 / 14

Spring Flowers Felt Board Set

Today after her nap, Miss G and I enjoyed a little crafternoon.  We set up shop in the warm sunshine pouring through our front window and she worked on decorating felt eggs while I worked creating this new spring felt board set.

IMG 6711

This time around, I created paper patterns by drawing very simple flower shapes onto scrap paper.  The ‘line drawing’ section of Google images is great if you’re in need of some inspiration, or if you simply want to print off some templates and skip the drawing part all together.

IMG 6712

Next, I cut around my flower shapes and pinned them onto bright, colourful sheets of felt (I use the inexpensive stuff made of recycled plastic bottles for felt board sets and save the more costly wool stuff for my Littlest Lulu projects, but both work great).

IMG 6713

Then I carefully cut out both my paper patterns and the felt flower pieces all at once.  I used the same method to create several differently shaped leaves too.

IMG 6710

Afterwards, I cut out several long, thin pieces of green felt to act as stems.

IMG 6714

As well as several centres that can be mixed and matched on the flowers.

IMG 6717

Here’s our finished spring flowers felt board set…  Flowers that can mixed, matched, and combined into tons of different possibilities. Just for fun, I may add grass strips, soil clumps, terra cotta pots to the set later on.  And clouds, sunshine, and raindrops would be fun additions too!

IMG 6728

Here’s my little love’s finished project.  A beautiful colourful felt egg to display in time for Easter.

To learn how to make your own easy felt board and to see our other felt board games, click here.

♥

For extra fun, like us on Facebook here and find us on Instagram here. 

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