•{earth.stamp}•

This was a super simple activity, and it turned out great! All you need is a paper bowl (works best if it has a smooth bottom without varying heights or ridges,) green and blue paint, and black paper. 

Flip your bowl upside down so the bottom is facing up (like a drum.) Sporadically place large dots of paint on the top (of the bottom) of the bowl. Then take your bowl, flip it over, and press it onto a scrap paper (like a big stamp) to make sure the entire surface is covered and you have enough paint. Then you are ready to press it onto your black paper (no new paint required!)

•{mushroom.jump}•

Where do mushrooms grow? On trees! Where do trees grow? On earth!

For this adorable little creation we used a toilet paper roll and red construction paper. I situated the top of the mushroom into a cone shape, and then glued the cone on top of the toilet paper roll. (I used a hot glue gun for quicker drying time.) Then my little picked out where to place the white dots.

Finished! Now to make it useful.

We have these Jumping Frogs from Dollar Tree and made a game. The object was to jump your frog OVER the mushroom. You could also change it up by hitting it or staying in front of it, etc.

•{bead.worms}•

Another book we got to tie in with our Earth and land them was Diary of a Worm. This book, while goofing around a little, tells of the importance of worms to Earth. So we decided to make some! For this activity we used pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and beads. I purchased all these items at Dollar Tree. Before turning my little lose with the beading, I bent a loop into one end of the pipe cleaner and glued the eyes on with a hot glue gun. Once the beads were threaded, I tied off the end by bending the other end of the pipe cleaner around the last bead to ensure the beads would not fall off.

•{animal.tracks}•

One of the books we picked out at the library to go with our Earth and land theme this week is Who Was Here? It is a book showing the different tracks each animal has. For this activity we picked out a few animals we had from Safari Ltd as these animals have real footprints on their feet rather than the usual smooth bottoms on most plastic animals.

We picked eight animals. A wolf, moose, raccoon, bob cat, bison, bear, beaver, and mountain goat. This variety covers most land forms on earth. Then came the fun part.

Dipping the animal feet in a thin layer of paint! We used white paint on black construction paper so the tracks would be seen easily.

Finished! Do you know who's been here?

•{letter.hunt}•

My little LOVES doing activities like this one where she is challenged to think and search for the letter she needs to find. Since we are focusing on Earth and land this week, we are reviewing the letter "E". This activity also works great with other subjects like numbers and shapes.

•{letter.matching.tree}•

This was a simple activity created with construction paper and green Color Coding Labels [I purchased mine from the Dollar Tree!] ((You could also use red for apples if so desired!)) It is a great activity encouraging the child to identify capital and lowercase letter matches. We did this activity in conjunction with our Land/Earth theme because trees live and grow on the land. It also ties in with our books Franklin Plants a Tree and Picture a Tree.