Treats for the Birds

One of the tot trays

the kiddos completed during our

Bird Unit

involved working on their

fine motor skills...

...by cutting yarn strips for

bird giftie bags.

The kiddos cut several pieces of yarn

and string and then placed them into baggies

made out of an old onion bag.

(Don't you love it when they stick their tongues out 

when they cut?)  ;0)

Pretty Princess Pants 

was lurking around the edge of the table...

...trying to eat little pieces of the yarn.

Silly girl...

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After the bags were put together...

...I hung the bags around our bird feeder,

giving them easy access 

to some free nest building materials.

During the hanging process...

...I had quite the audience...

We hope out birdie friends

enjoy their gifites

as much as we enjoyed making them!

A Beautiful Day for Apple Picking...

Earlier this week,
the kiddos and I went apple picking.

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning
for such an activity.
(And I am glad we did it in the morning,
because the afternoon was a scorcher!)

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We picked apples at the Alex Haley Farm.

(Yup, THE Alex Haley-
author of Roots-
he bought the Clinton, TN farm later in his life)

Two days out of the year, the farm is open to the public
for free apple picking.

This was the first year we participated,
and I do believe will are going to make this
a yearly tradition.

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You can't bring ladders or climb the trees
to get the apples,
but about anything else is game!

I invested in an actual fruit picker
for the occasion,
thought I saw MANY homemade versions
at the orchard.After demonstrating how to use it...

...all the kiddos wanted to give it a try.

Jumping for apples was also
a popular picking method
with my kiddos...

Success!

(We spent about 25 minutes picking apples,
but I think we would have gone longer
except after about 15 minutes of picking,
both Little Wild Man and Baby Girl
had not needed to go to the bathroom!)

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After we arrived back home,
with four good sized bags full of apples,
I read some apple books to the kiddos...

...Picking Apples and Pumpkins
by
Amy and Richard Hutchins...

(I only read the first part of this book-
I'm saving the rest for when we go pumpkin picking!)

...One Little, Two Little, Three Little Apples
by
Matt Ringler
and
Apple Trouble!
by
Ragnhild Scamell.

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We tasted our apples...

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We cooked with our apples...

Little Wild Man and Baby Girl
helped me make THIS
apple dessert...

(By the way, the kiddos didn't like eating it-
it's not the tastiest recipe-
but they did enjoy making it!)
Jungle Girl helped me cut apples for
THIS
Crockpot Applesauce recipe.

(Now, it is EXTREMELY delicious!)

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Finally, while Jungle Girl wrote letters to her friends...

...on THIS apple stationary...

...Little Wild Man and Baby Girl worked on their
alphabet skills
with THIS apple yarn activity.

I must say,
it was quite the Apple-tastic Day!

Science Sunday: Photo Scavenger Hunt Hike

Today, our field trip left us...

...smiling.

We hiked the rather tame...

...Sugarlands Valley Trail
of the Great Smokey Mountains.

I have grown up in the shadow of the
Great Smokey Mountains,
and yet I believe I have only hiked a handful
of its trails.

I do NOT want my kiddos to ignore this beautiful creation
(as I have been guilty of),
so I am going to make more of an effort
to get us hiking.

Now, my kiddos are still in the "young" category,
so the hike we did today was perfect.

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To increase the educational value of this field trip,
I created a photo scavenger hunt for the kiddos.

I put together a checklist for each kiddo
of natural items for them to look for.

When they found one of the items,

I would take a picture of it for them.
Here's a pine cone...

...an insect...

...a "worm"...

(or some kind of caterpillar-
not sure -
but it "passed" for the checklist)

...and a "mushroom."

(NOT a mushroom, but this was
closest thing we could find!)

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We also discovered many other
"treasures"
not on the checklist...

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Since we scared off all the mammals and birds
that we needed to find on the checklist...

...we went to the Sugarlands Visitors Center
to take a gander at the exhibits in the small museum.

We saw several mountain mammals...

...and birds, too!

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Again,
this field trip just left us
smiling!

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For more Science smiles,
head on over to
Science Sunday...