My Nature Wand and My Spider Mobile

My Nature Wand is a great activity for ages 0-12, because it allows for all children to take an active part in the process. Older children feel empowered to gather all of the materials and follow the illustrated instructions, while the younger children just love playing with the bubbles. Everyone benefits from the shared time together through creativity and problem-solving.

In our Critter Corner, you see that the ground squirrel is the featured animal of the week. At Treehouse, we tailor the weeks activities to what you as a family might see with the changing of the seasons. I encourage you to call up a few friends for a play date and  have some fun with the scavenger hunt! These activities are so much more enriching to the learning process if other children are learning together.

To download project sheets and print at home: Right-click the image, download as a JPEG and save to your desktop. Please note that most printers are not borderless, so you might have to cut around the edge to remove that annoying white border. So, print out your project/parent sheets and get outside!

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We would love to know how it went!

The Treehouse Family

Treehouse -- Issue1/Fall 2016

I know not everyone is a fan of spiders, but it is important to educate kids that spiders are essential to our ecosystem and without them, the natural order and hierarchy would be in jeopardy. I decided that the Orb-Weaver was our critter this week, so you can share a few fun facts with your child from the parent sheet.

After you have gathered all of your materials for the Spider-mobile project and before your little ones go to assemble this weeks project, play the Montessori-inspired game, My Spider Eyes. This game is a great exercise for little one's who are just learning to count. I have provided the word and also small circles, so you and your child can "see" what two looks like, as well as sounding out the word.

As for the Spider Mobile project, I have added pine cone weaving in step one because it is an amazing activity for smaller children; it really works on those fine motor skills!

The Artful Owl

For the month of October we studied owls. We dissected an owl pellet in our Facebook classroom and I did a LIVE Facebook demo: My Great Horned Bark Owl for our nature craft project. Unfortunately, my work schedule was a bit hectic with three large projects for Kiwico, and as a result, the owls issue was rather small. My apologies to many of you who were hoping for more projects and live video tutorials.

Our Facebook classroom (Treehouse Nature School) will be the hands-on space to share ideas and a special place where kids can share what they have created. When I was thinking of how I wanted to reach out to the community with my ideas, I knew that I wanted Treehouse magazine to be very child-centered. Each month I will share art and ideas from our "students" from Treehouse Nature School in that particular issue of the magazine.

Lastly, I will be introducing Team Treehouse. Team Treehouse is a family that has gone above and beyond in our classroom setting and has injected their inspiration and creativity into all projects and subject matter for that month. They are an awesome team and should be recognized. So, the family that has interacted with the magazine the most that month will get their own illustrated full page spread in that issue of Treehouse Magazine complete with stats and a half-page gallery devoted to their artwork and projects. 

As always, a big thank you to everyone that has offered ideas and solutions during the early stages of this journey. I am so happy that Treehouse has brought so many people from so many different cultures together to share in our love of nature and our children. You all truly make Treehouse an outstanding community to be apart of.

Please share Treehouse with your friends and family and if you feature us in your blog, please leave a link in the comments below.

To download project sheets and print at home: Right-click the image, download as a JPEG and save to your desktop. Or you can simply drag and drop. All files are 8 1/2" X 11" and fit any standard home printer. Or you can access and download the entire issue via this link in PDF format: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iRPBQW3VXXCACnDUZUlLrj3EBghYcoOh/view?usp=sharing

Share your pictures with us on instagram: @treehousemagazine

Mention us on Facebook: @treehousekidsmagazine @treehousenatureschool.

Send us a tweet: @mytreehousekids

We would love to know how it went!

The Treehouse Family