Bare- Feet Project

Children and I were talking about families, as all living things have families. Human family, animals have families, bugs, birds, fish, dinasours and  plants have families and they all have parents too. Children wanted to learn about the habitats of different animals, we googled all questions they asked, why bunnies and other animals hybernate? what does snails like to eat? why snakes do not have feet? doesn't animals feet hurt when they walk bare feet? As we do use technology while staying close to Nature, and learn and explore Nature by being in touch with Nature physically and use technology where we cannot reach.

 Ready for the Barefeet walk

Children said, " It feels soft and cool! to walk on grass"

 "I like to run bare feet ,it feels good" Tom said.

 Emm says," i like it".

 who has bigger feet.

 I told children, "There can be twigs and little thistles on the ground that  are poki and may hurt".

"Ohh, the trunk of tree is hard and rough". Evan's observation

Look i can climb up high

Water is cold

This dirt is cold and fun to walk upon.

I like it tooo.

"This feels like a carpet----"

 Children enjoyed feeling the water in a stream and felt relaxed.

Some boys were more interested in watching bugs in water.

Tom was first little reluctant to put feet in water, but once he did he enjoyed the feel of water and felt relaxed.

The color of water is muddy and it feels cold.

After being in water their feet felt much warmer and cosy on mulch.

Kids were also inquisitive to learn who  tried to go underneath there.

 Children exploring hard part of dirt and soft part of dirt and how  does it feel.

Covering their feet in mud was interesting for children.

Children observed squirrels walking on electric wires and asked how the walk so fast and balance.So we talked about balancing and Children saw a wood beam in our vegetable garden and started balancingon it.Balancing

 Encourage children to be Inquisitive about Nature.

Bugs and ants.

"ohhhhhhhh. look at these bugs---"

Balancing is fun. Children enjoying the balancing game.They move forward on beam and sideways, and observe how does it moves up and down with weight.

So we decided to go out bare feet and have a feel of walking bare feet, and understand how careful animals are. And why their feet are harder underneath? and different animals have different kind of feet, like deers have hooves, bunnies have feet. we googled all kind of feet to have the concept of different kind of feet. Children liked the project and grouped the animals in different families, like human family, Cat family, dinasour family, Reptile family, Rodent family, Dog Family etc---- They enjoyed recognizing which animal belong to which family. Our Bare Feet walk, in our secret garden was a success, they walked over the grass, dirt, gravel, mulch, climbed trees, walked through water stream, over the cemented area, and lastly over the slides. They were very excited sharing their barefeet walk experience with parents, as well as explaining me how they felt. As well as their balancing experience on the beam.

Nature Projects.

As children wanted to grow some plants for mother's day gift, in plant holders they made themselves from yougurt containers.As we emphasis on recycling.we  use materials from everyday use for art and craft.
We all went to Whole foods and brought green onions,cilantro and  fresh Oregano leaves. The purpose to buy these  herbs was which plant children want to present to their moms.Also how their seeds will look like when their plant grows.




Children are busy in planting seeds of their choice. Seeds of Cilantro,Onion,and Oregano. 4 out of six selected cilantro seeds.

Everyone is enjoying filling up their planters.

Poking with fingures to make holes for Seeds.

Tom making drilling sounds while making holes in dirt for seeds.

2yr old Emm wants to do it all by himself too,and enjoyed the project of making mother's day gift.

Sam did not want to poke with fingures ,instead used little sovel to dig the holes for seeds.

"Dirt sticks to my hands" Evan  enjoyed dirt on his hands.

"Look at my hands, they look cool"

Tom says, "i can even blow the seeds and they are moving when i blow".

"Look at these seeds they are Cilantro seeds"Evan says

2 yr old Sophie also enjoyed the project.

Evan says "i want to use two different kind of seeds together".That was his choice and he did use both cilantro and onion seeds.

 Evan is happy  holding and smelling cilantro.  

 Children made the watering Can from pop bottles and enjoyed watering their seeds after sowing them.

As children have been exploring nature and enjoying their time out doors most, along with lot of learning.I noticed children are more considerate with each other. I also noticed they are more respectful towards nature. As  some children were looking for bugs and they found one snail half squashed under a rock, they immediately wantd to rescue little snail and put him in safe place.They were so concerned for his safety and well being. They are recognizing and differentiating animal foot prints in our backyards/our secret garden. Also they observe the change in weather, which makes them  ask a question, "when are we going to do the vegetable Garden Appi"? So Children have started to plan for our yearly vegetable garden project, what they want to plant and where. As of the wet weather lately we started a plant project inside, for mother's day and children picked the seeds of their choice out of Cilantro seeds, onion seeds & oregano seeds. Most of the children wanted cilantro seeds to plant one of the student wanted both cilantro and onion seeds together in a pot. I gave  them  fresh cilantro, onions and some dry oregano  to touch , smell and taste. to have the better  understanding of what theywant to grow.Also what they  are going to sow, will be like when it grows. it was a fun project they made the pots out of yougurt empty cups, decorated them and put soil in it and loved putting hands in dirt. They learned about different shapes and sizes of the seeds, some seeds are edible too, and  what does a plant need to grow. It makes them responsible also to take care of that plant and they are suppose to note after how many weeks does the plant shoot comes out of the soil. ( because those plants are gone home). Although we are marking on the Calender as my planter is at my place.