Acorn Cap Jewels

Reagan, Kate and I colored the insides of acorn caps with markers,

and then we filled them with glue.

We waited patiently.

After forty-eight hours, the acorn caps became beautiful little jewels!

Acorns and Squirrels

 Kate made handprint acorns.

 I drew an acorn and ripped up a paper bag for Kate to glue onto the paper.  She tried to rip some of the pieces herself, but grocery bags are very strong and not easy for little hands to rip!

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game is super cute.  We have played it many times this week.  It's a great game to teach young children colors, number recognition (only 1 and 2), strategy (which color acorns do you need), and fine motor skills (squeezing the squirrel grabber to pick up acorns), plus it is well made and quick to play.

I helped Kate make acorn treats using Hershey's Kisses, chocolate chips, and Nutter Butter bites. 

While out on a walk, Kate found many acorns and placed them in her felt autumn pail.

We will spend some time over the next few days counting the acorns, but so far she has just enjoyed playing with and examining them.

A Squirrel's Tale is definitely Kate's favorite book out of this bunch because it comes with a little squirrel that you slip through slots on each page - super cute!

A is for Acorn a.k.a Squirrel School

There is no shortage of acorns around here right now and since R is working on the letter "A", I figured we could use some of those acorns as manipulatives.

R is not always interested in my suggestion that we sit down and work on a concept, but she is very competitive lately and wants to turn everything into a game.  I am more than happy to make learning a game.  This is what we did:

The first person to put ten acorns in a line won the first round.

The first person to make a circle using nine acorns won round two.

To win the third round, the players had to be first to make a rectangle using the entire perimeter of the tray.

The final round could be won by being the first to make a circle in a rectangle.

R also made the letter "A" but for some reason I didn't get a picture of that.  The game ended after this because the acorns were rolling all over the trays and it was getting frustrating for R.  We also spotted a gross little bug in the pile of acorns and I decided that the acorns had to go back outside. 

After returning the acorns to the squirrels and washing the trays and our hands, we snuggled up on the couch and read one of our favorite squirrel books, Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert.

We enjoy all of Lois Ehlert's books and this is a cute book about a squirrel's antics.  At the end of the book there is a great section with factual information about squirrels.