Nuts about acorns in preschool | Lois Ehlert

There are many ways to use acorns in your classroom!

As I have mentioned before, there are tons of acorns laying around the grounds of our preschool which means we have lots of squirrels too…

Introducing a Story

As part of our ongoing study of acorns and squirrels, we read the book titled “Nuts to You” by Lois Ehlert…

Expanding on the Story

Which led to a discussion about the squirrels that live in our trees and the acorns they eat and hide all around our preschool grounds…

Estimating with Acorns

After reading the book, I set out a pile of acorns and asked the children to guess (or estimate) how many acorns were in my pile. Once the children placed a guess, we spread the acorns out and counted them to see for sure how many acorns were in that pile…

And then I asked the children to estimate how many acorns they could hold in their hand then invited the children to place the acorns, one at a time, in their hand to count how many they could actually hold in their hand…

We discovered that because Mrs. Stewart’s hands were bigger, she could hold the most acorns in her hand…

Sensory Exploration with Acorns

Then the children went off to the tables to explore more with our collection of acorns.  At the discovery table, the children used some of the acorns to make acorn discovery shaker bottles…

The challenging part of this process was trying to figure out which acorns would fit into the small hole at the top of the bottle and which acorns would not…

Using Trial and Error

The children had to dig through our acorn basket to find just the right acorns for their bottles and then through trial and error, discover which acorns would work.  The children discovered that some acorns would fit just fine but because of the acorn cap, the acorns would not go all the way into the bottle so they had to choose to either take off the cap or find another acorn…

Lots of thinking, manipulating, and problem solving involved in this hands-on process and once the children were done with their bottles, we made lots of noise shaking those bottles around the room…

Tomorrow I will share with you what may be our very last acorn activity but who knows? As long as there are acorns to be found laying on the ground, we may just find another way to learn with them!

Available on Amazon

Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

Subscribe to My Newsletter

Latest Blog Posts

P is for Pizza!

While learning about the letter “P” we decided to explore with pizza! Pizza is an all-time favorite food for many preschoolers, and activities involving pizza

Read More »