Welcome to our “The Enchanted Spring Meadow: Spring-time Animals” series. For this week, we focused on a different spring time creature each day, bringing some fun & educational adventure mixed in with some crafts and activities!
For this day, we focused on the sneaky raccoon! The “masked” creature is seen more often during springtime with the warming months. Read on to check out our day!
A TYPICAL DAY
All kids are different and you can definitely vary your day with whatever works for you 🙂 Our relaxed & learning fun day kicks off with an introduction to the day’s theme. Then, we move onto videos and themed activities (reading, writing – or story telling – time, crafts, food crafts/snacks, and games or experiments). Feel free to pick and choose whatever works for you 🙂
INTRO
Raccoons are another animal that is seen more often during the spring season! These little creatures have gotten the reputation for being sneaky little bandits – both because they like to raid porches for food and because of their dark fur around their eyes (making them look like they’re wearing masks). If you want to start out with a few facts, check out the links below.
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- Raccoon | Amazing Animals by Nat Geo Kids
- Raccoon Facts for Kids 🦝 | Secrets, Sounds & Amazing Adaptations by Tiny Animal Tunes & Wild Facts for Kids
- 10 Foods That Raccoons Love 🦝 They Can’t Resist This! By Fauna Frontier
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we decided to snack like a raccoon, which (other than the scraps) are surprisingly similar to many snacks we eat – bread, watermelon, fruit, and even marshmallows!
- Snacks raccoons like marshmallows, unsalted peanuts, grapes, watermelon, etc.
READING
It’s no secret that reading is an important part of learning, which is why we pick out a handful of books that are fun and filled with some learning tidbits. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned! These are a few we picked from for the day:
- Raccoons will solve puzzles just for fun by Scientific American
- The Nature Kid’s Guide to Raccoons: A Level 2 Reader for Curious Young Kids Who Love Raccoons! by David Anderson
- A Kissing Hand for Chester Raccoon (The Kissing Hand Series) by Audrey Penn
- Randy the Raccoon and the Food That Could Not Be Washed by P.J. Willowby
- A Girl, a Raccoon, and the Midnight Moon by Karen Romano Young
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing is a great way to keep kids learning by both encouraging their creativity and thought process as well as helping them practice their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: ANIMAL, SPRING, RACCOON
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day (and we offered up some examples as well) but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- Raccoons have sometimes been associated with bandits because fur on their face looks like robber’s mask. Write a short story about a raccoon that really doesn’t like the ‘bandit’ nickname and how that raccoon goes about trying to change the way people look at them!
- Write a short story about a group of raccoons that embrace the bandit role. What makes them good thieves? Why do they do it? Describe one of their attempted robberies!
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning! Below are some of the crafts we looked at:
- Woodland Stickers (Fox, Owl, Bear, Squirrel, Deer, Raccoon)
- Racoon & Beaver Craft Magnet
STEM & STEAM ACTIVITIES
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our post! If you enjoyed this, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Spring Ideas days as well as our DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
