Desert Night Activities for Preschoolers

We have had so much fun with our Mother Goose Time: Desert Discovery theme!

Last week we did activities that were all about the rodeo and this upcoming week we will actually attend a rodeo in our small town so stay tuned.  

Did you know that the desert night is filled with noise?

From coyotes to campfires and caves, we had an absolute blast exploring the desert night in the comfort of our home.  Here are some fun activities we did (all thanks to MGT) that you can try with your littles!

STEAM STATION: Desert Darkness

Using a highchair makes for an AWESOME cave!

Kids can easily crawl through the legs creating a perfect cave entrance.  I taped some of our animal pictures from a bingo game (later in this post) that MGT sent.  Avaleigh used a flashlight to expose the desert animals and tell me what she saw.  She was so excited.

A bright flash from the camera reveals all the little desert creatures in the cave.

MATH: Bingo (matching)

After Avaleigh removed all the desert animal cards from her cave, we used them to play Desert Bingo.  I placed all the cards into a brown bag.  Why?  Because we are leaning all things about the desert NIGHT and we have to incorporate darkness as much as we can... plus it's fun! We used our linking cubes (maipulative of the month that came in our monthly box) as markers for our bingo cards.  After playing a few blackout rounds, we took MGT's advice on their teacher guide and added a CHALLENGE!

When we pulled out the card, we had to give clues as to what was on the card.

Avaleigh pulled a card and said, "It has a hump and can drink a whole bathtub!"

Can you guess?

Avaleigh glancing at her hidden picture just pulled from the brown bag revealing clues about the picture.

A camel!

I loved her clue! (a whole bathtub....ha!)

We had so much fun playing this game, that we saved it for later when Daddy came home and we could all play together.

LITERACY: Letters in the Dark

Back to the cave of darkness.

Place the phonics picture cards in the cave.  Place the letter cards outside the cave.  Allow learners to find the picture, say the word, and place it with the correct letter card outside the cave.

My favorite part?  Hearing her say the words slowly and repeating the beginning sound so as to place it with the correct letter.  Her favorite part? Going into the cave!

STORYTIME:  Way Out in the Desert

When we finished our literacy cave fun, we extended our reading time with our story of the day...

Way Out in the Desert.

You have to read this book to the tune of Over in the Meadow!  It is such a lovely counting story of all the animals that you come across in the desert from the break of day until the wee hours of the night.  We have read it over and over.  It was such a great catalyst to our Invitation to Create which is up next. 

INVITATION to CREATE: Desert Night Painting

Using crayons, star stickers, and watery black paint Avaleigh created her own Desert Night Painting.

It started with us observing our Inspiration photo and discussing what colors we could see, plants and animals that live in the desert, and how she would use the star stickers.

She dew a red prickly cactus, a brown coyote, and an outlined full moon.  She then placed the star stickers all over the place and washed the black watery paint over the picture.
The end result...

The crayon and stickers resist the paint allowing the dark painting to still have color.

I love resist artwork.... it's just the art teacher in me. 

(read to know a little about my past teaching experience)

We had a blast with all our Desert Night Activities.

My husband came home and was impressed with my cave building (thanks MGT!) and then crawled in with the kids while I made dinner. 

My sweet boy loved it too!  Not to mention our golden retriever Bailey.

At one point, my husband, both kids, and the dog were all in this cave! The cave stayed up throughout the whole week since we had even more fun learning about nocturnal animals such as Desert Cottontails, Coyotes, and Rattlesnakes and no desert night would be complete without studying Campfires!

Which activity are you excited to try with your little learners?