Creating Cattails

We've had so much fun learning all about the Pond in our newest unit study!

Unfortunately Sweet Pea had the flu, so we haven't had many outdoor adventures to the local pond; however she did make her own picture of cattails at a pond the other day and had fun even with the flu.

Mother Goose Time supplied us with sticks, green paper, and the blue sheet along with the inspiration photo of cattails.  I modified this Invitation to Create for her.  Although she tried to use scissors, her hand skills just aren't there yet; so I cut the green paper into strips.  I had some brown chenille stems (pipe cleaners) on hand and decided to add them to her supplies to help provide that cattail fuzzy texture.  I pointed to the picture and told her these were called cattails and we can find them at the pond.  Sweet Pea's response was "Meow.  Kitty cat.  Meow." I think most kids would respond like this but I still got tickled from it. 

My girl loves to place dots of glue all over the place.  No streams for her... just individual dots. It's funny to watch her.

After placing some green strips, I asked her if she could tear them into smaller pieces.  Tearing proved to be quite challenging for my 2 and a half year old.  It might have been the size of the paper, but honestly we haven't worked a lot on tearing things, but now we will. :)  

  Her finished masterpiece. 

Her pond of cattails is the perfect home for her 4-eyed mayfly that we did on our Mayfly Day from Mother Goose Time, and the caterpillar and butterfly she made when we studied 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

So if your kiddo is sick, wants to be outdoors, and desires to do something, bring the outdoors to him or her by creating cattails and the creatures that can be found nearby. 

Happy creating!