Play With Me: Art [Part 4]

By: Shannon Mallery, Program Assistant Sr. - Mature Adults

This is the final week of the Play With Me: Parks and Recreation month art series. This week has the final part of our secret message and coloring sheets that feature nighttime creatures. Young children are curious and often intrigued by what is happening in nature when they are asleep. It is exciting for them to think about a whole secret world happening in the dark that they seldom or never see. It is also a good topic of conversation to share with them because they will be happy to talk and ask questions.

These activities are designed for children between 2 and 5 years old. Before getting started, parental assistance will be needed to help collect and setup supplies. Consider sending the supply list ahead of time so the parent can prepare in advance.

Supplies/Setup

• Print the Nighttime in the Trees background sheet and the Nighttime in the Trees cutout sheet
• Markers, crayons and colored pencils
• Scissors (age appropriate)
• Glue

As you work on the print out sheets together, talk about what you are doing:

• Remember color choices can be natural and imaginary.
• Encourage and compliment your child's cutting and gluing skills.
• Ask them if they know what nocturnal means, if they don't already know tell them.
• Ask if they can name any nocturnal creatures. Ask if they have seen any and when, was it during the day or at night, ask what the creatures were doing.
• You may want to talk a little about why an animal would be nocturnal.
• You may want to talk about how nocturnal animals are able to get around in the dark, how they use their senses.

Up for a Challenge?

If you participated in the challenge last week, how many rocks did you guess were in the jar? There was a total of 60 rocks! 

Take a look at the picture to the right and see if you can guess how many pine cone seed scales are in the jar. You can discuss this together with your child and you can agree on one number or you can both guess separately. The answer will be posted next week along with the answer to the secret message! Hint: There are many more pine cone seed scales then any other item we have guessed so far. 

Here are some questions you can discuss together about the last week's challenge:

• Did you guess how many rocks there were correctly?
• What made you guess the number you did?
• What do you think you can build with 60 rocks?
• Which do you think is stronger the rocks or the glass jar?
• How do you think the jar holds in such heavy, hard rocks?

Secret Message!

Can you find the secret message in the picture to the right? This is the last part of a three part secret message. We will give the answer to the message in the next Play With Me blog post. 

Fun Fact: All of the parts of the secret messages are made from the items in the guess how many jars! So the first message is made from 77 twigs, the second part from 119 leaves and the message to the right is made from 60 rocks!

Thanks for celebrating Parks and Recreation month with us.  We hope that the Play With Me series has provided fun activities to share together with the special children in your life. 

Next week starts the Play With Me: Action series. We will put away our markers and crayons and get out our sillies! Until then stay cool and remember to Play More with DPR!