The Runaway Bunny {B4FI♥AR} & Oak Tree Nature Study

~Boaz is 4 years, 7 months~

Wonderful lessons to learn from The Runaway Bunny, but I especially loved the reminder that God loves us just as the mother bunny loves her bunny. We have all wandered away, each to our own way we have turned, but we have a loving Father that may have a hundred bunnies, and yet when one goes astray, he will leave the 99 behind to go seek the one that has gone astray. Love that no matter where I go, He will find me. ♥

For our row, we focused on the Science lesson from the manual. What happened to the tree? This was a great time to pull out Nature for the Very Young and do the lesson on Death and Decay. I prefer to call this lesson the Lifecycle of a Tree, as death is a natural part of the cycle of any existence.

I used As An Oak Tree Grows to help demonstrate the lifecycle of an oak tree.



We "collected" acorns (I bought them online), and we attempted to sprout them (this followed closely on the heals of The Carrot Seed wherein we focused on the beginning of plant life). Then we visited saplings, mature trees, a dying or dead tree, and rotting logs.



Bo colored the stages of an oak tree and put them in order:
  1. Acorn
  2. Sprout
  3. Sapling
  4. Mature oak
  5. Dead tree
  6. Rotting log with plants
  7. Rotting log with insects



A Log's Life was another really great go-along book that I found at our library. 


We found lots of great examples of dying trees and rotting logs at our forest property and on nature walks on the mountain. 






And it was fun to tie in Eliana's science book, One Small Square The Woods, to our study of the oak tree. 


Our acorns came with a bag of acorn tops and I used those for our math lesson - counting by tens. 


And counting by twos to 30. 


I pulled these next few activities out of Mali and Elli's lap journal from when we rowed the Runaway Bunny. (I wasn't sure I would love Five in a Row as much the second time, but I love it even more because of the memories I have of rowing with Malachi and Eliana). 

Shadow Matching


Bunny Sequencing


If/Then


If you get a chance to play the "What If" game from Language and Thinking for Young Children, it's a great go-along activity! I forgot to play with Bo, but I have the book pulled out to use with him this coming school year. 


Loved this ordinal number/story sequencing activity. I made it easy at first, then harder. 



Label the Bunny



I especially loved this counting syllables activity. This ties right in with what Bo is doing with All About Reading Pre-reading


What's Different?


What sound does it start with?


We haven't started the sounds section of Pre-reading yet, but Bo still knows all of the sounds from our time with Tot School Printables. This past year, we've been focusing on capital letters and this coming year, we will focus on lowercase and sounds. 

Helping mama find her bunny...


B4FI♥AR Treat: Carrot Cake Muffins

These are the same ones we made for our row of The Carrot Seed, because the mother bunny fishes for her fishy bunny with a carrot. ♥


From Wonderfully Made and Dearly Loved, these are on plan for Trim Healthy Mama, and I made the frosting with Gentle Sweet this time, added a little cream and the best orange oil you can buy (learn how to get this here), and they were sooo good! Bo ate up the whole cupcake this time and asked for more later. (Me too!)

Meet our Runaway Bunny


She keeps getting out and one morning I sat on the couch with my cup of herbal coffee and was warming up in the morning sun and there she was across the street. Again. I usually holler for Eliana to put her back (she's the best at it), but she was still sleeping so I chased her home. 



It took me awhile, but I finally got her back in and saw how she was getting out - under the fence. 

The Runaway Bunny is a Before Five in a Row selection. There are a lot of Fun Things to do with B4FIAR, but the most important thing is to cultivate a love for learning. ♥

Thank you for taking the time to share, link up, and 
visit to inspire and be inspired. 

I still have our row of Play With Me to share to get caught up on our summer learning and then I plan to get in "back-to-school" mode and share what I've planned for this coming school year. Until then... 

7 comments

  1. What fun!! I love all of the activities you incorporate!!

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  2. Ooooh, I'm going to have to add A Log's Life to my book list! Trees, what a fun unit. I love trees.

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    1. :) Linda, you will have so much fun when you are a grandma, I just know it! You will have preschoolers again! ♥

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  3. How fun! Glad you're own runaway bunny is safe!!

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    1. Abby, thank you! Hope to keep her that way - she keeps getting out!

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  4. Such a cute counting idea with the acorns!! He's growing up so fast and learning so much :)

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