Friday Favorites: Little Pine Learners

For today’s Friday Favorites post, I’m sharing one of my favorite resources for fun, educational and nature-centered printables and activities for kids, Little Pine Learners. Little Pine Learners is run by Tara Rondinelli, an early childhood educator and mom to two adorable boys. She believes learning should be hands-on, fun and outdoorsy. She has an amazing talent for coming up with new and fun ways to get kids learning outdoors and incorporating natural materials into a learning environment.

BONUS: We’re doing a fun giveaway at the end of the post. Make sure you scroll all the way down for the info!

We had the opportunity to try out a few of her favorite printables (all available in her Teachers Pay Teachers online shop) and absolutely loved them. These printables have been such a big hit at our house this summer. The kids ask to play with them all the time. It’s not only a great way to keep them busy during the long hot summer days, but it keeps them sharp and their little brains active.

Today I’m going to share some of the ways we’ve used two of her activities and why my kids love them so much. Plus, we’ve got a great interview with Tara all about her passion behind these products and why incorporating nature into learning is so important.

Story Stones

My all-time favorite Little Pine Learners product has to be these printable story stones. The Story Stones for Writing & Storytelling package includes 50 colorful graphics to cut out and Mod Podge onto stones, 7 writing prompts to help spark the writing process and 2 story mats to help sequence events and organize writing. All for $3.00!

To begin, the kids needed to collect rocks to make the story stones. This meant a trip (or three) to our local creek was in order. Stones were evaluated by size, shape, color, and texture to determine if they’d be suitable for our purpose. I love giving kids a mission when we’re out exploring because it gives them something to do and makes them more observant. There’s way less whining and fighting when they’ve got a project to focus on. Once we’d collected enough stones, it was back home to wash them and prep them for the graphics.

My kids are little, so I took it upon myself to cut out all the graphics to put on the stones. If your kids are a bit older, this would be a great project to help with fine motor skills. When we had the graphics cut out and ready, we used clear Mod Podge to adhere them to the stones. Then another light coat on top to protect and let them dry overnight.

The next day we took a hike at one of our favorite nature centers. It was going to be a million degrees out that afternoon, so we went as early as possible and took advantage of the tree canopy cover and the cool creek. I told the kids to be as observant as possible and remember what we did and saw because we’d be using our hike as story inspiration later that day.

When we got home, I pulled out the story stones and set them out in front of the kids. I asked them to choose a few pictures that correlated to something that happened on our hike. My 6 year-old worked on the story mat, since he’s old enough to write a short story about our adventure. The 3 year-old did a sequence mat, so she could tell her story in sequential order. Having both options for different ages and skills was really useful.

The kids told and retold the story of our hike using as many applicable stones as they could. Each time they got more creative and remembered more things that we saw and heard along the way. They remembered what we talked about and how things felt. What an incredible way to relive a fun experience! And I know that the next time I tell them we’ll be using the story stones after an adventure, they’ll go out of their way to remember even more.

Other ways to use story stones

The brilliance of story stones is that you can use them in so many amazing ways. They provide endless possibilities for writing and storytelling and can be used as a prompt to create and inspire all kinds of stories or retell adventures!

Storytelling – Storytelling is an important skill for kids to learn. It encourages creativity, helps sharpen memory, and improves communication and listening skills in young children. Storytelling with stones can be done as an independent activity, with a classroom of children or sitting around the dinner table as a family.

Have everyone sit in a circle and pass around a basket filled with story stones. The first person draws a stone and starts the story centered around that graphic. When that person is ready to pass the story on, the next person/child picks a stone and uses the image to inspire a new line in the story. Children love this activity. It encourages creativity, public speaking and it helps build community! Plus, the smooth surface of the stone will calm any anxious storyteller.

Want more story stone ideas? Tara has a whole blog post dedicated to other ways kids can use story stones: 4 Ways to Use Story Stones in the Classroom

Alphabet & Beginning Sound bundle

We also had the chance to try out the Alphabet & Beginning Sound bundle from Little Pine Learners. This bundle is only $8.00 and comes with 4 awesome activities for kids, which includes:

(1) Hands-On Learning: Alphabet and Beginning Sound Center;
(2) Playful Learning: Alphabet and Beginning Sounds;
(3) Sensory Tray Writing Prompts: Alphabet and Beginning Sounds; and
(4) Say It, Find It, Make It, Write It with Letter Cards and Beginning Sound Stone Graphics.

Combined, these are four great ways to teach preschoolers about letters, sounds and words, using a variety of techniques.

This entire package was a big hit with my 3 year-old, who is obsessed with beginning sounds and matching. Her favorite was the Hands-On Learning center. For this activity, I let her choose a letter and handed her the corresponding printable. We went around the list of objects and she had to decide if the object started with that letter. She’d sound out the word and if it did, she’d cover the picture up with a shell, bead or pom.

She was surprisingly good at determining what the object was and what letter it started with. She got through the entire alphabet without stopping! I had no idea she had that much persistence.

We’re still making our way through the rest of the activities in this packet. There are a ton! It should definitely last us all summer.

About Tara 

Hello! I am Tara and I live in Wisconsin with my husband and two children. Our boys are two and five years old, so we have a very busy household at the moment!  My husband stays at home with our boys and I am a second-grade public school teacher. My boys and husband stay busy taking care of our yard and home while I’m teaching. I love coming home at the end of the day and doing an activity with my boys. They usually ask me what I have planned right when I walk through the door! I love going on nature walks with my boys. This is when I get the most inspiration for new activities and it’s such a joy to watch them explore nature! My oldest will be going to kindergarten this school year so that will be a big transition for us!

I have a Bachelors and Masters in Early Childhood Education. I’d love to get some sort of nature certification sometime down the road in the future. Education is so important to me and I consider myself a lifelong learner. I am constantly reading literature to stay current on the research in my profession and interests.

About Little Pine Learners

Once I had my boys, I quickly realized how important it is for children to spend time outdoors. When we were outside, I noticed that the fighting and whining stopped and they seemed more content and happy. I also noticed that I felt calmer and more relaxed in an outdoor setting so I started doing some research on the benefits of spending more time in nature. After a while, I began to want to inspire other families to get outside more through fun nature crafts and other outdoorsy learning activities, so Little Pine Learners was born!

Importance of outdoor education

The intellectual, emotional, social, and physical benefits of exposure to nature have been well documented. Spending time in nature gives children the opportunity to think creatively, problem solve, regulate stress, resolve conflict, learn through play, and so much more! Along with these learning opportunities, early experiences with nature often leave lasting memories that children carry with them for a lifetime.

Getting outside

For most parents, I think the weather is the biggest obstacle to getting kids outside. It’s easy to get outdoors on a nice day, but rough weather always presents extra challenges. It’s important to invest in some dependable kids’ outdoor gear and have it available in an easily accessible spot. Some of our best days of exploring were in the rain when my boys were wearing their Oakiwear rain suits!

If you can’t get out, reading nature-inspired picture books is a great indoor way to connect with nature. This is an everyday activity in our home. Children will read books over and over again and can inspire a sense of adventure and a love of the great outdoors! We have a large collection of books and reading outdoors has become one of our favorite activities.

If you need ideas for things to do outdoors, check online. I love the community of nature-loving mamas and teachers that I have found on Instagram! When I first started my account on Instagram, I had no idea that this movement existed and then slowly I found inspiring accounts and started searching through different hashtags. I do read blogs and check out Pinterest and Facebook, but Instagram is my favorite spot for inspiration!

Giveaway!

As a little added bonus (and a thank you for being here), I’m giving away 10 sets of story stone printables from Little Pine Learners to 10 of you wonderful readers. All you have to do is subscribe to our newsletter and leave a comment below saying you did so! Good luck! I’ll email the winners in a week!

In the meantime, make sure you check out the Little Pine Learners website and the online store, full of fun activities and printables for kids of all ages.