Preschool Squirrels and Acorns Theme

Below you can find tons of fun and engaging Squirrel and Acorn Activities! Pick and choose the activities for your lesson or download a free copy of our Squirrel and Acorn Preschool Lesson Plan
to save you time!

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Planning your Squirrel and Acorns Theme Map

Can download our Squirrels and Acorns products and Theme Guide for free!
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Free Preschool Squirrels and Acorns Lesson Plan

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Add plenty of Brown and Gray Arts & Crafts items to your Free Art Space this week (Crayons, Paper, etc). Include Photos of Squirrels & Nuts in this space for inspiration. *If you are a member: You can print the 3-part cards from this weeks Activity Pack.

*Paint with Acorns

We put a spin on marble painting by using acorns instead to complement this theme! See our full tutorial on the blog. 

try this!

 Sing the Squirrel Song

Try singing the Squirrel song first and have the preschooler join in the second time around. They will love this one. "Squirrel, Squirrel, Shake Your Bushy Tail, Squirrel Squirrel, Shake Your Bushy Tail, Crinkle Up Your Little Noise and Hold a Nut between Your Toes. Squirrel Squirrel Shake Your Bushy Tail!"

Squirrel Tail Blow Art Craft

This fun Squirrel Tail printable Blow Art craft template can be found inside our Squirrel's Book Companion Set.  Inside you'll find, visual student instructions, as well as a print and go craft template to complete this activity.

Buy our Squirrel's Book Companion Set!

​More Art & Creativity Ideas:

Making dough impressions with natural items Danya Banya

*Squirrel Dress-up and Nesting

Add Squirrel dress up items to your Dramatic Play Area, as well as pretend acorns for finding. Add large boxes to create "Nests" in, and nesting materials. Feeling Adventurous? Create a space to hide the acorns in. 
*Member Tip: Don't have acorns? Print my Acorn page from this weeks activity pack for the children to hunt and find.

Squirrel Habitat  Dramatic Play

Turn your dramatic play into a forest by making trees and adding them to them to build your own forest, and add squirrels and other fun forest stuffed animals.

Squirrels Habitat

Add pretend acorns, pom poms, tree blocks and squirrel figures to the construction area this week for some small world fun. ​

Invitation: Build Nests

Set out a variety of materials so that children can build squirrel nests this week. Some items include nesting materials, cardboard tube, branch pieces, and squirrel figurines.

DIY Squirrel Blocks

Enhance your block play by adding pictures of squirrels and other forest animals to the blocks. *Member Tip: Create your own Thematic blocks. Using packing tape, attach the printable acorns from this weeks printable pack (or Squirrel 3-part cards) to blocks and add them to your dramatic play space.

​Check out this fabulous Squirrel small world invitation over at Play Trains!

*Squirrel 3-part Cards

Learn the names of a few different types of squirrels and compare the features to those of a chipmunk!
Use these fun cards in your literacy and science activities this week. You can find these in the Squirrels and Acorns Activity pack

Buy our Squirrels and Acorns Pack in our shop!

Storytime Activity: Nocturnal and Diurnal Animal Sort

Mix up a little science, literacy, and math with this FREE Storytime Activity. 
The book Forest Bright, Forest Night  goes great with this sorting activity. See more from this activity and get your copy on my blog: Storytime Activity: Nocturnal & Diurnal Animal Sorting

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Where is the Chipmunk? Interactive  Positional Phrases Mini-Book

Practice positional phrases with this Interactive Positional Phrases activity book featuring an adorable chipmunk!​

Get this activity in our shop!

Feed the Squirrel Name Activity

Work on name building skills with this fun customizable squirrel feeding game. 
​Included in the Editable Name Activities Pack. 

Get this name activity pack in our shop!

                              Acorn Letter Sort

Create a Tree trunk using a recycled chip can, wood contact paper (from the dollar tree). Add a hole for uppercase and lowercase letters. Encourage students to place their letter acorns in the correct hole.

Acorn Word Building Center ​

Use permanent marker to write letters onto acorns. Practice using them to build words. ​

                    Seek and Find Acorn Letters

Hide Acorn Letter cards from the Squirrel Activity Pack around the room. Encourage students to find the letters, and mark the letter mat.

Cyril and Pat Book Companion

 Pair our Cyril and Pat preschool book companion set with the delightful book by Emily Gravett.

In this book, you'll learn more about how two similar (but different) animals became friends. Inside our book companion sets, you'll find done-for-you conversation activities, highlighted vocabulary, and printable extension activities for each book. 

Buy our Cyril and pat Book Companion Set!

Squirrel's Book Companion Set

Pair our Squirrel's preschool book companion set with the delightful book by Brian Wildsmith. In this book, you'll learn more about Squirrels in the fall. Inside our book companion sets, you'll find done-for-you conversation questions, highlighted vocabulary words, and printable extension activities for each book.

Buy our Squirrel's Book Companion Set!

Featured Book Pick: Welcome to the Wonderful World of Squirrels

This week our featured book is Welcome to the Wonderful World of Squirrels by Diane Swanson. 
Why we love it: This book gives a simple overview of squirrels and includes wonderful photographs that children will love to explore. 
There are many fun activities to engage in after reading this book. We recommend taking a walk in your neighborhood and seeing what kind of squirrels you can spot!
​Find a squirrel and quietly observe his actions, then discuss why he may have acted that way. 

Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri
Cyril and Pat by Emily Gravett
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Squirrels by Diane Swanson
 Squirrels: Bushy-Tail Scampers! Richard A. Nesmith
Squirrels Leap, Squirrels Sleep by April Pulley Sayre and Steve Jenkins
Those Darn Squirrels! by Adam Rubin and Daniel

*Acorn Sort by Size

Sort acorns by size or place them in order from smallest to largest to support math skill development. Find this activity in the Squirrels and Acorns Activity pack

Buy our Squirrels and Acorns Pack in our shop!

Nut Sorting

Set out a variety of nuts for children to sort by type or size.

Compare and Graph

Invite your preschooler to make comparisons and graph  using the Fall Compare and Graph Activities

Get this in our shop!

*Squirrel Number Puzzles

Engage in number identification, ordering, and problem-solving with these Squirrel themed number puzzles! You can find these in the Squirrels & Acorns Activity Pack from PKPF

Buy our Squirrels and Acorns Pack in our shop!

                                      Hide the Acorns 

Label cups 1-10 with pictures of a squirrel, invite the child to place the correct number of acorns in each cup to feed the squirrel.

More Math ideas:

5-Little Acorns Chant from The Preschool Toolbox Blog

Acorn Sensory Bin

Fill up your sensory bin with a fun filler such as a variety of seeds, dry beans, acorns, and vase filler. Then add these fun Acorn Alphabet toys.

Nut Scavenger Hunt

Take your preschoolers on a nut hunt outdoors (you can recreate it indoors if needed), collect all kinds of nuts! 
Then bring your nuts inside; encourage preschoolers to sort their findings in a variety of ways. See if you can identify what trees the nuts came from. 
Extension: Graph the nuts
Extension: Use to create art; children can make creations and glue to paper or simply arrange the items on the ground and then take a photograph. 

Acorns

Acorns are a very important part of our ecosystem. The book Because of an Acorn by Lola Schaefer does a great job of showing this in a simple way. We love the way Phinizy Center for Water Sciences  expanded on this book by doing the read aloud at a pond. See their read aloud here.

Acorn Sink or Float

For this activity have the child gather acorns and with a bin of water, practice a sink or float activity with acorns. Make predictions and record your results. Use other items too.

                            Build a Squirrel Feeder

Work together to design and build a backyard squirrel feeder

More Science & Discovery Ideas:

Acorn Counting from The Nature of Grace
Squirrel Sensory Bin from Learning and Exploring Through Play

Squirrel Feeder and Observation from Fun Learning For Kids

Acorn Relay Race

Have the children form two lines and place a basket near their starting point. At the other side of the room or play space, spread acorns all around (these can be real or pretend).  Tell children to scurry like a squirrel (or skip, crawl, gallop, jump) to the other side of the room, retrieve an acorn and bring it back to their basket. Give each child 2+ turns to really get kids moving. 
**If your kids are not ready for standing in a line, simply have them all go at once but only retrieve one acorn at a time to bring back to their basket. 
**No acorns? Try doing this activity using printables from the Squirrels and Acorns Pack.

                                      Acorn Tweeze

Place an acorn in each cup of a muffin tin, using tweezers invite the child to practice removing the acorns.

*Squirrel Pre-Cutting/Writing Practice

Strengthen fine motor skills and prepare for writing with this Squirrel Pre-Cutting/Writing activity. 
First follow the line with a marker, then cut on the line with scissors. 

Buy our Squirrels and Acorns Pack in our shop!

Tree Top Hop

Place masking tape  "Trees" on the floor and have your students hop from tree to tree.

Squirrel Movement

Pretend to be a squirrel! Shake your tail, eat with your paws, dig for nuts. ​

More Physical Development Ideas

Create designs with Nuts from The Nature of Grace

Squirrel Walk

Take a walk in the neighborhood and be on the lookout for squirrels. Take some time to observe their actions. ​

Squirrels Around the World

Learn a bit about Squirrels around the World! (Discuss Squirrels that can be found in your community).
Did you know? According to the BBC Squirrels live on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. 
Check out some of the squirrels found around the world in this post from National Geographic

Acorns in my Neighborhood

Have the child take time to investigate an acorn. Talk about words like texture, and weight.
Go on a neighborhood walk to find an acorn. Have the child draw the acorn they found.

Group Activities, Ideas for Family Engagement, Snack Ideas, Educator Development and More!

Acorn Inspired Snack

There's nothing like a fun snack to get children excited about a fun new theme! 
I love this Acorn Inspired Snack made from Mini Nutter Butters, Hershey Kisses, and Mini Choc Chips from Erica's Educare Learning Center

*Gathering Acorns Rolling Game

This game is great to set up for a small group. Take turns rolling the playing cube; read the number word, number, or count up the acorns shown and then add the same number to the tree trunk mat. 
​For added engagement try forming acorns out of play dough for this activity. 

Buy our Squirrels and Acorns Pack in our shop!

Squirrel Study: Family Engagement Idea

For family engagement this week invite families to observe in their backyard or elsewhere in their neighborhood. They can count up the number of squirrels they saw, take a picture of one, or write what they saw when observing a squirrel. Be sure to encourage them to bring in something to represent what they discovered! This could be a drawing they did together, a photo they took, or acorns they found nearby. 

Squirrel Walk: At Home Idea

Take a walk in your neighborhood, see how many squirrels you can spot. As you walk consider bringing along a clipboard and pencil so you can tally, or draw pictures of, the squirrels you find. 
After your walk call a family member and tell them about what you found. 

Engaging Printables to Compliment your Squirrels & Acorns Preschool theme

Squirrels and Acorns Preschool Activity Pack

$7.00

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Fall Sensory Bin Scavenger Hunt Preschool Activities

$4.00

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Fall Visual Discrimination Activity

$2.00

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Fall Rhymes and Fingerplays

$3.00

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In the Middle of Fall Pre-K Book Companion

$3.00

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Cyril and Pat Book Companion

$3.00

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Squirrels Preschool Book Companion

$3.00

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