Pokey Like a Hedgehog

This month is all about Winter in the Woods with Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time) preschool curriculum. The first week’s lessons are all about Forest Animals including the hedgehog. See our “Pokey Like a Hedgehog” sensory tray, our paper plate hedgehogs, prickly playdough hedgehogs and stick painting.

Paper Plate Hedgehog

The hedgehog Invitation to Create used pokey balls to paint texture for the body of our hedgehogs.

After it dried, we folded it in half, attached a googly eye and pom pom nose. Then comes the pokey toothpicks! We used lots of glue so the toothpicks don’t come off.

Did you know that hedgehogs are nocturnal? They are protected by their spiny coats and can curl up into a ball. Hedgehogs have poor eyesight so they rely on their sense of smell and hearing to hunt for food.

Pokey Sensory Tray

I made a tray of pokey items for the kids to explore. It’s just a few child-safe objects I found around the room including Bristle Blocks, pokey ball, brush, moose (antlers), a shell, toothpicks, and a pinecone to explore the descriptive word “pokey”.

The photo of a hedgehog was nearby so they connect the idea of the quills being pokey like the pokey sensory tray items.

This little introduction drew everyone’s attention!

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Be careful, the toothpick is pokey!

Everyone had a turn checking over the “pokiness” of each item. I heard a few declare some objects were not pokey – the brush was quite soft. But they can be pokey!

This shell does have some pokey parts.

Our pokey sensory tray was a hit. Another idea is to include soft or non-pokey items and have the children sort them.

Painting with Sticks

Our Table Top Literacy activity for the day was Quill Writing. The teacher guide suggested a sand tray and pokey items to use to write names or letters in. I decided to change it up a bit and we painted with sticks.

Painting with sticks is a bit challenging because it doesn’t pick up paint the same as brush but as you can see, many of them held the stick like a pencil or brush.

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The children explored moving the stick in different ways to apply the paint.

Color mixing is always a hit too.

Hide the Hedgehog

Need a simple game? Hide anything! Then everyone looks for it. So easy and fun! It can be adjusted for any holiday or theme. So we played “Hide the Hedgehog”. Henry, our hedgehog, looks very comfy in the blanket basket under the sofa in the library corner!

Prickly Hedgehog STEAM Station

Experience Early Learning’s STEAM Stations are the best! They are activities that allow children to explore a topic or idea through free play. They provide continues repeated play opportunities so children can test out new ideas.

For our Prickly Hedgehogs, we used play dough, colored toothpicks, large googly eyes, and some colorful craft sticks.

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My group was observed counting their toothpicks. So they were working on skills all on their own and I could listen to their progress.

How fun are these colorful creations?!

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Hedgehog Books

More Winter in the Woods Activities

• Winter in the Woods: What’s in the Box?
• Winter in the Woods Small World Play
• Winter in the Woods Dioramas
• Mittens