Category: Nature

Make a Mini Troll

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Troll Statue (5)

After reading in Highlights magazine about an artist who makes troll sculptures from wood and recycled materials, Travis was eager to make his own. A walk to a nearby beach was the perfect opportunity to collect pieces of bark, branches, and wood shavings on the ground.

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We returned with a plastic bag full of pieces and now needed to design the troll! Travis loved setting this out, initially with the troll lying down.

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He carefully arranged arms, legs, and a head.

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I then used hot glue to make his creation stand up in 3D. We even added a little orange peel as a hat!

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What a ferocious little troll it was, and a neat concept to boot.

Sound Walk Scavenger Hunt

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When we go on nature walks, I tend to draw Veronika’s attention to things we can see… a natural tendency, and of course a great way to help her hone skills of observation. But it can be easy to neglect other senses. So today we specifically focused on things we could hear on our walk instead!

Armed with a cute template, we set out on a sound “scavenger hunt”.

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I loved this template because the pictures were cartoon-ish and easy for even a young toddler to understand. “Bird!” she said, looking at the drawings. “Plane!”

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The template is also just right for this age because it only includes a few items, instead of an overwhelming list. Pretty soon, we could start to check items off.

We met a dog on our walk, who barked happily. “Dog!” she said. I showed Veronika the dog on her paper and helped her check it off. (Older toddlers will no doubt proudly make the check marks themselves).

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Then she eagerly pointed when we heard a plane! And that earned a check.

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A bird near the water caught her attention and she chased after it yelling out “tweet tweet!” So that one got a check, too.

There is ample space to add other sounds that you hear, so we drew in a little cartoon of the wind after listening to it rustle through the leaves.

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Perhaps we’ll do a scavenger hunt for our sense of smell or touch on our next walk!

Chalk Color Matching Game

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Here’s an activity that’s a bit like a paint chip rainbow nature hunt, but tailored more to fit a toddler’s age and abilities.

On a gorgeous garden walk today, I directed Veronika’s attention to lots of different colored flowers. (“Look, reds! “Can you see the blue flower?”). I didn’t specifically ask her to collect any one color, but I carefully made sure we had at least one item from each color of the rainbow by the end of our walk.

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Once home, I sketched out a chalk rainbow on our back patio. As soon as I said, “Red…” she began to sing a rainbow song, going through all the colors!

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We then laid out our treasures from the garden. I placed red flowers on the red rectangle, orange on the orange, and so on.

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Soon she was helping!

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The flowers didn’t stay in one spot for long, since she wanted to pluck the leaves or rub them between her fingers. But I loved that she turned the color play into sensory play, too!

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Older toddlers can go even further with the game. Talk about shapes, or sort your colored items by a different attribute. I’d love to hear how the game goes for you in the comments!

Nature Names

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Nature Names (5)

In the past, Travis has hunted for items in nature that go with each letter of his name. But never before have we crafted his name from nature! This was a neat twist to give purpose to today’s foray into nature.

Soft, delicate items will work best for this project, so I encouraged Travis to look for grasses, leaves, and petals. Mostly though, he collected lots of little pebbles, which ended up working fine.

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At home, we set out pieces of colored construction paper, and I encouraged Travis to think about how the letters of his name would look if dotted in glue.

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This was a little tricky for him and it ended up being easier to write the letter first, then dot the glue over the lines.

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He then could add rocks or bits grass and leaves to each dot, making for a pretty nature collage! We decided to make one for little sister’s nickname, too.

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Another successful project at Camp Mom.

Small World Forest Play

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Small World Forest Play (5)

I’ve always loved those detailed fairy houses that kids (and grown-ups!) craft from found items in the woods. Veronika is too young for it, but here’s an activity that’s suitable for a toddler and a precursor to that kind of imaginative play down the road.

First up was a quick sortie into nature to gather all the sticks we could find. She helped collect a handful, and a few tiny pinecones, too.

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Inside, I wanted to fill the bottom of a shoebox with play dough, which would be the base for all the “trees” in our forest. I did have play dough on hand, but it was in vivid shades of purple and blue and I wanted something more realistic. Here’s a quick recipe that literally takes 5 minutes and cooks up like a charm:

In a saucepan, combine 3/4 cup water, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon oil. Heat over medium heat, until warm, but not boiling.

Meanwhile, stir together 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup salt. Add the flour mixture to the hot water and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture pulls from the sides of the pan and is no longer sticky.

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Let cool on wax paper. Once cool enough to handle, pat into the bottom of a shoe box. Now we arranged all our little sticks like trees!

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We added Veronika’s Duplo people to be the little forest inhabitants. She loved that they left footprints behind in the play dough!

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She also liked rearranging the sticks in various patterns, or scooping up bits of play dough with the sticks as shovels.

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This was a great activity for engaging the senses and the imagination.

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Five, Six, Pick-Up Sticks

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Nature is the perfect playground for children to learn in, which is a no-brainer because, of course, we evolved and learned to learn in… Nature! I was reminded again today that it’s all right there: sensory concepts, numbers, shapes, and so much more.

The first step of our project today, then, was simply to head out with a little bucket and collect anything that caught Veronika’s eye.

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We paused at intervals to discuss her collection or to organize it in various ways. She loved lining up sticks on this log, for example!

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Or playing with various sizes of pine cones.

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Don’t worry about curating your child’s collection. Simply add anything that he or she wants to the bucket, whether that means little pebbles (one of Veronika’s favorites), seed pods, sticks, leaves, grass, or anything else.

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Once home, we didn’t even have our shoes off before she dumped the collection on the floor.

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But that was just fine with me! I sat down with her to talk about everything we’d brought home. First we concentrated on size as I lined up the sticks. Could she find me the longest one? Yes!

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The shortest stick? Yes! I was really happy to see her mastery of this concept.

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We played around by subdividing her findings in different ways, whether by item, by color, by texture, and more.

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You can also use the opportunity to count. How many pebbles did we bring home? “One, two!” she told me.

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How many acorns? “Just one!” Then of course your toddler is simply going to want to play with all the treasures that have come home.

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Take Summer Outside

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Here’s a round-up of a few ways we played in the summer sun today, all with one common factor: the activity had to get us outside!

First up was a round of animal charades. The idea was to spot an animal and then move like it. Everyone else guesses what you are! Travis spotted a bee and loved buzzing like one.

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In fact he was so enamored with the bees that it was hard to get him to spot a second animal, but he could also crouch and hop like a squirrel.

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Little sister, meanwhile, loved pretending to fly like the birds she saw. Or getting down low to crawl like an ant bug.

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I loved that this simple activity really got them paying attention to how animals move.

Then it was time for a nature walk. As we strolled on a nearby path, we pulled out an oldie-but-goodie, searching out animal homes and guessing who lived inside each.

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This time, Travis snapped pictures with the instant camera, too!

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We also embarked on a leaf hunt! I challenged him to find 5 different leaves and then we used a nature guide to try to identify each one.

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There was such a thrill every time we found a corresponding picture. It was a great activity for talking about similarities and differences.

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Travis glued the leaves to poster board once home and we labeled them, making this a great approximation of an elementary school science project.

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He then drew the leaves, a pretty picture we decided to mail on to a friend!

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To end the outdoor fun, we repeated a classic activity: tracing an item’s shadow to see how it changed over the course of the day.

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Our intent wasn’t to make a full sundial, but just to watch how the shadow changed at intervals. We color-coded our markings for a pretty result!

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Special Tree

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Special Tree (2)

This post is really the beginning of an adventure that I hope will be with us for quite some time. I’ve long wanted to plant a tree with my children, but we’ve never had a yard of our own in which to do so. At last I found a solution: a bonsai cutting that can grow and bloom with our family!

You can plant a tree any time of course, but it’s also nice to time it around a special event or birthday. With our 9th (willow) wedding anniversary in July, planting a willow bonsai felt just right.

The kids loved helping scoop potting soil into a large pot and arranging the tree cuttings, root sides down. Veronika seemed particularly interested in the feel of the trunk, and we talked about the various textures (bark versus soil, etc.).

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Make sure to read a book about trees, too, like The Giving Tree, to round out the day.

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Watering the tree has already turned out to be a big hit.

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Both kids want a turn with the watering can!

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Here are some future plans we have for our tree: To compare the kids’ growth with the tree’s (who will grow more inches in a year?); to name the tree (right now we’re thinking Wendy); to play and sing around the tree; and to take lots of pictures along the way. Does your family have a special tree? Please share in the comments!

 

Nature Sensory Bags and Suncatchers

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Nature Sensory Bag (5)

I hadn’t made Veronika a sensory bag in a while, and she seemed due for some squishy fun.

Normally for a nature-themed activity like this, the first step would be a nature walk! But we needed to stay close to home this morning so ended up just walking around the neighborhood. The kids still found plenty of treasures!

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“I found a baby pinecone,” Veronika told me proudly, as she added leaves and pinecones and other finds to the bag. I also made sure to add a few pretty flowers, knowing I’d want them for the suncatcher.

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When we got home, I filled both a gallon-sized zip-top bag and a snack-sized zip-top bag with clear gel. (Either hair gel or aloe vera gel work well; use whichever you can find that is largest and cheapest!).

For the small bag, I added only the flower petals, spaced nicely apart. I then taped this to the window. An instant suncatcher!

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Veronika poked at it curiously, but I think the sun hurt her eyes because she didn’t linger as she has with previous sunlit projects.

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Then I added everything else into the goo of the larger zip-top bag. This version, a more classic sensory bag, received way more of Veronika’s attention. Through the gel, she could feel all the various textures.

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Prickly pine needles, hard pinecones, soft flowers. She needed to show it to her doll, of course!

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She loved picking it up and squishing it, especially around the firm pinecones.

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I love to leave bags like this out where a toddler can return to them over the course of a day or two, interacting with it slightly differently each time.

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For security, use hot glue along the zipper when you seal the bag shut, and you won’t have to worry about any unexpected messes disturbing the fun!

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Leaf Masks

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Leaf Mask (5)

If your toddler has recently collected leaves on a nature walk, here’s a simple way to turn them into a costume for make-believe: make a leaf mask!

I cut a paper plate in half and held it up to Veronika’s face so I could mark the location of her eyes and nose.

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Cut out eye holes, then snip two sides of a triangle where the nose is (this will help it sit better on your child’s face). Next, Veronika helped glue down the leaves we had collected. She loved painting on the glue with a paint brush while I arranged the leaves in overlapping rows as best I could. If you prefer less mess, you can attach the leaves with tape, too.

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Once the glue dried, I punched a hole on each side, and added string.

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Tie around your child’s face and let their imagination do the work from here! Veronika immediately began humming Darth Vader’s theme song and doing his deep raspy breathing.

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Clearly this was a Star Wars mask in her view! But perhaps your toddler will pretend to be a woodland fairy, or a tree, or anything else that fires up the imagination.

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One way or another, this is a beautiful way to tie together a nature walk with a little bit of arts and crafts.

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