Rachael of Tiddler’s Toolbox shares 5 nature primarily based play tips for young kids. Create modest worlds, nature ice blocks, play with mud cupcakes, or use all-natural components for sorting, counting and matching activities.
Updated June 2021
I hope you enjoyed my very first post containing 5 Nature Based Art Ideas for Toddlers & Preschoolers.
Today, I’ll share 5 of my preferred approaches to use nature inside play and hopefully inspire you to use the terrific outdoors a small more.
As a reminder, right here are a couple of factors to maintain in thoughts:
- You DO NOT have to acquire any fancy rocks, bark, flowers and so on to involve nature in your play. I honestly have a bigger stash of all-natural sources than bought sources for my small ones. Get them involved and go on a nature hunt with each other. I guarantee you, they will enjoy it.
- You do not normally have to program your activity, but can use your atmosphere for inspiration. Fallen petals or even an old bouquet can provide so quite a few finding out experiences. Weeds are also one particular of my firm favorites. It’s awesome how quite a few tips I have for dandelion petals and leaves!
5 Nature Based Play Ideas
1. Small World Nature Based Play
This is one particular of my all-time preferred activities to set up, almost certainly simply because I can share my personal creativity.
In this certain set up, I applied avocado shells to act as dinosaur eggs. I definitely hate wasting something and frequently will uncover some other use for it.
The rocks, stones, and bark have been collected on prior nature walks. I shop them for later as a resource and the grass cuttings and fern leaves are freshly reduce from my garden.
One point that I like to attempt and involve in my modest globe setups, is various heights, colors, and textures. This is one thing nature is quite remarkable at delivering for us.
If you do not have a dinosaur-loving small one particular, not to be concerned, add in some modest fairy characters, or mini diggers or let your small ones Peppa Pig characters go on an adventure.
It’s uncomplicated to tailor modest globe setups to your small one’s interests and watch their imagination run wild.
2. Nature Ice Blocks
Anything to do with ice and my 3 small ones are there. Add in a couple of petals or leaves and it creates a entire new level of excitement.
I did prep this the evening just before, but honestly, it only took minutes. I applied containers and meals packaging to act as an ice-cube tray that would generate various shaped blocks.
Your small ones can use the nature ice blocks as a sensory expertise. Or take it one particular step additional and attempt to melt the ice to retrieve the petals and leaves.
3. Mud cupcakes
Scooping, transferring and pouring are all capabilities that kids will discover all through their childhood journey. These develop into life capabilities that they will continue to use as they develop.
We are delivering experiences for kids to create in this region by permitting our small ones to freely experiment with various components. Mud cupcakes are a amazing instance of how we can do this.
My youngest adored this activity and applied her hands, the spoon and the actual cupcake holders to transfer the soil. In the midst of all of the entertaining, she was discovering quantity and began to sprinkle the soil into the cupcake till it was complete.
4. Nature Based Play with Matching Sticks
This is a new notion of ours that I just began to use with my kids. I wasn’t a major fan of asking my small ones to appear at an image and match it to a actual-life object. I really feel kids require to use more than one particular of their senses to adequately obtain this.
My small ones applied an actual leaf and had been capable to really feel and smell the leaf and appear at the precise shape, size and colour in order to find it in our garden.
This would also work terrific on a nature stroll. Plan in advance to gather the leave to enable the glue (PVA) time to dry.
5. Sorting & Organizing for Nature Based Play
We honestly do not require to invest in highly-priced sources for our small ones to access an awesome educational expertise.
My small boy was in his element when I showed him our sticky squares taped to the window. On the other side of the area was a basket of leaves.
His process was to appear at the leaves, and organize them into 4 groups. Once he placed one particular of each and every leaf in a section of the sticky window, he then had to sort the remaining leaves accordingly.
By putting the leaves across the area, he became active through the activity. A terrific way to sneak in a small additional workout.
This activity could be adapted to suit your small one’s capacity. For the younger ones, perhaps pick only two sections and for the older ones you could pick to boost the difficulty of the range of leaves applied.
I hope that I offered you with some uncomplicated, uncomplicated and somewhat inexpensive (if not free of charge) nature primarily based play tips to attempt with your kids.
I am continually coming up with new approaches to use nature inside our play and finding out activities, so be positive to adhere to along with us on Instagram.
Nature Based Play Ideas for Kids
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