Activities

Creating Shapes with Nature

September 04, 2019
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This post was originally created as a guest post last fall (2018) for a series of 30 days of 30 different nature inspired learning techniques for your younger kids. I originally posted a Teaser post on my blog linking to the guest post but it has recently come to my attention that the website my guest post was posted on is no longer up and running so I decided to share the full post on my blog. I thought this was such a fun activity to do with my family so I feel it needs to be out there!
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My kids love to go outside to play so I like to try to come up with new and fun activities for my kids to do. Recently we decided to go on a nature walk. We live in a subdivision and have one tree on our property but luckily there is a pond with some trees on the street over so we decided to go exploring.

On our nature walk, we found three different kinds of berries (make sure your kids don't eat the berries, most are poisonous), some pretty purple flowers, sticks and what I believe to be a nut from a butternut tree. We also found a groundhog hole, saw a dragon fly and heard frogs at the pond.

We explored to see what different things in nature the kids could find and the kids had a blast!


While on our nature walk, I told my little ones to start collecting things they liked. They were all for picking the berries. We all grabbed handfuls of nature and brought them back home and made a pile in the driveway.  I love all the colors found in nature!


While my kids were busy picking grass, mulch and rocks in our front yard to add to our collection, I drew some shapes on computer paper. 

You can draw or write anything you want depending on your child's developmental level. My boys are working on their shapes and colors so I chose some basic shapes but you can make numbers, letters, more difficult shapes or even animals!

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I let my kids pick out what shape they wanted and told them to try to make the shape using the stash of nature supplies we just collected. I showed them how to do so and they quickly picked up on what they needed to do. When they finished a shape, I would ask them what shape they made?
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I then asked if they could make the shape again using something different. Once they made the shape again, they switched to a different shape. 

My son didn't want to trade his triangle for the square and my daughter stuck to the harder shapes, the heart and star. My one year old did alright with his circle with help from daddy but then decided he just wanted to fill the shapes with grass and rocks. He did pretty good for his age but didn't quite grasp the concept yet.

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Here is a close up of some of the shapes we created with supplies we found in nature. Aren't they cool looking?!

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My kids loved our nature activity and nature walk. Not only are my kids exploring nature and getting active in the outdoors but they are learning. This is a great activity for children of any age because you can always change up what you are going to make with nature - shapes, numbers, letters, animals. 

You can base the pictures off what your child is learning at school or what they need to work on. Plus nature is always changing so each season you can take your kids on a nature walk to teach your kids how nature looks different now verses your last nature walk. Example: Spring vs. Fall

If you don't live on a farm or have a pond with trees near by, that's not a problem; Nature is everywhere! You can go for a walk down the road and you will see trees, bushes, flowers, rocks and bugs. You may be able to collect some just don't go pulling up your neighbors garden. 

You can also take this activity to your local park, after all it just paper with a shape on it which makes for easy travels! Explore your local park and see what you can find. Talk about what you see, what you hear, the different colors of leaves, flowers, animals. 

Nature and learning should be an important part of your little one's life.  There are so many different ways to incorporate nature into you child's life. Think outside the box and get outdoors!

I'd love to know what fun nature activities you have done with your children, Comment below!

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