Nature Books

Summer is in full reign here, with preschool ending this week and more free time on our hands. With everything in full bloom and green plants growing everywhere, I decided to take the boys on a nature walk. I figured we could make our experience books, and learn about local plants along the way. Buckets in hand, we headed down the street to the empty lot "Magic Forest."

I let the boys select whatever struck their fancy- keeping a careful eye out for poison ivy. They gathered rocks, flowers, leaves, grass, and sticks. We headed home, and used crayons to make impressions of our materials. The flowers were too three-dimensional to do impressions, so we painted them and pressed them to paper.

I cut out the impressions, and we made our nature books.

Nolan was able to do some of this project (collecting the items, gluing, and painting). I had to do the cutting for him, though Matt was able to make his book with almost no help from Mom.

There was a lot of language learned today: various flower names (we actually found Forget-Me-Nots and Chickory in the empty lot), tree types (pine vs. deciduous), and rock characteristics (color, and whether it was shiny or dull).

The kids always want to keep things they find on our nature walks, and this way, they can!