We are very fond of Pippi Longstocking in our house and her inspiration is seen in lots of different ways – from her encouragement to climb trees, through the idea that fun and creativity is rarely tidy to our latest passion: turnupstuffing.

Do you know Pippi? She’s nine years old, lives by herself and doesn’t go to school. Her mother has died and her father is a Cannibal King. And she’s celebrated in a series of books by Astrid Lindgren. She is also an expert at turnupstuffing – and so are my kids!

What’s a turnupstuffer? I’ll let Pippi explain.

‘Somebody who finds the stuff that turns up if only you look, of course. What else would it be?… The whole world is filled with things that are just waiting for someone to come along and find them, and that’s just what a turnupstuffer does.’

{Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren}

Children naturally make great turnupstuffers, being closer to the ground with eyes peeled to spot things that adults rush passed with out noticing. And what kind of things might you turn up? Pippi suggests gold nuggets, ostrich feathers and dead mice but we haven’t found any of those yet. What you turn up depends on where you look, and sometimes there are surprising treasures to find.

Of course, I want my children to take the utmost care when we are out and about on our walks and never pick up anything that might harm them. That’s where our Rules of Turnupstuffing are applied – so we can enjoy discovering found treasures safely.

The rules of turnupstuffing

:: Keep your eyes pealed when you are out and about to spot hidden treasures

:: You can only touch something after your adult has said it’s OK

:: If you can work out who the treasure belongs to you must do all you can to return it to them (So a lost teddy found in a friend’s garden is returned to them)

:: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A fir cone, pebble or button are treasures just as much as a gold nugget if you like the look and feel of them

Using your turnedup stuff

And what do you do with the treasures you have turned up? Welcome to the Museum of Turnupstuffing.

Previously treasures have been hoarded in pockets, stashed in the buggy or sometimes displayed on a nature table, but when I discovered this wooden house in a charity shop it seemed the perfect place to showcase our treasures.

A couple of coats of acrylic paint created different galleries within the museum.

And a sign at the entrance welcomed visitors.

When the children turnup stuff, they’re added to the museum. Sometimes like objects are classified together in one of the galleries, sometimes they like to contrast two items that are different in size or texture (like when they found a pompom and a marble on the same outing).

Items ebb and flow through the museum as the children decide to use them in their play, add them to a sensory tub or include them in some art they are making. But a new round of turnupstuffing on our next walk soon turns up new treasures to join the collection.

Ways to use found treasures

Have you ever been turnupstuffing with your kids? You’re good company! Not only does Pippi turnup stuff but so do the Kids Stuff World kids. And what else can you do with the stuff you turn up?

:: use them as part of an Incy Wincy book

:: make a found object mosaic

:: include them in some garden tile art

:: try to identify each item you find: what is it made from, what does it feel like? Can you make up a story to explain how it was lost?

:: what else? How do you use found objects?

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Walk to School Week

Did you know next week is Walk to School Week? We walk to school everyday, come rain or shine, and are very lucky to have a tree-lined cycle path that runs almost the whole route from our house to school, giving the children a car-free space to run, skip and scoot. This daily walk brings such an important breathing-space to our morning, a welcome transition after the hustle and bustle of packing lunch bags and locating coats. We’ve also been joining in with Living Streets #mumswalk project this month and creating a Pinterest gallery of our walks to school.  I know not everyone is able to walk the school run, but if you’re tempted to give it a try for Walk to School Week, here are some ideas you could use to make the A to B journey that little bit more interesting.

On Monday…

join the #mumswalk project and take some photos of your journey. Create your own Pinboard (here’s mine), tag your photos with #mumswalk and have them included in the national gallery – and maybe even in the photography exhibition taking place in June. It’s amazing what every day beauty you notice when you take a little extra time to look. What treasures can the kids spot on the way to school today?

On Tuesday…

hunt for some colour. You could all decide to look for the same colour or pick one each and see how many things each person can find.

On Wednesday…

focus on texture. Take a sensory walk to school and see how many bumpy, spiky and smooth surfaces you can touch on the way.

On Thursday…

go shape spotting. Squares, diamonds and circles can be found in unlikely places if you have your eyes peeled to find them.

On Friday…

find out if all the leaves on your journey are green. What other colours can you find? How many different shaped leaves can your collect. Bring them home and create some art – and add your photo to your #mumswalk gallery.

What walking activities do your kids enjoy?

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The girls and I were invited to join Wild Rumpus for a trip to The Spellbound Forest at the weekend. Created by the team behind the Just So Festival, The Spellbound Forest weaved it’s magic through Delamere Forest in Cheshire, bringing to life four English fairy tales  with a mixture of story telling, theatre, music, dance, woodland crafts and toy making. The event was like a forest school on a grand scale, full of inspiration and ideas to bring back and adapt to keep the outdoor story telling alive at home.

Forest school ideas from The Spellbound Forest

Go outdoors!

So your outdoor setting might not be quite as magnificent as a huge forest, but there mere fact that the children are stepping outside brings new elements to their play and learning: fresh air, closeness to nature and the excitement of being some where different.

Bring the inside outdoors

Whatever play stations you create inside can work outside too, perhaps with a little adaptation. The Spellbound Forest had a dressmakers, a dressing up ball and a feast outdoors, full of interesting props for the children to explore. The kids were excited to find unexpected and quirky objects ready for them to play with. What elements of your indoor role play could you transfer outdoors?

Imagine

What aspects from your favourite stories could you recreate outdoors so the children can become the characters from the tales themselves and let their imaginations soar? Give them pebbles and breadcrumbs to be Hansel and Gretel. A red cloak and a basket of provisions to be Red Riding Hood. Build a boat from crates or even a washing basket for The Owl and the Pussycat.

Add surprises

What could you include in your garden or playground or woodland area to give the children a surprise? An unexpected spectacle to get them wondering and talking? Even a tiny outdoor space can be made magical with a few added touches to re-invent the outdoor space each week. For children a little reluctant to venture outdoors it gives them a incentive to head out and explore, to find this week’s hidden treasures.

Use what you have

The Spellbound Forest team are masters at using the natural spaces and props the woodland provides. Just the right clearing next to a path was transformed into a dining room, and the overhanging trunk of a tree became a horse. Audit your outdoor space, look at your garden with fresh eyes and see what your setting offers. And if you can’t see the possibilities – ask the children.

Play with scale

Create a breathtaking spectacle in your forest school area by making the most of the physical space. Play with size and create surprises. In a tiny space one huge prop can make a big impression, or go to the other end of the scale an create a tiny fairy garden.

Add words

Make your forest school area a print rich environment. Include quotes and snippets from the stories you are reading. Take literacy outdoors and provide blackboards, chalks, clipboards and pencils so the children can make their mark too.

Involve the children

The Spellbound Forest gave the children so many hands on opportunities to join in the story telling – helping to make Tattercoat’s ball gown, using willow and twig wands to cut through overgrown paths, making hobby horses from sticks from the forest floor so they could ride off to the Grand Ball. It’s good to listen to stories but even better to be part of the tale itself.

Consider the possibilities

What could you do in your outdoor space to fire the children’s imaginations? What quirky touches could you add? Borrow some inspiration from The Spellbound Forest and bring forest school elements to your setting.

More ideas from the Just So Festival:

:: a pixie post office

:: exciting outdoor play spaces

:: take your art outside

:: tree gargoyles

Details of this year’s Just So Festival

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The Garden Classroom: 52 kids gardening activities ebook is now published and available for you to buy.

The Garden Classroom brings you fifty-two creative and playful activities, giving you a whole year’s worth of garden-based projects to enjoy with your children. Come rain or shine, and whatever the season, there are ideas you can use to give your children a connection to nature all year round.

With ideas for bringing art, craft, science, math, literacy and play to your outdoor space I think you will love The Garden Classroom. Take a look at this video and I’ll show you some of the ideas from the book.

Why you’ll love The Garden Classroom

::  The Garden Classroom gives you a year’s worth of resources you can use to give your children a connection with nature. You will have activities to teach science, math, and literacy using the outdoors as your classroom. You will also have clever and creative ideas to enjoy arts, crafts and play with your children.

:: It’s filled with beautiful, full-color photographs bringing each activity to life and clearly showing you each project. It’s a pleasure to read and practical: let your children browse through the pages and pick their favorite project, then print off the individual pages and you’re ready to start.

:: Suitable for children aged from two through to ten, every activity in the book has been tried, tested and approved by children – my own daughters, the children I have worked with in my home day-care setting, and those in the school gardening project that I run.

:: Covering all seasons, and all weathers, there’s a project you could try today, and enough ideas to last you all year long. You can decide to do an activity each week, or group them together as a block of learning.

:: No gardening expertise is required! The book gives you lots of tips to grow flowers, fruit and vegetables with your children. Many of the activities are centred on enjoying the outdoors and using whatever outdoor space you have – whether that’s a large garden, a tiny plot like my own, a school garden area, a window box or even your local park or woodland. The projects don’t have to all be done outside either – most of them will work just as well within a classroom setting.

:: Every activity is clearly laid out with beautiful photographs and step-by-step instructions. It includes many ideas to vary the projects and extend them to suit your own children’s ages, stages and interests.

:: The ebook will be delivered as soon as you place your order, via e-mail as a downloadable pdf document. This allows you to browse the book on your computer and select the activities you want to try first. You can choose to print the whole book, for reference or to add in to your planning files. You can also print individual projects, so you have the step-by-step guides for each activity to take with you into the garden or classroom.

:: Read what others are saying about The Garden Classroom.

Get your copy of the Garden Classroom

Just $9.99 for 52 fun, creative and educational activities. That’s around £5.60 for UK readers and as the book is bought via paypal you can buy a copy wherever you are in the world. Click the button below to get your copy of The Garden Classroom e-book right now as an instant download which you can begin to use straight away.

The book will be sent to the e-mail address associated with your paypal account.  The delivery system gives you 5 attempts at download within 120 hours, so you can buy now and do the download a little later if you prefer.

Once you’ve got your copy, head over to my facebook page and let me know which activity you pick to try first!

Music Credit: JENNY’S THEME (Jason Shaw) / CC BY 3.0

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Bring on the autumn! There’s not much better to lift your spirits than jumping through a big pile of crunchy leaves with your kids. While you’re out and about enjoying the new season, collect up some leaves and bring them home to play these seasonal letter and maths games.

Maths games for autumn

You can transform a pile of autumn leaves in to learning resources by painting on some numbers and letters. We used correction fluid but a permanent marker or acrylic paint could do the job just as well. You could laminate the leaves or cover them in contact paper/sticky backed plastic to help them last a little longer as you play.

Lay out a jumble of number leaves and try these maths games – depending on the age and stage of your children:

1. Spot the number that matches your age

2. Point to each number and say its name out loud

3. Arrange the numbers in order: getting bigger or getting smaller (if you organise your leaves when you’re adding the numbers you can correspond ascending numbers on leaves that are increasing in size.)

4. Make some repeating patterns with the colours and shapes of your leaves:

one green, one brown, one green, one brown…

one green, two brown, three yellow, one green, two brown, three yellow…

Letter games for autumn

Make a set of leaves with letters (perhaps on the reverse side to your numbers) and you can play some letter games too.

1. Lay out the leaves in a jumble and see which letters you recognise.

2. Find the letters in your own name.

3. Layout the letters from a word your child knows, or a spelling they’re trying to learn, and see if they can unscramble them.

4. Add some of the  leaves to a sensory tub and hunt out all the letters.

5. Hide the leaves around the house or garden and go on a letter treasure trail. Can you find the whole alphabet?

Let’s make the most of the beautiful autumn season and keep enjoying lots of outdoor play. Take a look at the garden classroom which has art, craft and outdoor play ideas that you can use all year round.

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Exciting news to start the month :: you can now download one of the NurtureStore free kids apps, which means you can use all our ideas, straight from your phone, any time you need them!

If you’re wondering what to do with the kids tomorrow, you’re planning a playdate, you need some ideas to help your kids with their spellings or you’re stuck in on a rainy day in need of a rescue idea – NurtureStore is here!

Follow these easy-peasy instructions and you can have a nice little NurtureStore app on your iPhone or iPod Touch, which with one click brings you straight here, to see our latest ideas and to dive into our huge archive of kids activities.

How to get the free kids apps

This bit’s easy! We’ve now set up a mobile view option for everyone reading NurtureStore on a phone, which should make it easier and nicer for you to read the site from your device. Let me know what you think of the new format. You still have the option at the bottom of your screen to view in the old format if you prefer, but I can see from my site stats that lots of you are loving the new format already and using it to check out lots of our ideas each time you visit.

If you’re reading on an iPhone or iPod Touch you can download the NurtureStore free kids app in two clicks!

 Tap the icon with the arrow, then select ‘Add to Home Screen’. That’s it!

You’ve now got our little house icon on your screen, ready and waiting for you any time you need a kids activity idea. When you get an ‘I’m bored!’, or it starts raining and you’re stuck indoors, or you’re planning your week ahead and looking for some fun ideas for the kids… we’re right on your phone, ready and waiting for you!

 NurtureStore has over 800 kids activities already on the site, so you’ll have a fantastic resource of ideas to call on. You can easily use the top menu (which has a search box) or click on the categories to find what you’re looking for.

Try it out! Pop one of the NurtureStore free kids apps on your phone and give it a trial. I hope you’ll find it a super resource to use – let me know what you think!

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Seven kids games with chalk

chalk idea #1

chalk idea #2

See all the activities in 100 Days of Play

100 Days of Play Blog Hop

Sharing simple ideas on how to connect with your children through play!
New ideas shared each day from 4/1 – 7/20.

100 Days of Play is brought to you by these wonderful bloggers

SunScholars . Frogs, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails . Playful Learners . Train Up a Child . Fantastic Fun & Learning . Scribble, Doodle & Draw . Learn. Create. Love. . Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas . Nothing if Not Intentional . My Little 3 & Me . Buggy & Buddy . Sun Hats & Wellie Boots . Twodaloo . True Aim . The Educators’ Spin On It . Blog Me Mom . Life At The Zoo . Putti’s World . Kitchen Counter Chronicles . Triple T Mum . Busy Kids Happy Mom . Crystal’s Tiny Treasures . Rainy Day Mum . Momma’s Fun World . My Little Bookcase . Craftulate . One Perfect Day . MumCentral . Artchoo! . Creative World Of Varya . Simple. Home. Blessings. . JDaniel4′s Mom . NurtureStore . Me & Marie Learning . Child Central Station . Mamas Like Me . Mama Miss . Making Boys Men . Powerful Mothering . Craft to Art . 3 Dinosaurs . Domestic Goddesque . Lessons Learnt Journal . Royal Baloo . Smiling Like Sunshine . Adventures at Home with Mum . B-Inspired Mama . PragmaticMom . Eazy Peazy Mealz . Gluesticks . TheBoy&Me . Learning is Messy . My Nearest & Dearest . Growing Book by Book . How to Run a Home Daycare . Here Come the Girls . Think Magnet . Dandelions Picked . 123 Homeschool 4 Me . Our Ordinary Life . Parenting with Professor Poppins . 2 Little Hooligans . Fun-a-Day! . The Non-Martha Mamma . Angelique Felix . My Very Educated Mother . Creative Playhouse . Go Explore Nature . Zing Zing Tree . Sense of Wonder . Childhood 101 . Crayon Freckles . KZ & Me . Serenity You . This Mumma’s Life . Leapfrog & Ladybugs . Blue Bear Wood . Growing Together . KC EDventures . Mommy Lessons 101 . Nature & Play . Like Mama Like Daughter . Mums Make Lists . From Wine to Whine . Messy Kids . Babble Dabble Do . Sugar Aunts . Teaching @ Home . Preschool Powol Packets . Clothed in Love . Curiosity Creates . The Magnolia Barn . Strong Start . Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide . Learn with Play at Home . Mummy… Mummy… MUM! . Science Sparks . Toddler Approved . Thrive 360 Living . Rockabye Butterfly . Mud Hut Mama . Coffee Cups & Crayons . Playing with Words 365 . My Lil Love Bugs . Creative Connections for Kids . LalyMom . Love, Play, Learn . Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers . The Pleasantest Thing . Teach Beside Me 

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Here’s a super fun active play idea that’s great for an ice breaker game at the beginning of the school year or when groups of children come together: try the Tag, I’m It! hat.

Ice breaker games: Tag, I’m It hat!

We’ve just had a fantastic weekend at the Just So family festival. It’s our third year of visiting and I always come back with inspiration from the creative spaces, outdoor art and general fabulousness that I want to share with you. The Just So is so good at thinking up amazing, out of the ordinary experiences that each hold in them something that everyone can use back at home or in their classrooms.  Here’s one such idea: the Tag, I’m It hat!

How to play with a Tag, I’m It! hat

Step one: create a fabulous hat. Any will do, but a dash of the wild or wacky or silly only makes it better

Step two: add a ‘Tag, I’m it!’ label. 

Step three: Pick some one to be It and have them wear the hat. The object of the game is to run, skip or dance around until you connect with someone and pass the hat along to them. The Tag Hat at the Just So had a note inside with the ‘rules’ of the game and then it made it’s own way around the festival, like a huge interactive chain letter, as the hat got passed from family to family, through the children’s play.

Step four: when you tag someone, have the children make some friendship connection. This game can be a great ice breaker in your school, playground or party, if you have the children share something about themselves with each other. They could tell the person they tag…

:: how many brothers and sister they have

:: what their favourite flavour of ice cream is

:: what pets they have at home

:: what they dream of being when they grow up

:: what they ate for breakfast

:: what was the best birthday present they’ve ever received

You might like to pause the chasing for a moment, so everyone in the group gets to hear the friendship information that is shared – letting everyone get to know each other a bit better. Or, you can have a wrap-up/ wind-down time at the end of your running around when everyone shares the information they got from the person they tagged.

More fun from the Just So Festival

I’ll be sharing more ideas for explosive outdoor art, amazing forest book nooks and gorgeous owl adventures, this week and next. In the meantime, if you’d like to see more of our time at the Just So festival you can hop over and take a look at my Instagram photos (I’m a must follow mom, don’t you know?) , or visit the Just So website.

What’s a great ice breaker game you’ve tried?

How do you help new groups of children make connections and get to know each other? What’s a great ice breaker game you’ve tried?

{Disclosure: We received a free family invitation to visit the Just So Festival and share it with you.  All views are my own and I’m happy to tell you we love the festival and think it’s a fabulous place for families.}

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How’s this for an amazing outdoor book nook, as seen at the Just So festival? And what do you think made the Top 50 children’s books about nature, as voted by NurtureStore’s readers? Come and take a look.

Amazing outdoor book nooks and the top 50 children’s books about nature

I love outdoor classrooms! Anything you teach and learn indoors can happen outdoors too, with all the added benefits of connecting children to nature and enjoying the fresh air and open surroundings.

We’re just back from the Just So festival where there was a whole section of the forest devoted to wonderful den building. Some of the dens were ready prepared, for hiding, playing and generally relaxing and daydreaming in. In other places there were stashes of fabric, rope and pegs so the visiting children could all make their own dens, hung from the trees!

Don’t you think they’d make fantastic book nooks? You may not have the same space and soaring trees as the Just So festival, but I bet you could find space for a pop-up tent like this one. Just look how wonderful it is inside…

It’s a lovely sensory space. Add in a few cushions and a pile of books and these dens become cosy book nooks, that invite in children and encourage them to rest a while and read.

The Top 50 children’s books about nature

And what should you read in your outdoor book nook? Something inspiring, that celebrates nature of course! Here are fifty fabulous books about animals, forests, gardens and more – as suggested by the members of the NurtureStore community over on our facebook page. (Come and like us, for more great ideas and chat!)

{these are affiliate links, which means if you click through and purchase one, I’ll receive a small amount of payment}

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Percy the Park Keeper collection by Nick Butterworth

The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson

The Foggy, Foggy Forest by Nick Sharrat

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

The Beatrix PotterCollection

Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker

Isabella’s Garden by Glenda Millard

Blueberries for Sal

Snail Trail by Ruth Brown

Alfie’s Big Book of Outdoor Storybook by Shirley Hughes

Miss Suzie by Miriam Young

The Lighthouse Family series by Cynthia Rylant

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

Children of the Forest by Elsa Beskow

Butterfly Butterfly by Petr Horacek

Grandpa’s Garden by Stella Fry

The King of Tiny Things by Jeanne Willis

The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis

Quiet in the Garden by Aliki

The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French

Tin Forest by Helen Ward

The Flower Garden by Eve Bunting

A Tree is Nice by Janies May Udry

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon

Heroes of the Vegetable Patch by Ulf Stark and Charlotte Ramel

On the Way to the Beach by Henry Cole

What the Sea Saw by Stephanie St. Pierre

The Listening Walk by Paul Showers

Itchy Bear by Neil Griffiths

What the Ladybug Heard by Julia Donaldson

The Frog and Toad Collection by Arnold Lobel

The Complete Tales of Blackberry Farm by Jane Pilgrim

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

Eddies Garden and How to Make Things Grow by Sarah Garland

Planting a Rainbow y Lois Ehlert

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

Yes I can! Help Save our Planet by Emma Brownjohn

Outside your Window: A first book of nature by Nicola Davies

The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson

The Secret Garden

Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Bjork

The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Get your copy of The Garden Classroom

Love the outdoors and want a year’s worth of activities linked to nature study? Download your copy of The Garden Classroom!

{Disclosure: We received a free family invitation to visit the Just So Festival and share it with you.  All views are my own and I’m happy to tell you we love the festival and think it’s a fabulous place for families. You can see more of the festival here}

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Join us for some active play today, as we head off on a treasure hunt, using these free, adaptable, printables.

Set up a treasure hunt for kids

It’s Day Eight of our Simple Play series and we’re going on a treasure hunt. To join in, print off a set of the labels, write on some clues, then hide and go seek.

The great thing about this treasure hunt is that you can adapt it to suit your child – or children. Print off a few sets of labels and make one game just right for your toddler, one that suits your preschooler. You can encourage reading, writing, maths, team work and lots of active play.

Customise your treasure hunt

You might like to:

:: simply hide the labels around the house or garden and have your child toddle, walk, run, skip and hop to find them all.

:: draw a shape on each label and see if you can find something to match around your house.

:: write out some letters that your child will recognise, hand them out one at a time, and see if they can go and hunt out a treasure that starts with that letter.

:: write out the alphabet – one letter on each arrow. Hide all 26, then see if your child can find them all and place them in the right order.

:: write on the numbers one to ten, hide them, and them see if your child can find them all, in order. Or in reverse order.

:: write on the letters of their name and see if they can find them and place them in the right order.

:: make a times table set, so you can practise your maths with some fun, active play

:: make a set with numbers on, and another set with question clues on. Give them one of the question clues (say.. ‘what’s ten add three’) then see if they can go and hunt out the answer label (number 13)

:: write on some simple clues to read and find: ‘this thing is yellow and tastes yummy’ (banana?), ‘this thing helps your keep your teeth clean’ (toothpaste?)…. Place the clue for the next thing on each item, so you set up a chain of things to find leading to another clue right around the house

:: older children can use the labels to make up a treasure hunt for each other.

How to print your treasure hunt labels

To make your own set of treasure hunt labels, all you need to do is:

1. Click on the pictures (above and below) to open the printable images.

2. Save the images on your computer. {Right click the image and choose ‘Save image as…’}

3. Open the saved images on your computer and print it. Print on card rather than paper for stronger labels.

4. Cut out each image and write on a clue, or something to hunt for. You can laminate them if you wish. Punch a hole in each one and use a string or ribbon to fasten them in place.

Join in with your own treasure hunt

Will you accept the Simple Play challenge and try a treasure hunt with your children? Share a photo of your clues on Instagram using #simpleplay, and come over to our Facebook community and tell us what you are hunting for.

More Simple Play ideas

Head over here to see all the Simple Play ideas in the series, and to print your Simple Play Planning Chart.

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Welcome to day nine of our Simple Play :: complex learning series, where today we’re sharing nature walk ideas. Read on for ideas for observing the seasons and using your walk as a springboard into art, craft and sensory play. 

Nature walk ideas

The easiest, and perhaps best, way to enjoy a nature walk is to simply head out and see what you can find. Talk with your children about the particular time of year and then go and see what signs of the season you can find. Taking a walk in a familiar place at different times of the year helps your children contrast the changes, as nature does its thing over the course of a year.

For a variation, try these suggestions from Walk to School week, with ideas for different themed walks.

Take you camera with you and enjoy a photographic treasure hunt.

Make a nature bag and go on a scavenger hunt.

Collect some materials on your nature walk and use them:

to make some nature-inspired art

for leaf printing in play dough

for printing in paint, perhaps to make a word tree

try some twig weaving

Bring nature to your play all year round

If you enjoy the outdoors and want to encourage your children to have a connection with nature, download your copy of The Garden Classroom ebook. With ideas for bringing art, craft, science, math, literacy and play to your outdoor space, it has fifty-two creative and playful activities, giving you a whole year’s worth of nature-based projects to enjoy with your children.

Share your nature walk with us

These nature walk ideas are part of the Simple Play series here at NurtureStore. Join in with a whole month of play-based fun. If you’re heading out on a nature walk, share your photos with us on our Facebook page, or share on Instagram with the #simpleplay hashtag. You can see all the other Simple Play activities here – click through to see all the themes and resources.

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Transform your science and math, reading and writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts all through garden-based activities.The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoors play and learning ideas, however big or small your outdoor space – and comes with a lovely, free gift.

Welcome to The Garden Classroom

Your garden, no matter its size, is an outdoor classroom waiting to be explored. The Garden Classroom is bursting with ideas you can use to make the most of the math, science, literacy, art and play waiting for you outdoors.

In this book I’ll show you:

:: how to get started with Let’s Grow! Garden Basics: my five favorite plants to grow with children, tips on growing plants from seed, how to make the most of your space and get the most flowers, fruit and vegetables from your plants. Plus a few projects to get you started having fun with what you grow.

:: fun ways to learn through Play & Imagination: how to make play spaces you can use all year round, ideas for equiping your garden to encourage den building and creative play with loose parts, fairy and dinosaur worlds for imaginary play, and suggestions for sensory play for each season of the year.

:: ideas that promote Reading & Writing outdoors: with suggestions for outdoor alphabet and spelling games, and ways to encourage storytelling, reading, and writing – through scientific reporting, journaling and creative writing.

:: projects to explore Science & Math: using the intrinsic opportunities of the outdoor world, and by introducing new materials and activities to boost learning. We’ll host a plant Olympics, study seeds and plant growth, play minibeast bingo, make a tree trunk geoboard and set up our own bug hotel.

:: beautiful Arts & Crafts projects inspired by the garden: ideas for painting, printing, paper crafting, using cement, sewing, finger knitting, land art and a fun twist on a traditional scarecrow.

:: Garden Recipes that celebrate the high point of the growing year: the garden harvest. Make a shared soup, a relish that’s great for using up a glut of summer produce, and ideas for making great use of herbs and edible flowers all year round.

This is your go-to book to give your children a connection with nature, full of creative ways to use the garden to inspire learning.

All the ideas have been tried, tested and approved by children. A few are more suited to preschoolers, some are better for older children, but the majority are adaptable to suit your child’s age, stage, and interests.

You can group ideas together if you’re homeschooling, planning a class project, or looking for ideas for a summer break, or you can dip into the book and try a different idea each week.

A free gift for you!

The book includes a free gift for everyone :: a gorgeous Garden Journal to use with your children.

A garden journal is a great way to bring literacy outside. Your children can each have their own journal, or make it a collaborative project. You can use it to record your planting and what’s growing, make sketches and include photos of the things you see in your garden, and at the end of the growing year you’ll have a beautiful record of all the fun and learning that happened in your garden classroom.

You’ll find lots of ideas in the book on how to make the most of your Garden Journal. Head through here to the Garden Journal pdf and print as many pages as you like, for as many children as you like.

How to get your copy of The Garden Classroom

You can get your copy of The Garden Classroom using these affiliate links from:

Amazon US  ::  Amazon UK  ::  Roost Books  ::  Barnes and Noble

Happy gardening!

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If you’re out and about this summer grab a map and add some literacy lessons.

1. Giving a map to the children and following your route as you go is a great lesson in geography. Look out for landmarks, talk about left and right and the points of the compass. What words can they spot on the map to match up with what they see on their journey?

2. When you return home, use the maps to talk over your journey – sequencing the things you saw, seeing if you can remember them all. Talk about what you liked the best, what was most interesting, what was hard to find, what was the oldest thing you saw, what was the tallest: lots of chatting, boosting communication and vocabulary.

3. Use your finger or a pencil to trace your route along the map – co-ordinating your hand and eye as you move along, and practising early writing skills.

4. Use the map to play i-spy, taking it in turns to give clues and find the answer.

5. Draw a map of your own: re-creating your journey or making one up using your imagination. You could turn this into a photography project and make your own street map.

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 Our best sensory play ideas all in one place. Click through to get your copy of our Super Sensory Invitations to Play resources, and don’t miss the October special offer!

We’re celebrating the change in season by adding an autumnal twist to our easy no cook playdough recipe.

We made three batches and for colour we added one tablespoon of food colouring to each, in red, yellow and orange.  To give an extra sensory element to the dough we added one dessert spoon of ground cinnamon to each batch . Hello autumn playdough!

The easy no cook playdough recipe makes a dough which is nice and soft and which lasts for ages if you wrap it up in clingfilm or in a plastic bag after each play time.

The leaves are already falling here so we gathered some on our way back from school yesterday and used them to make prints in the playdough – which was a great way to really investigate the patterns of veins on each leaf and all the different shapes we found.

Playdough is one of our tried and trusted ways for a chilled out afterschool wind-down, providing an activity which is fun but also relaxed – just right after your first day back at school.

Super Sensory Invitations to Play

Ready for a whole year of exploring through the senses? Super Sensory Invitations to Play is a delightful resource that encourages your children to explore the five senses through the year, using a wide variety of sensory materials. It includes 52 invitations to play, linked to the festivals and seasons of the year, and including water, ice, dough, rice, paints, sand, sensory tubs, and more.

They are easy, simple, and fun ideas that you can use right now to give a multi-sensory boost to your play and learning. It comes with a printable recipe book featuring all our favourite recipes for play. Come and see more here.

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Take your learning outdoors into the fresh air! Here’s our archive of forest school activities for outdoor classrooms

35 forest school activities for outdoor classrooms

>>> Join me for a joyous, creative online Summer Camp!

Details here!

 

>> Click here for the top 50 children’s books about nature – perfect for reading at forest school!

Arts and Crafts for forest school

Flower crowns

Leaf printing

Leaf crowns

Twig weaving

Apple or leaf print gratitude flags

Percussion stick musical instrument

Clay Faces

How to make corn dollies

Leaf wreaths

Leaf suncatchers

Flower petal suncatchers

Twig magic wands

Land art mandalas

Play dough leaf printing

Build stone cairns

Make a fairy land

Forest school math activities

Leaf numbers and counting 

Number stones

Counting with sticks and playdough

Counting with rocks and play dough

Explore nature shapes

Leaf math games

Nature counting treasure hunts

Outdoor literacy activities

Story Stones

Outdoor ABCs

Outdoor Book Nooks

50 favourite children’s books about nature

Printable nature journal

Mud pie alphabet

Outdoor science experiments

Make a weather station

Nature walk activities

Bug Hotel

Flower nature study

Growing seeds experiment

The post 35 forest school activities for outdoor classrooms appeared first on NurtureStore.

Flower crowns are a lovely nature craft and forest school activity. You can use them on a nature walk to explore the plants you discover along the way and tell the story of your walk through the treasures you find. Flower crowns also make a lovely spring flower craft and a great headdress for a Beltane celebration.

Flower crown craft forest school activity

>>> Join me for a joyous, creative online Summer Camp!

Details here!

>>> See the top 50 children’s books about nature here<<<

It’s beautiful in our local woods in May. We head out a couple of times a week throughout the year into the forest or along the river and we love to track the signs of the changing seasons. In May, for us, that means celandines, bluebells, wild garlic, dandelions, hawthorn and cherry blossom, lilac just peeping out, and the very first whispers of elderflower on the way.

And it’s so noisy! The birds were in full voice this weekend, with blackbirds, sparrows, robins and crows all making themselves heard. We even saw a buzzard soaring from the woods out to the neighbouring meadows. Just beautiful, and amazing to see so much wild right on the edge of the city.

A nice way to draw children in to spotting the variety of plant life around is to make a flower crown. As you walk along you can gather some of the flowers you see ready to make a garland.

This is a good way to introduce ideas about nature appreciation and respect.

You can talk about what you might expect to see along your route, and which plants it’s OK to pick, and which to avoid. And if in doubt, you can just stick with the flowers you know well such as daisies and dandelions. If you find something new, take a photograph and look it up when you get home.

Talk about how bountiful or rare the plants are, and if any are poisonous or may irritate the skin.

See how they smell, and decide if you want wild garlic in your crown!

Show your children how to carefully pick one or two flower heads, making sure to leave the remaining plant intact.

Build their knowledge and confidence by showing them how to spot things like nettles and bees: it’s OK to be around them, jut be cautious.

Teach them that the butterflies and bees need the flowers, so only to pick a few, with care.

But remember too that humans have been using the woodland for food, medicine, furniture and art materials for thousands of years. Giving your children the opportunity to interact with this heritage, to enjoy picking a carefully chosen few, can build a strong connection, respect and love for the forest. By using some of the forest you can turn your children into committed environmental stewards.

How to make a flower crown

Once you’ve chosen the materials to make your flower crown, thread them together like a classic daisy chain. Use your thumbnail to make a small slit in the end of your daisy and dandelion stems, and then thread the next stem through this hole.

Keep going until the chain is long enough to thread around your head. You might like to add leaves and feathers too. Your chain becomes a story of all the things you have passed by on your nature walk.

To fasten the crown in place, make the same kind of slit in the end of one of your stalks and this time gently squeeze a daisy or dandelion flower head through the gap. Once through, the petals will spread out and act as a ‘button’ to hold your flower crown together.

More forest school activities

For more nature crafts and outdoor learning ideas, you’ll love all our forest school activities.

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Welcome to day nine of our Simple Play :: complex learning series, where today we’re sharing nature walk ideas. Read on for ideas for observing the seasons and using your walk as a springboard into art, craft and sensory play. 

Nature walk ideas

The easiest, and perhaps best, way to enjoy a nature walk is to simply head out and see what you can find. Talk with your children about the particular time of year and then go and see what signs of the season you can find. Taking a walk in a familiar place at different times of the year helps your children contrast the changes, as nature does its thing over the course of a year.

For a variation, try these suggestions from Walk to School week, with ideas for different themed walks.

Take you camera with you and enjoy a photographic treasure hunt.

Make a nature bag and go on a scavenger hunt.

Collect some materials on your nature walk and use them to make some nature-inspired art, for leaf printing in play dough, for printing in paint, perhaps to make a word tree or try some twig weaving.

More creative ways to use nature to inspire learning

Fill your year with hands-on, creative learning inspired by nature. Click through to see our Garden Classroom resource and get your free Garden Journal.

The post Nature walk ideas :: Simple Play appeared first on NurtureStore.

We’re celebrating the change in season by adding an autumnal twist to our easy no cook playdough recipe.

We made three batches and for colour we added one tablespoon of food colouring to each, in red, yellow and orange.  To give an extra sensory element to the dough we added one dessert spoon of ground cinnamon to each batch . Hello autumn playdough!

The easy no cook playdough recipe makes a dough which is nice and soft and which lasts for ages if you wrap it up in clingfilm or in a plastic bag after each play time.

The leaves are already falling here so we gathered some on our way back from school yesterday and used them to make prints in the playdough – which was a great way to really investigate the patterns of veins on each leaf and all the different shapes we found.

Playdough is one of our tried and trusted ways for a chilled out afterschool wind-down, providing an activity which is fun but also relaxed – just right after your first day back at school.

Super Sensory Invitations to Play

Ready for a whole year of exploring through the senses? Super Sensory Invitations to Play is a delightful resource that encourages your children to explore the five senses through the year, using a wide variety of sensory materials. It includes 52 invitations to play, linked to the festivals and seasons of the year, and including water, ice, dough, rice, paints, sand, sensory tubs, and more.

They are easy, simple, and fun ideas that you can use right now to give a multi-sensory boost to your play and learning. It comes with a printable recipe book featuring all our favourite recipes for play. Come and see more here.

The post Cinnamon autumn playdough: leaf prints appeared first on NurtureStore.

Bring on the autumn! There’s not much better to lift your spirits than jumping through a big pile of crunchy leaves with your kids. While you’re out and about enjoying the new season, collect up some leaves and bring them home to play these seasonal letter and maths games.

Maths games for autumn

>>>> Download our ABCs and 123s guide here

You can transform a pile of autumn leaves in to learning resources by painting on some numbers and letters. We used correction fluid but a permanent marker or acrylic paint could do the job just as well. You could laminate the leaves or cover them in contact paper/sticky backed plastic to help them last a little longer as you play.

Lay out a jumble of number leaves and try these maths games – depending on the age and stage of your children:

1. Spot the number that matches your age

2. Point to each number and say its name out loud

3. Arrange the numbers in order: getting bigger or getting smaller (if you organise your leaves when you’re adding the numbers you can correspond ascending numbers on leaves that are increasing in size.)

4. Make some repeating patterns with the colours and shapes of your leaves:

one green, one brown, one green, one brown…

one green, two brown, three yellow, one green, two brown, three yellow…

Letter games for autumn

Make a set of leaves with letters (perhaps on the reverse side to your numbers) and you can play some letter games too.

1. Lay out the leaves in a jumble and see which letters you recognise.

2. Find the letters in your own name.

3. Layout the letters from a word your child knows, or a spelling they’re trying to learn, and see if they can unscramble them.

4. Add some of the  leaves to a sensory tub and hunt out all the letters.

5. Hide the leaves around the house or garden and go on a letter treasure trail. Can you find the whole alphabet?

ABCs and 123s : fun learning activities for letters and math

All our favourite literacy  activities, all in one place :: download our ABCs and 123s guide here. 

The post Letter and maths games with autumn leaves appeared first on NurtureStore.

Join me for an arts-based, creative, hands-on Spring Workshop. Over four weeks (and beyond) we’ll learn about nature, the seasons, and spring, inspiring and engaging our children to wonder, create and learn.

Join me for the Seasons School Spring Workshop

It is so important that we give our children a connection with nature. While so much of our lives are focused on busy, screens, and to-do lists, we still need to hold on to that centuries-old link that people have with the natural world.

Spring is an exciting time of year. After the still, quiet, restful winter, the earth is ready to burst into action! Children are ready too, and this workshop will engage their natural curiosity in activities that encourage them to play, explore and learn alongside the riches that nature offers.

This workshop is a blessing for you too. I have planned a programme for you that is rich in materials and learning, with a balance between the activities to give a nice rhythm to the weeks. Everything is organised for you: topics, experiments, the flow of the activities, lovely printables, educational resources, and fun ideas. You can relax through the four weeks and enjoy the workshop as much as your children – because I’ll guide you through it all. No scrambling for ideas on a Sunday night, no panic because you haven’t done any math this week, no feeling like you’re missing something important.

Relax – follow the programme and your whole family will be engaged and learning, heading into the new season with a spring in their step!

The whole of the Spring Workshop is connected, so that our learning is wide and deep, and to encourage children to make connections through hands-on, real world experiences – the very best way to learn.

Join the workshop here

:: This workshop has been created with children aged 4 to 8 in mind, but you can easily adapt the activities to include younger and older children, making it perfect for families. Everyone can learn alongside each other, sharing one programme for whole-family learning.

:: The programme works whether you are at home, or school. I will guide your through the workshop each week, and you will also have access to a clearly-organised complete resource from the beginning, so that you can easily adapt the workshop to perfectly suit your timetable, or particular interests.

:: The workshop opens on Friday March 17th 2017, but you can join at any time. Register now to book your place and I’ll send you your joining instructions in time for the workshop opening. You can also join after the workshop opens: you’ll still get the full four-week programme and I will guide you through.

:: The workshop costs $59.99 for the full four weeks. You’ll have ongoing access to all the materials, including a great set of printables. You can also bring a friend for free – making it twice the fun and half the price!

Click here to register for the workshop now.

A season of exploration :: creativity :: learning

Through the Spring Workshop you will be exploring and learning about the key aspects of the season. With Spring as our theme, we’ll explore right across the curriculum: using art, play, nature, experiments, and hands-on activities to learn aspects of math, literacy, science, art, life skills, and that all-important special relationship with nature.

A gentle days-of-the-week rhythm

The workshop follows a days of the week rhythm, and is structured carefully to allow you to also adapt the activities to suit your own timetable

On Mondays we focus on kitchen and garden, with hands-on recipes, planting and life skills.

On Tuesdays we focus on art and crafts, with a beautiful range of projects to try including watercolours, wax crayons, oil pastels, egg dying, puppet making and process art.

On Wednesdays we focus on nature study, heading outdoors to focus on different aspects of the spring environment.

On Thursdays we focus on math and science, with interesting experiments and a collection of hands-on math games.

On Fridays we focus on language and literacy, with ideas for seasonal reading, storytelling, poetry, journaling, and letter and spelling games.

On Saturday we focus on play, with small worlds, active play for our body, and sensory play invitations

Sunday is our day of rest. You might like to take a nature walk, use some of the printable colouring sheets, or try out some of the seasonal recipes included in the workshop.

The whole workshop is connected, so that our learning is wide and deep, and to encourage children to make connections through hands-on, real world experiences – the very best way to learn.

Our weekly themes

We also work with key topics each week.

In Week One we welcome spring, learning about why we have spring, how nature changes, and how we can welcome the season into our home.

In Week Two our focus is on daffodils, with art, science and literacy learning all based around these beautiful flowers.

In Week Three we explore eggs, cooking, decorating, experimenting, journaling and playing with them.

In Week Four we are working with seeds and sprouts, starting our own spring garden.

Added Extras

Along with the guided workshop you will receive:

:: printables to support the activities, for learning, journaling and play

:: video resources to explain the key ideas of the season, carefully chosen to communicate well with children

:: a Facebook group where you can join me and other workshop-ers, for community, chat and connection

:: live support from me throughout the workshop, to help with any questions you may have

:: and you can bring a friend for free – making the Spring Workshop half the price and double the fun!

Great price – and bring a friend for free!

If you’ve looked at other curricula, you’ll know how expensive they can be. The Spring Workshop is a great affordable choice, giving you four weeks full of activities for just $59.99, for the whole family. Even better, you can bring a friend for free.

Pair up with your spouse, your friend, your neighbour, your sister, your brother, or a grandparent, gather all your kids and join the workshop together.

Click and register yourself, and then when you receive the email from me confirming your booking, just email me back with your friend’s name and email address and I’ll add them in to the workshop too.

You can join the workshop at any time, so reserve your place now.

Why do an online workshop?

You know what it’s like when you’re leading an activity: so much of the thinking, organising, and prep falls to you. With this Spring Workshop, I’ve done this work for you.

No lengthy planning time, no scrambling around trying to find activities. I’ve done all the prep for you so you can simply join in and enjoy it.

An online workshop is a fantastic way to be able to work at your own pace and to suit your family’s timetable. It also lets you connect with other families in a like-minded community.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I join the Workshop if I live in America, the U.K., Australia, anywhere…..?

Yes. This is an online workshop and printables which means you can buy them and join in wherever you live in the world. PayPal will take care of any currency conversion for you. All the materials are delivered in English.

What age children is the Workshop suitable for?

The Workshop has been designed with children aged 4 to 8 in mind, but you can adapt the activities to include younger and older children.

How much is the Spring Workshop?

The Spring Workshop costs $59.99. This includes four weeks of a guided online workshop, membership of the private Facebook community, lots of printables which are yours to keep after the course ends, and daily support from Cathy throughout the four week adventure. Reserve your place here.

You can bring a friend for free. Click and register yourself, and then when you receive the email from me confirming your booking, just email me back with your friend’s name and email address and I’ll add them in to the workshop too.

Can I do the Workshop at home?

Yes, you can. The workshop can be done daily, after school, at the weekend, or as part of a homeschool programme.

Can I do the Workshop with my class / community group?

Yes, you can. You’ll receive all the materials and resources as soon as the workshop opens so you can plan the activities to suit your individual needs. The integrated curriculum works across math, science, literacy, art, nature study and play, all through hands-on activities. You can let it be your focus for your spring learning, or have it run alongside your existing programme as an enhanced learning experience.  You can make a group booking for you and your colleagues so you can work through the workshop together. Email me (support@nurturestore.co.uk) and I can arrange to invoice your school/community group directly.

Do I need any special materials to join in?

The projects have been designed to use basic supplies. It’s likely that you will have many of the materials already on your craft shelves. When you register I’ll send you a list of some things you might like to gather in preparation for the workshop, including daffodils, eggs and seeds.

How is the Workshop delivered?

The Workshop is delivered through the NurtureStore Workshops website. You can also choose to use the private Facebook group and Instagram. You will receive weekly emails from me to guide your through the programme, plus live support for any questions you may have.

When does the Workshop start?

The Workshop opens on Friday March 17th. You can register now, and you can also join after March 17th: you’ll still get all the materials and the full four-week course. Join now here.

Do I need to join the classes at a certain time of day?

No, you can do the Workshop to suit your own timetable. It has been designed to work throughout the time zones. You’ll receive a weekly email from Cathy, and she will be available through the workshop in the private Facebook group. You can use the daily materials to fit your own personal timetable, joining in with the community on Facebook and Instagram whenever you want to.

How much time each week will I need to devote to the Workshop?

You can take part in as much of the Workshop as you want to. The programme has ideas for each day of the week, but none are compulsory, so you can mix and match to suit your own needs. The resources are also clearly organised, allowing you to focus in on particular aspects that may interest you, such as the art or science elements. You can also use the programme after school, at weekends, or through the Easter holiday. It’s flexible so you can make it work with your plans, and dive as deep into the materials as you like.

How long will I have access to the Workshop materials?

You will have ongoing access the materials through your NurtureStore Workshops membership.

What technology do I need to join in with the Workshop?

You will need a device and internet connection so that you can read emails and this, and other, websites. The video content is via YouTube and Vimeo. The Workshop community will be hosted on Facebook and Instagram. We recommend you use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader app to view your printables. Other PDF reader apps may work for you, but we have tested all our printables in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Do I need to be on Facebook to join in?

No, but the community aspect of the Workshop will be hosted there so you will get the most out of the adventure if you join in with the private Facebook group.

Can I share the materials with my friend/colleague?

Your friends and colleagues are welcome to join us but they will need to purchase their own workshop registration. You can take advantage of the ‘Bring a friend for free’ offer: let us know the name and email address of one person you are bringing and we will add them to the workshop. All the materials are copyright protected and can not be shared with others. Access to the Facebook group, weekly emails and log-on details will only be given to people who have purchased the Workshop or been registered by a full fee-paying attendee as their ‘friend’. Please email support@nurturestore.co.uk if you would like to make a group booking for you and your colleagues as we can arrange for one invoice to be sent directly to your school.

Any other questions?

Please email support@nurturestore.co.uk and Cathy or Sean will be happy to help.

Important Information

By purchasing items from our website you consent to our Privacy Policy.

All ebooks, printables and other digital products are subject to copyright and may not be shared or distributed in any way or form.

Meet Cathy

The Art Spark Workshop is run my me, Cathy James. I’m the creator of the NurtureStore website, and the author of several books including The Garden Classroom and Super Sensory Invitations to Play. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree and have over twenty years experience working in the field of education. I’ve worked in a wide variety of settings and with all age groups: from babies, toddlers and preschoolers; through the school ages; to adult learners. I now homeschool my two daughters using my arts-based, child-centred curriculum. I’m really looking forward to hosting the Spring Workshop, and I welcome you to join us for a glorious season of exploration, creativity and learning.

The post Seasons School Spring Workshop appeared first on NurtureStore.