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Activity 4: Nature Walk


Do you walk around in a park with your child? Children do enjoy open spaces where they can run around, touch things, point and say “Mummy, what is that?” Often, you don’t know what that thing they are pointing at is called. For example, you may know it’s a tree but not which tree it is. Thankfully, with google, you can simple point and search and tell them the common name of that tree and also something more about it. That way you are not just giving them information, but showing them where to get the information from.

Materials required:
1. a park, or garden
2. access to google image search
3. a notebook and pencil (one set for the child and one for the adult)

Process:
1. Walk around drawing the child’s attention to the plants and trees that they can see. Try initiating conversations around these. For example, you may say, “Look at how big these leaves are! Can you find a plant here with leaves bigger than these?”
2. Allow the child to collect a few specimens of leaves or flowers they find particularly interesting. These can be stored between the pages of the notebook.
3. Demonstrate how you can roughly copy the shape of a flower or leaf that you see.
4. Talk about how certain plants are used by us as food or medicines.

Extra:
You can use this opportunity to discuss empathy to plants. Children tend to pluck at leaves indiscriminately. You could explain how plants feel too and that we are hurting them without reason if we keep plucking out their leaves. Encourage them to stroke the leaves gently or caress the branches lovingly.

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Comments

  1. Heather (Fernandez) MacPhailJuly 19, 2019 at 7:55 AM

    OMG!
    Reminds me of the day you plucked every flower in our garden and just dropped them on the walkway. I picked you up and took you inside the house. An hour later brought you back and we looked at how the flowers had withered. Encouraged you to say sorry to the flowers! Sorry flowers.

    Your grandmother wasn't very sure how my technique would work.
    I am greatly relieved to read this blog!!!! 😂

    ReplyDelete

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