I am not knowledgeable about natural things. I can't pick a leaf off the ground and tell you what type of tree it came from, I can't name the different trees in my neighbors' yards. Rocks are simply rocks to me. I have wanted to add natural things to my daycare for a while, but when I think of picking up something from outside, lets say a pine cone, and bringing it in, I just think of all of the bugs that are most likely in the pine cone that would then be in my house! And I don't know what to tell the kids other then, "Yep. It's a pine cone." ...and that's the end of my lesson!

So, can anyone give me ideas and suggestions as to how to add nature into my daycare, hopefully without getting bugs into my home, and what to teach them about the items they are looking at. I guess I will be doing a good bit of research online about the nature items I get.

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Find fun facts. For instance- pine cones release their seeds in a fire, then you could touch on forest fires. Make a bird seed holder with it.
Maybe a bug or 2, you can do it!

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You don't need there to be any lesson in it at all. Natural items are wonderful for their open-endedness, for the sensory experience, and for connection to nature. Just fill a bowl with the pinecones and see what they do with them. They might sort them, arrange them by size, use them as trees with their block buildings, press them into playdough for prints, etc, etc, etc. If someone wants to know more about them, they'll ask, and you can have fun finding the answer together.

If you're really concerned about bugs, you can bake things in the oven on a low temp for a while; it'll kill anything off.

Smooth river stones, driftwood, shells, acorns, chestnuts...so many beautiful materials just waiting for the picking. Have fun with it!

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I think I might try to use the natural things outside rather than inside. That way, I don't have to worry about the bugs getting in my house.

I can take some of my indoor items and leave them outside. We can do play dough and blocks outside. Then I don't have to worry about bugs coming inside.

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I live on a peninsula. I'm sure I can get some drift wood.

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It's pretty easy and you can do it bug free by buying natural things at a craft store! At my local craft store I bought sea shells, natural bird feathers, pine cones...all sorts of things. I put the shells in my sand play and sensory bins, the kids painted the pinecones as an example of what we do with them. Sometimes I just have them on display for the kids to explore. I also have a small table top water fountain that I allow the kids to play in with their small animals. I don't teach them any lessons I simply answer questions about it should a kid ask me. When we are outside taking walks I simply point out bird song, different types of trees (you dont have to know which trees are which just why they are different or unique) like some have pine needles and some have broad leaves. Also get some books about nature to have mixed in with the other books. I went to my local discount store and got a bunch of books about specific animals.

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I've tried to have a classroom pet. But it was just ANOTHER pet for me to take care of. I already have a dog and 3 cats. But for the animals' safety and sanity, I don't allow the daycare kids to interact with them. I tried fish, turtles, a hamster, and hermit crabs for daycare. I don't want another live critter to take care of.

I have tried getting plants for the daycare room. I just killed them! I gave the last 2 that were close to dying to my substitute and her husband did a wonderful job at bringing them back to life!

I have tried to have sand for the kids, but that was the biggest mess I've ever dealt with! They threw sand at each other, the wind blew sand on them, on my dog, just all over the place. I couldn't keep the sand out of my house. It was just a big mess!

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I was really inspired by an organization called Nature Explore - http://natureexplore.org/whatisnatureexplore.php
http://community.natureexplore.org/

I had every intention of eventually becoming a certified "classroom." They had LOADS of awesome ideas to incorporate the great outdoors into everyday play, and actually believe it's a pretty imperative part of proper growth and development.



You can look them up on the link, or on fb. You don't have to go to the extremes they do but they certainly offer loads of inspiration to integrate more of the outdoors into your curriculum (like International Mud Day!!!!). You don't have to know anything at all, just learn along side the kids

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I don't think you have to give 'lessons' per se. It is fun and relaxing just to observe and enjoy. Also, I have found that little kids rarely ask any questions. Any that you couldn't easily answer anyway. They don't care whether it is the leaf from an oak or a maple. I loved to take the kids on walks and just observe and let them explore. A neighbor on our street has a huge tree but I have no idea what kind it is. We used to call it the 'humongous tree.' The point is that we were enjoying nature. They would pick up leaves and we would notice how they were different and then some comment like "There are all kinds of leaves, aren't there?" Like someone else said, we took a bag and they could collect whatever they wanted.

Off the top of my head simple nature ideas:

-Collect leaves, twigs, etc. from the yard and then take a piece of contact paper and turn it sticky side up. I stapled it onto a piece of construction paper so it wouldn't curl (sticky side up) and then stick your nature items on it for a collage.
-After a storm we would have lots of sticks in the yard. We would collect them and just make a huge pile. They just liked watching the pile get bigger and finding them. They liked to break them too.
-Rock/pumpkin scrubbing. In a school I worked at we had an activity they loved. Get a big rock, a pumpkin in the fall and then scrub it with a little stiff brush. We'd have a bar of soap on a rubber soap holder. Then rub the brush onto wet soap and scrub.
-Make 'soup'. Put water in a bucket or old pot and let them add 'soup' ingredients like grass, leaves, pebbles, etc. and stir. I used to love this as a kid. Soup goes good with mud pies. Yum.
-Put a blanket on the ground and lie on it and watch clouds. A good book to go with this activity is called 'It Looked like Spilt Milk' about clouds.
-Scavenger hunt-Give them a list of things to find. The list could be in your head with littles. "Who can find a rock?" "Who can show me a bug?"
-Let them just dig. Mine just liked to dig a hole. You can also give them artificial flowers and pots to play 'florist' with.
-I took mine on rain walks (if there was no lightning/thunder). They love to walk with umbrellas.
-Just mention weather when you are out. "Oh it looks cloudy today, I wonder if it's going to rain. See how the clouds look darker and I don't see the sun." Listen for bird sounds too and point them out. You can go online somewhere and hear bird sounds and identify the ones in your area. I just forget where but you could Google it.

Indoors

-Save seeds from apples, oranges, avocados, etc. and show the children how seeds look so different. Then a brief discussion of "this tiny apple seed grows into an apple tree", etc.
-Follow up outdoor activities with nature related crafts. Give them cotton balls to glue onto blue paper for clouds. Have them draw (or you can if they can't) a simple house and show them how to make it look like it is raining around the house. They love to bang the crayons on the paper and make rain.
-Books, of course
-House plants to water or just appreciate (but I always kill them)
I also am not into pets but maybe an ant farm (not for me though )

Laurel

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An easy- no mess activity is to simply wrap yarn around sticks. Some people don't allow kids to play with sticks (depending on the kids!), BUT if you are okay with giving them a basket of sticks (that perhaps they collected themselves on a walk or from the park or yard), and a basket of pre-cut yarn about a (foot long each), the children can wrap the yarn around and around until you get a colorful stick. You can help them tie (or tie for them) the beginning and end of each yarn piece. This activity can be good for fine motor, social (sharing space and materials), connecting with nature, cognitive (learning colors), etc! Once you have a wrapped up stick, you could display it by hanging it somewhere out of reach (so you don't have kids running around with sticks if you don't want them to). I've done it (working at a center) and called them magic wands and tied a few extra pieces off the end. Then the kids did get to play with the magic wands.

You can also do a great big one with branches as a group and hang that up.

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And the kids' connection to "the humongous tree" was probably a lot stronger than it might have been to "the oak tree," because by naming it, they had made it theirs. That deep connection to nature is far more what they need at this point than a lot of facts.

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We do a lot of things with rocks. We are on the coast so I will often bring home pails of rocks. We clean them (wash outside), let them dry and then bring them in. Lots of things to do with rocks. Lots of shells, etc and other goodies from the beach.

We also have done stick art. Paint the sticks, wrap with yarn. We've even made a mobile for our room with a large stick and then hung other nature items off of it.

We do a lot of playdough with loose nature parts.

We collect items from outside and use them to paint with.

Make bird feeders and watch for birds.

I put an old aquarium outside and we can observe insects/bugs and then let them go at the end of the day.

I have two large logs that we move periodically to check for bugs.

Lots of water and sand play (outside) although I just got an indoor water table. Garden that we plant. Seeds that we sort, etc.

I have tree branch blocks, natural wooden blocks, etc to play with inside.

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We use kinetic sand. I got 11lbs from fatbraintoys.com for $30. Much cheaper than the store and it's awesome. We love to collect rocks and sticks at the park. Leaf rubbings. Rocks and shells in play dough. I'm ordering natural wood blocks from mothergoosetime.com. And definitely check out your dollar tree or craft store they sell lots of nature materials. I have gotten shells, rocks and all kinds of things at dollar tree.

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I agree.

Laurel

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You guys have given me a lot of great ideas! Thank you! I have also been researching online myself for ideas. I found the website, www.naturallyeducational.com. If you look through the browse categories on the right about halfway down on the main page, you can will get a drop down list of all sorts of categories, each with some really neat ideas.

I have already started typing up my September newsletter and am informing my parents that we will be incorporating a lot of natural (and often messy) methods of learning this year.

I'm going to start out with us planting some Chrysanthemum for fall. I love mums! Of course, as is typical for the first month of school, we will learn about ourselves and our families, but we are also going to get down and dirty by planting plants, creating a rock garden, painting rocks, and whatever other things I come up with.

I am all excited about going to the store this weekend to buy our mums, soil, and a variety of rocks! I do believe that I will buy planters instead of planting in the ground. That way, I won't have to weed the garden constantly!

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