Roo and Beth were at nursery all day yesterday. That meant a work day for me and little time to get out exploring. Fortunately, nature came to me. All day long I was entertained from my study desk by the great tit chicks on the bird table. One in particular was very cheeky. It has figured out how to use the feeders now and spent long periods of time hanging out on the seed tray, preening itself or pecking at the nut feeder. Every time Mum or Dad appeared though and it would start hassling them, shouting its head off and fanning its feathers with all the urgency of a tiny new hatchling still in the nest. Low and behold this tactic worked with the poor tired parents dropping a de-cased sunflower seed into its beak at regular intervals. Then, when they had flown off back to feed the rest of their brood, it would nonchalantly go back to preening or snacking on the nuts. Teenagers it appears are the same across all species.
“So kids, this is called a bird feeder…”
When not distracted by the great tit chicks I managed to come up with a quick post-nursery activity for Roo out in the garden. The idea was for her to find something in nature, living or otherwise, that matched the colours on her piece of paper. Then she could either stick it on or if non-pickable or a living creature, draw it. A really simple exercise but one that kept her busy out in the garden for a good twenty minutes and transformed a rather grouchy post-nursery preschooler back into her normal sunshine self. I can see the nature colour hunt being handy for entertaining a walk-resistant toddler on a short stroll too. I suspect Roo might have done it in a flash on another day but with bedtime looming she took her time, using the activity as an excuse to eek out every possible moment she could outdoors. She got a bit stuck on red for a while after absent-mindedly eating the wild strawberry she had found on the way back to her activity sheet!
And that’s brown spotted!
So that was our Day 10 of the 30 Days Wild Challenge – sweet and simple. Here is a copy of the Nature Colours Scavenger Hunt activity sheet in case you would like to print it off.
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It doesn’t matter what age you are, connecting with nature always lifts your mood. We always have a rule that if the piece of nature is likely to move off the sheet, under its own steam, then it can’t be used. Drawing it sounds a good idea. I had a great tit chick sitting outside my window for half an hour, just watching me, this week. No parents turned up. Human watching, maybe. #CountryKids
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I like your rule! And yes – nature is wonderful for bringing out the best in us all, scientifically proven at that!
I agree, connecting with nature really is such an incredibly important thing to do. It always makes me feel better. The other day we were out in the garden simply watching the bees busily dashing in and out of flowers-a simple and glorious pleasure. We just spotted a thrush in the garden too, despite the heavy rain. I think it was making the most of the fact our cat was inside!
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Bees always make me feel lazy! They are great to watch though I agree. I love spotting just how many different colours and shapes there are -amazing! How lucky to have a thrush visiting. I haven’t seen one for many years now.
What a lovely idea, I have done outdoor sensory tests with herbs imprinted on paper but a simple colour match is a great idea. We might just do this on one of our Activity Hour sessions. I’m pinning it ready! Thank you for sharing on Country Kids.
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I think I remember the herb one – did you write a Country Kids post on it? Lovely idea. Thanks for pinning! It’s very simple but a nice one for very young children I think. 🙂
[…] hunt and get your children to spot flowers for a variety of different colours. I have made a similar scavenger hunt template before which you could use to draw pictures of their finds as you go […]