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Discovering nature
- Ant's Eye View - Lay out a 70cm piece of string and ask the child
to imagine he or she is an ant going for a walk along it. The child
should move
along slowly and describe what an ant would see. To help focus on
a very small area at a time, use a magnifying glass or a cardboard
tube as the
ant's eye.
- Blindfold Trail - Lay out a trail through woods and other habitats
using a securely attached rope. Ask children to grope their way along
the rope,
assisted if necessary by a sighted guide, and to describe their experiences.
- Box of Delights - Give each of the children a tiny box and ask them
to search for the smallest, loveliest natural object they can find.
- Can You Find.....? - Discuss with the children some picture cards
showing plants and animals (Chain Game cards would be ideal): what
they eat; what
eats them; where they live etc. When you call out one of the plants
or animals, the children have to find a natural object associated with
it.
- Colours - Explore the variety of colours in nature by collecting
fragments of leaves, petals, wood etc. and fixing them to a sticky
surface (double-sided
carpet tape is ideal). Possible themes might include: colours of the
rainbow; a rainbow of greens from dark to light; shades of any other
colour; colours
representing each season. Images can also be produced by rubbing leaves,
flowers, berries, bark, soil etc. onto paper. Children might also be
challenged to collect natural objects which match with a reference
collection or with
a paint colour chart.
- Diary of a Nature Walk - Devise a number of routes for walks within
an area. Ask children to walk a route with you, noting directions,
landmarks
and interesting features as they go. Ask others to follow the same
route using the notes made. Repeat the walk regularly and keep a diary
of daily
and seasonal changes in nature.
- Feely Box - Seal a large cardboard box and cut out a handhole (or
two handholes). Place natural objects in the box, unobserved, and ask
a child
to feel them. Encourage the children to describe the sensations they
are feeling rather than just try to guess the object's identity immediately.
- Getting to Know a Leaf - Ask children each to find a leaf they particularly
like. Help them to examine their own leaves in fine detail by asking
questions about, for example, the leaf's shape, the leaf edge (sharp,
serrated, smooth
etc.), the colours and colour patterns, the pattern of veins (hold
it up to the light), what the leaf feels like and whether both surfaces
feel
the same, and whether anything has been eating it. Then mix up the
leaves, spread them out and see if each child can find his or her own
leaf.
- Getting to Know a Tree - Ask a blindfolded pupil to explore a tree
without using the sense of sight. Returning to the area without a blindfold,
ask
the pupil to identify his or her tree. Get children to examine the
tree in fine detail using lenses, make bark rubbings, lie under the
tree and
describe what they see looking up, mark out a trail around its roots
(see HABITATS: Mini Nature Reserve) and keep a diary of seasonal changes.
- Pond Water Changes - Observe and record the changes in water level
in a pond - or even something like a sunken basin. Use this as a basis
for
discussing where the extra water comes from and what becomes of the
water lost. Consider, or observe if possible, the freezing and thawing
of the
water. Discuss the implications of all of these things for life in
the pond.
- Scavenger Hunt - This is particularly useful when working in an area
where the diversity of nature is not obvious. The scavenger list can
be tailored
to lead to discussions on whatever issues you wish to highlight. Some
examples follow: a piece of rubbish, something round, something fuzzy,
something
sharp, exactly 25 of something, something perfectly straight, something
moist, something beautiful, a leaf, a stem, a seed, a piece of bark,
a nut shell, a thorn, a snail shell, a feather, a bone, something plants
need to live, something white, a chewed leaf, a dropping, three different
leaves, leaves from sunny and shady places, something which rots quickly,
something which doesn't, something which has never been alive, something
important in nature, something of no use to nature, something else
which
is interesting.
- Smelly Cocktails - Ask each child to collect natural substances in
a pot, e.g. grass, moss, earth, petals. Add a little water, then stir
and crush
the contents to release their scents. Ask the children to invent names
for the fragrances they have created.
- Sounds - Ask the children to choose a spot and sit quietly with their
eyes closed for a few minutes. Then discuss what they have heard. In
another exercise, ask them to show the directions and relative distances
from which
each sound is coming on a simple map (just a plain sheet or card) on
which their own position is marked as a cross in the centre. Ask them
to invent
an appropriate symbol for each sound. Once the children find they are
able to present sounds with symbols, you might ask them to record (as
in musical
notation) the patterns of sounds they hear over a given period.
- Touch and Tell - Written underneath an egg box are two secret words
which are opposite or contrasting tactile sensations - e.g. prickly/tickly,
jagged/smooth,
shiny/dry, hard/soft. Ask the child or group to find objects corresponding
to each word and arrange them on opposite sides of the box. Ask the
other children to feel the contents and guess the secret words.
- Variation in Leaves - Ask children to collect and mount a variety
of leaves from the same and different tree species. Set some targets
such as biggest/smallest,
most colourful/least colourful, most/fewest holes, most similar/least
similar.
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