Natural resources - inspiration

[mumofone]

My mindees love picking stuff up on walks- twigs etc and I would like to make use of these with an easy activity back home. Any ideas? Thanks :-)

[Simona]

My mindees love picking stuff up on walks- twigs etc and I would like to make use of these with an easy activity back home. Any ideas? Thanks :-)

My front garden and house used to be full of things the children collected on their walks or visits to the park...they either put them in the front garden to 'take home later' and then forgot to do something with them at home.

Children love collecting bits...maybe you could ask them what they wish to do with their collected items or you could create a natural resources corner for them to play with anytime they want to.

[Kitty B]

We have a 'bug hotel' so anything we find on our walks, feathers, pine cones, twigs they tend to pop it in for the insects

[Evie125]

My mindees love to collect sticks too, they make bug houses and 'camp fires' for role play. We have used them for writing in mud etc, made fairy wands, garden decorations/ wind chimes and broom sticks for Halloween.

[FloraDora]

We have lots of natural loose materials 'Tinker trays' - basically filled sorting trays - the children find the tray they want to add their item to on return - good for getting them to think about characteristics of what they have picked up. This usually initiates a child initiated activity of playing and sorting, using items with small world, playdoh, art resources etc... Then I take my lead and guide... Or try to, often they have a set idea of what they want to do with their collection.
Putting the natural loose items on a light table is a favourite, or just laying them out on white paper or tray and looking and talking about them is a regular activity too, before dripping glue all over and sticking a few down. Mirrors are good bases to look and play with loose materials too.
I have a selection of picture backgrounds, felt, card, pretend grass,mirrors, soil etc.. And a variety of picture frames - just making a picture within the frame on a tray also helps themto be creative and look closely at what they have found.
We collect sticks in a tin in the garden for loose play.
Nurture store, the imagination tree, the woodland trust all have good ideas as does Pinterest ( my favourite rainy day browse) I have a book called The stick book too which is about making sticks into other things, dream catchers, puppets etc...
We have a 'Pooh bridge' in our nature reserve next door so our twigs tend to float off on their own adventure .....