Shapes in Nature: Pipe Cleaners!

As our children get older and involved in more activities, I find myself waiting around town with younger kids more and more. This summer our oldest attended band camp and we waited outside the high school for an hour daily. There s a wide strip of grass with a few trees between the parking lot and the street. We often spent time playing out on the grass, exploring, and reading while we were there. One day, we had a pack of pipe cleaners (I mean chenille stems--why do we call them that now?) we picked up at a nearby garage sale and an idea I had seen to use pipe cleaner shapes for a shape hunt. I was totally impressed with how much we focused on shapes during the hour. It also really carried over into other outdoor time and conversations. This is a keeper activity for sure! 

We started with some basic shapes, like a triangle. A portion of a mushroom and the angle in a y-shaped stick fit the triangle well!

We found circles everywhere! My eight-year-old noticed the circumference of the tree was also a circle!

Mushrooms and a cut off branch also were circles!

 

We realized a rectangle in nature might be a twig. Upon closer inspection, the first "twig" was really a caterpillar. We had to look it up when we returned home. It was the maple span worm! 

 

The boys surprised me when they pointed out the maple leaf as a star shape--indeed! The shapes also made a good bracelet.

It was interesting to watch how my son took the shapes from "nature" to his body. He realized his face was oval and his eyes are round. They even started making shapes with their bodies!

 

We even found little heart shaped plants!

As we were right next to the parking lot, we started finding shapes in our human environment as well. The van had round headlights and lots of ovals in the Toyota logo. We started talking about logos and then found lots of cars with different logos, like Ford, the Honda H, GMC, and more. Even the 2-year-old was getting into it!

 

Next up, we had swim practice. Guess what? More waiting! This time only the 2-year-old and I needed to wait. We brought a few shapes and found triangle pennants and other shapes. Some pipe cleaners became a spider with 8 legs, just like the toy spider he had. Just as an FYI, we're always within 3 feet of a spider! It only creeps most people out. 

 

My son even found a triangle shape with the letter A! Of course, his spiders needed to explore a little as well! 

 I encourage you to take advantage of "wait" time. It's a great time to explore whatever nature you may find close by!

Creating a Nature Library

Creating a Nature Library

Dr. Seuss once said, “Fill your house with stacks of BOOKS, in all the crannies and all the nooks.” While we might not need to fill all the nooks and crannies, having access to great nature books enhances our nature study. Here are several ways to add to a home nature library.

Use the library to preview books. The library is a great place to check out books for the first time. Once I realize I check a book out many times, I usually buy the book to have as part of our nature library.

Join a book club. I organize a monthly nature book group at our local nature center. Each month I get a new book to read and add it to our nature library. If it’s not a “keeper”, I can sell it back or pass it along to someone else who might like it.

Find favorite authors. I love nature books for preschoolers by April Pulley-Sayre and Denise Fleming. I always check out new books by these authors. April’s most recent book, Woodpecker Wham! certainly delivered!

Black Raspberry Picking

Early July is one of my favorite times of the year! Mulberries are usually still going strong and black raspberries are usually ripening. We have a little patch of black raspberries on our property. It doesn't seem like we usually have enough to make anything with our raspberries, as four boys and their momma like to snack on them whenever they're out in the yard, eating them freshly picked from hand to mouth. They are delicious!

International Mud Day!

What an inviting set up! My friend, Beth Cauffman, and I have been planning International Mud Day at Woodlawn Nature Center for several months. It's a fun way to get outside and connect with nature.

Drop In Activities at Wellfield Botanic Gardens

We stopped by Wellfield Botanic Gardens last Tuesday for their drop in activity. It's always a beautiful space. They also keep adding improvements to the area, which makes it interesting. The seasonal changes make it something we go back to again and again! We've been here several times, so thought we'd share a few highlights of our visit.

We took the path to the left, as we always like visiting the Adventure Path! On the way, we checked out the lily pads and this plant with all the "fringe". It almost seemed like feathers!

We walked by the creek and the heron's nest in the water. There are so many colors and textures out right now--it's a great time to go!

 

There is a new installation, showcasing various options for vertical gardening. I'm familiar with the option and have probably pinned several ideas on Pinterest (though these are not mine), yet it was neat to see the variety of options presented. I'd love to hear follow up with this and how successful people were as they implemented it in their gardens.

These were all just really neat! Many of the items could be repurposed to add something to your fencing. This seems like a fun way to garden. I would expect more water than normal might be needed.  Here are vertical gardening tips from Mother Earth News, though, as you can see, there are many options!

We saw these remnants from the Grow Down where groups got together to put together a small landscaped area quickly. Neat to see what they did. I want to play in this area and rearrange it, then do it all over again. :-) We call this small world play in early childhood education. 

Of course we had to visit the adventure path! The boys love this area! They like climbing and finding the animals throughout the path.

Of course, we stopped by the elk as well! Always a favorite spot on our visit.

In the Activity Tent, the topic was on pollinators for the drop in activity that day. We matched pollinators with plants, with some good hints along the way. :-) There was even a bald faced hornet's nest to look at. We have been finding these in our yard the last couple of years. Here are details on other upcoming drop in activities this summer at Wellfield. I always like adding on an activity or program to keep it interesting as we return. 

They also had a flannel board with the various parts of a plant. The boys enjoyed making the pollen (chalk) move from one flower to another on their bee (cotton ball). This was a good idea!

There were also crafts to do--either a butterfly or bee. Loved his butterfly to fly through the flowers pollinating as it went!

While waiting for one of the projects to dry, we walked the nearby woods, finding flowers like spiderwort. Hollow logs are also neat areas to explore! It's a nice little stretch of woods.

We even found a bunch of goose feathers before we left! What a great visit!

Inside Outside Michiana Summer Guide 2015

Last summer, I made a guide for summer. Find it here. It has been one of the most popular posts on the blog and many moms and grandparents tell me it is an excellent resource. I'm updating it for 2015 as prices change and new areas to explore pop up. This is concentrated on Elkhart County, though there are many great places a short drive away. See other places below the table. Feel free to share additional places we should explore. Thanks!

Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade, water lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields pine cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries, and hornets. And any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education.

 –Luther Burbank

Michiana Summer Guide 2015

By Dr. Carla Gull

insideoutsidemichiana@gmail.com

Loose Parts Nature Play: Ramps!

Okay, so I kind of drool over the Kodo catalog. Seriously, I love the stuff in it, but it's a little pricey! I wondered about making these ramps on our own, so showed them to my good friend's husband. He said, sure, we can make those! Watching the kids experiment, problem solving, cooperate, collaborate, and more, I knew I did the right thing by making this happen. It was magical. I look forward to using it in more ways, too, like running water through it for an upcoming Mud Day! This video by Kodo Kids shows some of the potential and benefits of using the ramps.

As a loose part in a natural playground or even our front yards (I had extra made for my house, too!), there are many ways that children (and adults) can use these to figure out cause and effect. Our friend donated a few wooden balls to go with the ramps, so it was fun to see them roll! What else can we use these for? Do other things roll down? We tried a larger ball and it didn't fit, so it makes for a good experiment. I find the balls almost a necessity. The prices are decent at Kodo Kids, but I also found some a little cheaper at Amazon (affiliate link): 1 1/2 inch wooden ball.