CreativePlay Plus: Ideas in Play and Child Development

This creative play tip is a great activity to do in small groups or one-on-one with your child. First, find a quiet natural area to sit and observe the surroundings in silence (if possible). Bring paper, watercolors, crayons, or other drawing materials and have everyone chose one thing to draw nearby. It can be a cool rock, a single petal, an interesting shadow, or perhaps a patch of soft moss.

If your child feels discouraged that their drawing is not perfect, remind them that studying their chosen object is more important than their final product. Encourage them to also pay attention to their surroundings, the sounds, the light, the air, and to do their best to work in complete silence.
The purpose of this activity has more to do with relaxing and being in tune with nature than actually drawing.

First, fill a spray bottle with water. Find a spider web and gently mist the web. The water droplets should stick to the strands and help you see the pattern more easily.

Ask your child to describe what it looks like. Is it messy, flat, bowl-shaped, funnel-shaped?  Lightly touch the strands. Are they all sticky?

Look for different kinds of webs and talk with your child how they are alike and in what ways they are different. Can you or your child find where the spider is hiding first?

Lay down a white sheet of paper or cloth under a bush. Gently shake the vegetation and watch the insects and small invertebrates that fall on to the sheet.

Make observations with your child about the many kinds of bugs you see.
- Notice how things move: do they hop; fly; or wiggle?
- How many different colors do you see?
- Try to count the number of legs, wings, and antennae on each insect.

Look under other nearby plants.
- Are there different insects on other plants or the same?
- Do certain bugs prefer to be close to the ground and others up high?

When you are done, gently shake the sheet so the animals can safely return to their homes. Remember, this is also an opportunity to model for your child the importance of not harming insects and respecting their homes.

With older children, keep a journal of the insects you see! Kids can write down key features and draw their observations to help them identify what they have found later in a guidebook. This is also a wonderful activity to do with a group of children, who can then compare what they found and talk about their coolest bug!

With your child, pretend to shrink to the size of ants and have some fun looking at the world from a different perspective.  Ask your child to lead an ant-sized nature walk and find four things along the way that are interesting. Use a stone, small stick, or toothpick to mark these special spots.

After the walk, talk about the spots they marked and what makes them interesting. Talk about how these areas look to a person and compare it to an ant’s perspective. Feel free to pretend to be other animals like a bird flying high or squirrel jumping through the trees! Encourage your child to use his or her imagination and have fun role playing together!

With summer winding down it’s important to take the opportunity to go outside while the weather is nice and explore nature with your child! This month, we will be posting activities to help engage you and your child in nature that can be done anywhere, at anytime, with anyone. Be on the lookout for new posts each Thursday to encourage outdoor playtime and sparking your child’s interest in nature!