Our fall preschool nature table – full of color & texture!
The last few weeks I’ve really enjoyed looking for nature items for our preschool science and sensory fall nature table and for a nature exchange we are participating in with a group of homeschoolers. Some I’ve found on my own time and others my group has helped to collect.
Our nature table includes:
- leaves
- walnuts
- mum flowers
- gourds
- dried weeds & grasses
- rose hips
- berries from a shrub
- small pine cones
- rocks (these were purchased rocks)
- milk weed pods
- twigs
- dried sunflowers
- corn
I didn’t have a lot planned other than to just let the children look, touch and enjoy it – and they did! The milk weed pods and seeds were the favorite:
I love how they discovered the seeds will float!
This little one enjoyed putting the grasses and flowers into the vase.
A three year old picked berries off the plant and counted them as he put them in the jar.
There were walnuts partially cracked open to separate and see what was inside.
Appreciating the colors and textures of fall!
A small piece of field corn that didn’t fully develop is perfect for little hands to inspect!
For an extension activity, children chose items from the nature table to put on their tray. Then they could draw those items. Very fun to see the older ones create their drawings!
Fall is a wonderful time of the year to explore nature! More fall nature related posts coming up!
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Stacy,
I am going to school for early childhood development. I also have been involved in Head Start for over 26 years. I have a neat art project that you can do with the children. You take milkweed pods, and make Santa faces, snowmen faces and other silly faces with them. You need clean them out and dry them. I paint them white and then I paint the top part red for the hat. I add a peach or flesh tone panit by painting U shape on the middle of the pod. I than take a tooth pick and dot it in black paint for the eyes and I glue on a small red bead for the nose. For the beard I use fake snow texture to make the beard or you can just leave it white. I glue on a ordiment hook on the back of the pod and have a cute little ordiment so the children can decorate the tree with.
That sounds cute! Thanks for sharing!