Now that it’s fall, we’ve been learning about orchards, trees and also parts of a tree. This loose parts nature designs activity from Mother Goose Time was so inspiring! Using natural items with children
Loose Parts Nature Designs
Making nature designs with natural loose parts like rocks, sticks and leaves focuses on fine motor skills, spatial awareness as well as patterns and sorting.
Mother Goose Time provided beautiful Nature Design Mats in October’s kit.
The kids made their own designs too. Creativity counts!
Looking at a picture and duplicating the design isn’t easy. I guided them to count how many sticks or rocks they needed.
We used our alphabet rocks so some kids recognized letters and chose the rocks they wanted to use based on the letters.
We don’t have many trees in our yard so I bought some sticks to use for loose parts and preschool crafts. I know it sounds silly to buy sticks, but it can be a good alternative if you don’t have sticks readily available. I like that they are a uniform size for these types of activities.
The clear bowls I used for this activity and displaying manipulatives on our shelves were from the Dollar Tree store. I believe they originally intended for terrarium gardens but I just love to use them for play materials.
A beautiful nature pattern design!
The Busy Tree
The Busy Tree is one of my favorite books. I love the close up look at a tree. It seems like the tree is just standing there until you get up close and see all that’s going on in a tree.
