Topic

Nature walk

What stimulates: wonder and wonder, curiosity, questioning.

Preparation and materials:

- Paper or sheets from your notebook

- Crayons, pencils or ink

Recommended ages:

3 to 5 years

5 to 8 years

Why is this activity important?

Taking a nature walk encourages children to intentionally discover and explore the world around them, inquiring and investigating. They learn their place in nature and the environment and can see the impact humans have on plants and animals. A child's spiritual ability to admire and marvel at the natural world, their investment in the beauty around them, and their curiosity for nature fuels their responsibility to care for the planet. By observing nature intentionally, children learn to respect the natural world and all beings in it.

How can you do that:

FOR AGES 3-5 AND 5-8 YEARS:

Explain to your child that you are going on a nature walk to see what you can find together.

First, you need to create a checklist to check off what you see. With your paper, draw or write (depending on the child's ability) between 5-10 nature items that you think you might see on the walk. You can create a list together or one for each. Some ideas might include:

  • Green leaves
  • Ground
  • tall trees
  • Sun
  • Water
  • Sky
  • Animals
  • Gram

When you're done, get ready for the hike. Enjoy the walk together, marking items as you see them. You may notice interesting items that you didn't anticipate, such as a butterfly. Allow your child to explore what they see around them, ask and answer each other's questions, and immerse themselves in the natural environment. According to the child's ability, you can also ask:

  • What part of nature do you find interesting/surprising?
  • We are all part of nature; how can we take care of it?
  • Is there somewhere you see nature damaged? Where?

After returning home, you can talk about what you saw and what you didn't see. Thank your child for showing you how wonderful nature can be, but how sometimes it is also damaged. What can we do when nature is damaged? Why is it damaged? What can we do to protect nature? As we are all part of nature, we all have a role to play in keeping it protected.

Tips on how to do this activity in a group

Prepare the group for a walk and make sure you have enough adults to supervise the group of children. Before leaving, sit in a circle and create a list with the children as above. Give each child a sticky note or small pieces of paper to draw or write (or both!) what they think you will see on the walk. Add the post-its to a large piece of paper to look at and discuss when you get back. Count how many objects you saw on the post-its and add new objects that weren't there before!

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