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Fun with the natural world

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RHEA KUTHOORE

Oct 10, 2021 · 6 min read

Of the many ways in which we learn, our bodies and senses play a significant role. The following activities are designed for children to learn from their immediate environment. They are aimed at helping children develop their perception of colours, shapes, sizes and other cognitive abilities through play and art.

In our group, there were no children who were differently abled. In case you are working with children who are differently abled, their points of view and abilities must be considered while framing the prompts.

Activity

Sniff Sniff

Aim: To use our sense of smell and movement to familiarise ourselves with our surroundings and to imagine other ways of learning about the world.

In this activity, the opening question was: What are the different senses we use and which sense organ do you use the most to move around/navigate the world? We covered each of our senses and tried to move around and finally realised that we use our eyes the most for navigation.

The next question was: Can you think of some animals that rely on their sense of smell for navigation?

Each child chose one animal from dog, elephant, rabbit, mouse and wild boar and began sniffing around for unique objects from their surrounding.
They came back with different flowers, plants and even a piece of wood. The final challenge was for each child to close their eyes and guess, through their sense of smell, the treasure brought by another explorer from class. As it was difficult to guess the treasure correctly, we realised that our sense of smell does not teach us about our world as much as it teaches other animals.

Fun Fact:
Picture a pile of sticks. If I pick up a stick and let you see it, feel it and smell it and throw it back into the pile of sticks, you will most likely not be able to pick out the stick that I had first touched. But, why don’t you try to play the same game of fetch with a dog?

Shape Collector

Aim: To see and trace the shapes of different leaves. Tracing different patterns and shapes helps a child who is beginning to write with a pencil as it develops motor functions.

In this activity, children collected differently shaped leaves and traced it in their books. They saw the unique shape and colour of each leaf.

The World is our Crayon

Aim: To see and collect different coloured leaves and flowers from our surroundings and observing their natural colours on paper. To develop our perceptive knowledge of different colours and to notice how our chemically produced colours are an imitation of natural pigments that are found in nature.

On day 1 of this activity, we collected different coloured leaves, stuck it in our book and named the colours.

On day 2 of this activity, we rubbed different leaves and flowers to observe the colour that it gave out.

Who is taller? According to whom?

Aim: To use our hand-span, footwear, pencil and units of a scale to measure and understand differences in size. Developing our cognitive ability to compare different sizes and measures.

In this activity, we measured various coffee bushes and the back of the school bus using our hand span, footwear, pencil and units of the scale. We practiced counting and also noticed how each of the measured items had different sizes based on what was used for measurement.

Tent on a range

Aim: To use our knowledge of measurement and of different material around campus to draw a design of a tent and then getting down to making it. We learnt about the different material needed to build a tent, their necessary sizes and the cooperation essential when working together.

In this activity, which spanned over a few classes, we made note of all that we needed to make a tent and in what quantities. We went around campus collecting it and became aware of their respective locations. We decided the location of our tent and began collecting the sticks to build it. We realised we had to support the sticks with heavy stones, we tied the top of our tent with rope and finally covered the entire structure with tarpaulin. We collected flowers to decorate our tent, painted the supporting stones and placed a broken clock (with no hands) to denote the timelessness of joy.

Stone Board

Aim: To use our senses of touch and sight to develop cognitive abilities such as comparing sizes and recognising shapes.

For this activity, we collected differently shaped stones from the river. I traced the stones on a board and kept them in a bag. The children had to match the stones to the shape on the board. When children struggled, they were encouraged to try again rather than guiding them to the right answer.

A for Amaranth

Aim: To learn English through what we see on the farm. They learnt the sounds of letters by connecting it to the plants on the farm.

For this activity, we took one sound at a time and found something from our farm that began with that sound. We stuck everything that we had collected on a board and wrote down their names below it. Many games were created around this board and we enjoyed beginning class with it. The games included: one of us said a sound (example, L) and another child guessed and pointed out the leaf from the farm that was on the board (lettuce). After some time, we could play this game without the board as well. We played the reverse of this game, i.e pointed out the flower on the board (example, hibiscus) and guessed the sound with which it begins (h). We slowly learnt to recognise the sound's letter form.

Stick Faries

Aim: To use our environment and imaginations to create art. Drawing our sense of creativity from nature.

In this activity, we collected sticks and other material from near the river. We created nature fairies from the material.

Bark Rubbing

Aim: Children enjoy the colours and shapes of leaves and flowers and spend time collecting them. This activity draws attention to the barks of trees and their unique textures.

In this activity, we took small pieces of paper, placed it on various barks and used crayon to colour on the paper. We could see the texture of the bark develop on the paper.

Entwining Tree

Aim: To use our sense of observation to draw what we see. This activity is part of nature journaling — to bring about a deeper awareness of our environment and the intricacies of it.

Sholai is filled with many beautiful trees. In this activity, we sat inside one such tree. We spent the class observing and drawing what we saw. Children were focussing on the details of the tree and the ways in which it formed shadows.

Reflection

· Any activity in nature (involving play and art) is very exciting for children.

· For many children, learning in nature implies falling down, getting hurt and crying. Becoming aware of our bodies, learning from our hurts and developing our instincts is part of learning with nature.

· It is crucial to combine activities that are directed by children with others that are directed by adults. Additionally, it is valuable to balance directed activities with non-directed activities such as free play. Activities that require cooperation to create something together brings forth a different kind of learning.

· Helping children connect what we consume to its derivatives in nature helps them perceive beyond objects.

RHEA KUTHOORE is an educator who is passionate about facilitating philosophical and feminist thinking amongst young people.

Thinking Rhizomatically

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