It was back to nature for the Three Beans today, with a Sensory Nature Walk/Scavenger Hunt (combined with some mini-beast spotting) on our daily exercise walk. We always used to go for walks anyway, but, now that they’re considered a luxury, it’s amazing to see how much more attention they pay to their surroundings! They really wanted to stop to examine EVERYTHING in detail! We used as many of our senses as possible on our walk and talked about what we could: -See (Sight) - from the big things like the trees and the things we were actively trying to spot on our list, to even the tiniest details with our magnifying glasses. Could they spot something bright, something colourful, something tall, short etc. -Smell (Olfactory) - the flowers, plants, the soil...we even found some wild garlic! I asked them if they could find something that smelt sweet, stinky, pretty, fruity etc. -Hear (Auditory) - how many different birds could we hear singing? The ducks, something moving in the bushes, leaves rustling, the wind, could they hear something loud/quiet/nearby/far away etc. -Feel (Touch) - the sun on our faces, the wind in our hair, the different textures on the trees as we felt the bark and leaves and encountered some sap, could they find something sharp/spiky/smooth/soft/slippery etc. I encouraged them to be as descriptive as possible to open up opportunities for vocabulary development too. We downloaded an app on my phone to help us out with identifying all the different plants and flowers we came across (as Mummy was struggling a bit with some of them! 😂) and have taken pictures to start a scrapbook so that we can start a project together and keep track too. 😊 - A great opportunity to develop those fine motor and literacy skills; through cutting, sticking and writing about their findings and experiences. We didn’t want to pick too many wild flowers, but, we did bring a few small samples home with us for further investigation and an afternoon of potion-making!...before breaking out the paddling pool and enjoying a BBQ! Simple pleasures! 😍 Learning really can be fun! #threebeansplaytime #3beansplaytime #learningisfun #learningcanbefun #naturewalk #scavengerhunt https://www.instagram.com/p/B_D-pyIH6r5/?igshid=em0kg5u3smjr
