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Natural Treasures

Children will collect items from nature and use them to play a sorting game.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Natural Materials
  • Paper
  • Sticks
  • Tape

Steps

  • Step 1

    Take the class outside on a nice day. Have them collect natural items such as twigs, pinecones, small stones, pieces of bark, acorns, etc.

  • Step 2

    Ask the class to think of different ways these items can be classified. For example, pinecones, twigs, and bark are shades of brown; bark and pinecones have bumpy surfaces; stones and acorns are usually smooth, etc.

  • Step 3

    Have children make and decorate pouches to hold the items they collected. They can fold a piece of paper and seal the two open sides with staples or tape. Then they can paint images from nature on the pouch.

  • Step 4

    Have the class play a sorting game. Put the collected items in a container. Then select a category and challenge each student to take a turn choosing the items from the array that fit the description. For example, you might say, "Pick two items that are smooth" or "Pick two items that are the same shape." When the game is done, students can keep the items in their pouches and use them at school or at home for more sorting activities.

Standards

ARTS: Speculate about processes an artist uses to create a work of art. 

ARTS: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.  

MATH: Analyze, compare, create, and compose math ideas using written, oral, and drawn lines, shapes, forms, and patterns.  

Adaptations

Take the class outside and play an "I Spy" game. You might say, "I spy something green" and children would respond with grass, leaves, shutters on a window, etc. Or you might say "I spy something round" and the responses could include stones, a basketball hoop, wheels on a parked car, etc.

Have children create a nature collage using some of the collected items. They might draw a pine tree and glue some pinecones and pieces of bark to it, or draw an oak tree and attach some acorns and bark, or draw a pond or stream and glue small stones with water rippling around them.