Materials Required
- Kitchen tongs
- Children’s tweezers
- Bucket or small bowl
Preparation
Consider sun safety while outdoors – remember to slip, slop, slap!
Method (or Ideas)
- Walk around the natural environment (e.g. park or backyard).
- Engage your child by drawing their attention to their senses. Ask questions or making comments about all the things you can hear, smell, see and feel.
- Demonstrate to your child how to use the tongs/tweezers by using them to pick up an item and place it in the bucket/bowl.
- Encourage your child to try using the tongs/tweezers.
- Continue collecting and talking with your child about what you are both noticing.
- When finished, arrange and talk about your collections.
Facilitation Tips – What To Say
- Senses: what do you see, smell, taste, hear, feel?
- Weather: e.g. sunny, cloudy, hot, cold, windy.
- Seasons: e.g. summer, winter, spring and autumn.
- Numeracy: How many petals does the flower have? Which is the longest stick? Which rock feels heavier?
Extend the Experience
- Taking the tong/tweezers to different natural environments e.g. the beach.
- Using the found items to make patterns or ephemeral art.
- Creating categories using the found items e.g. colour, shape, size
WHO Guidelines for Physical Activity & Sedentary Behaviour
Walking around, bending and lifting are all ways that this experience engages you and your child in physical activity.
Early Years Learning Framework
Outcomes
- Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
- Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity
Principle
Principle 3: High expectations and equity. Children progress well when they, their parents and educators hold high expectations for their achievement in learning.
Practice
Practice: Learning through play. Play can expand children’s thinking and enhance their desire to know and to learn. In these ways play can promote positive dispositions towards learning. Children’s immersion in their play illustrates how play enables them to simply enjoy being.
