Every springtime the Western Cape show cases the most gorgeous blanket of little wild flowers.
Every open field has huge spreads of whites or yellows or orange daisy and we are blessed to live very close to one of these areas.
Nature appreciation
Not only are these flowers beautiful they also hold an abundance of life in their little ecosystems.
Little ants that scurry about, earthworms underground, bees, dragonfly, bumblebee and beetles all gathering nectar….these can often be missed as we focus on the flowers.
But, I’ve always tried to teach my children the importance of nature, show her beauty and have them understand our role to protect and look after the world around us from ant to whale.
And so before we even started our activity, Hamish and I, first admired the flowers and sat along the side of the path watching the insect and bird life that danced amidst them.
Using nature to learn
Knowing how important it is for me that my children appreciate the natural world around them, I incorporate nature studies and the use of natural materials in our home classroom.
We count out sticks, print with leaves, have sensory play with mud and build with stones.
If we learnt flower parts we did so outside with real flowers. Shapes and patterns were identified in the garden and what better way to learn about the ocean than to be there?
A Pinterest idea comes to life
Somewhere along my late night Pinterest scrolling sessions, I saw a number freeze made by forming numbers with stones and leaves.
I knew I wanted to make this.
But, the stones and leaves looked dull against the grass background …what if we used flowers?
And so Hamish and I took a walk down the road and gathered several little white flowers to start our new project.
Counting flowers
As soon as we got home, I let Hamish cut the stems off the flowers and we started arranging flowers on the grass in the shape of numbers to photograph.
These number photographs have become the posters and flashcards we use in our classroom.
How to make a set of nature inspired flash cards and counting poster
To make your own you will need:
- Wild flowers ( but you could do this with any natural item- shells, stones, sticks, leaves)
- Scissors to cut the flowers
- A container to gather the flowers in
- A camera ( your cell phone camera will work just fine)
- A grass background ( although you may want to use a wooden background, sandy beach, mud, ect)
- Printer or printing facility
- Laminator or laminating facility
To make:
- First gather all your flowers. We used about 20 flowers and made two numbers at a time. Reusing the flowers for the other numbers so that we didnt have to cut that many flowers.
- Next arrange the flowers into the number shapes.
- Photograph each number.
- Edit your photographs until you are happy.
- Have each photo printed. I printed A4 to make the number freeze and printed 2 images on an A4 piece of card to cut into A5 sized flash cards.
- Have your posters laminated and display.
- Cut your flash cards in half and store neatly.
I love the possibilities of play and learning that this set of toys offer and can’t wait to share the new and innovative ways we find to introduce them into our every day learning and play
