Nature in all its glory has so much to offer, there's just so much to be learnt if you spend time outdoors observing the natural wonders around you. Children discover new things every day, how wonderful must it be to identify or lay your eyes on something for the very first time! Nature has so many hidden gems just waiting to be found, examined and enjoyed by all, but mostly by little fingers that will appreciate the simpleness of them. 

As an educator, parent or caregiver, why not start your very own nature club, where the children in your school/neighborhood (or even just the kids in your family) can get together and explore the great outdoors - and burn some energy at the same time! While this sort of club is ideal for any age group, the planning and activities I am going to share with you are best suited for those under 6 years of age.

My son in nature.

---

LET'S START PLANNING

---

Step 1

If you are an educator and you start the club as a class activity, then you are set with your participants. If however you are starting it in a more personal capacity, then you will need put your feelers out to determine the interest of possible members joining. To be honest though, you really only need two kids to have fun outdoors and to enjoy the experience, so don't worry too much about the numbers. 

Step 2

Set your date, time and venue. The venue can change for each meeting (or stay the same if you have a location with a lot of areas to explore), but the time and day of the week should stay the same. This makes it convenient for parents to schedule it into their calendars. For this age group, I would keep the meetings to 45 minutes max. When choosing locations, keep safety in mind. Avoid areas with high cliffs, rough rivers and dangerous animals. In fact, even your back yard is ideal if big enough. 

Step 3 

Determine whether you want to charge a membership fee or not. This one is totally up to you, in fact, if you are volunteering your time then you can get away with running the club at no cost to anyone really. But there are some activities that would require a few tools and gadgets, you could purchase these with the membership fees or you can request that the children bring them along to each meeting. 

Step 4

Determine how you want to communicate with parents. This one is important since you will need to let parents know about any venue changes, activity preparations or even a forewarning about what kind of weather to expect. I found the easiest method here is to start a WhatsApp group, that way you can inform everyone at the same time and parents can collaborate if they need to.

Step 5

This part is a little trickier. You need to sit down and decide on how you would like to run your meeting. You might have some preferences but here is what I suggest.

1. Gather your "tribe" and open up with a song (you can make up your own anthem or it can be any song that has to do with nature, for example: "The Ants Go Marching One By One", "All things Bright and Beautiful", "Down by the Bay".
2. Before you go exploring or delve into your activity, do a quick little ice breaker or team building activity, to encourage the kids to work together and get along. Something simple like "Ring Around the Rosies" or "Oranges and Lemons" will work well with this age group.
3. Start your main activity. I will list a few activity ideas below, but you are also welcome to simply let the children take the lead, just let them lead the way and encourage them to look closely all around them for new discoveries.
4. 15 minutes before the club members are dismissed, sit down and share a picnic together (kids can bring their own snacks or you can supply them). Now you can all sit, relax and talk some more about the things you saw and learnt. The little ones might be tired, hungry and thirsty, so this part is not just fun, but necessary.
5. End off with rewarding the children on learning something new. The reward can be a badge or a sticker, something little, but makes the kids feel proud of their new skill or found knowledge.

---

ACTIVITIES IN NATURE

---

While the activities that nature makes possible are countless, I have narrowed down 5 ideas that could be used to get your club kick-started and into the swing of things.

Activity 1

Discovering Dirt. Get the kids to use spades and fill small buckets with dirt/soil. Send each child to a different patch of dirt so that once the all turn their soil/sand/dirt out on to the table top or sheet, they can compare the differences in color, texture and consistency. Then let them find the treasures usually buried in soil, like bugs, worms, stones, sticks and leaves. They can then sort their findings into piles to and take note of the difference in each item. * Teaches sorting skills and ignores the senses while getting to know nature! * Place bugs in a container so that they don't get harmed and then release them back into their environment when you are done.

Activity 2

Explore by color. Give each child a different color to look out for and then go on a little walk. Each child is encouraged and helped to find a natural item that matches their color. Each time a "color" has been found, the kids call their mates over to observe their discovery with them and emphasis is placed on the color.* Learning colors

Activity 3

Sewing and harvesting. This is a long term activity and usually starts with the children grouping together to plant a flower or vegetable bed. You can however "cheat" and get the kids to plant seeds and water them - while they are out on a walk, plant flowered plants or grown food in the spot where seeds were placed - they will think they grew while they were away and can now pick or harvest the food. It's a bit of a trick but good for teaching the concept of where food and plants come from.

Activity 4

Collecting stones. Go for a meander and encourage each child to find 5 stones of different sizes and shapes. Let them compare the differences in stones. Then you can plan an activity where they paint them to create little bugs and animals.~Image Source

Activity 5

Scavenger hunt. All kids love a scavenger hunt! Set them off to find the best that nature has to offer by giving them each a sheet of items to find and tick off.

I hope you found this info useful, perhaps it was just what you were looking for! My son attends a nature club at school and it does wonders for him, he knows things about nature that I didn't even know until he taught me!

Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone

Much love - @sweetpea

(bringing you original content)