Nature Play and Relaxation
This is the place to go for playful, fun outdoor activities and games. Start your own mud pie bakery, build a shelter, do arts and crafts with nature. Play games pretending to be different critters. If you need to relax, play a nature video or do animal yoga. This section will have ideas for ways you can play and relax with nature.
Take a hike around your yard, neighborhood or local park and collect bits and pieces of nature. Examples include, sticks, rocks, leaves, seeds, feathers, bark, wildflowers and the list goes on. Make sure it is okay to collect these things where you are. Bring back your treasures and start work on creating an arrangement to put on a table in your home. You can use a piece of cardboard cut into the shape you want as the base of your arrangement (please get help cutting the cardboard if it is too thick to safely cut alone). You can glue the items down or just arrange them without adhering them to the cardboard. That way, you can move them around and change your design. Ask your family to gather around your arrangement and share where you found your items and what they are, if you know. If not see if you can find out.
If you decide to do this activity, please draw or take a picture of your creation to share on our Nature Discovery Board and email it to us at OTESgreenschools@gmail.com.
DO NOT TOUCH THESE PLANTS!
Nature Yoga
There are many books and websites that teach kids how to do yoga poses. Yoga can be done inside or out and when kids can use their imaginations, pretending to be animals, plants, rocks, or the wind it can be fun, as well as, relaxing. The companies listed on the examples below have free and purchasable yoga books and cards. You can also search up images of nature yoga to find pictures of poses you can try.
Enjoy and remember to BREATHE!
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Toy Habitat or Shelter
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By any chance do you have plastic toys like farm animals, wild animals, prehistoric animals, dolls, superheros, knights or soldiers? When I was a kid I liked to take these sorts of toys outside and build habitats, homes or cities for them out of natural materials like dirt, sticks, rocks and leaves. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. See what kind of natural shelters you can build for your toys. If you decide to do this activity, please draw or take a picture of your creation to share on our Nature Discovery Board and email it to us at OTESgreenschools@gmail.com.
Click here for more examples. It was hard to find pictures of examples, some of these have human made sheltering parts, but they will give you an idea of what we have in mind.