Here the girls are studying a fuzzy caterpillar!!
Here's a lovely little thing to do with children. I got the idea from a fantastic book called "Play Lightly on the Earth" by Jacqueline Horsfall. It's sort of a little science/empathy experiment. The experiment is called Wee World, and it encourages children to see what variety of plants and insects can be found in a microhabitat.
You will need some small people, (we used our playmobil fairies), a hula hoop, a magnifying glass and a bowl of water.
We laid down the hula hoop and put the bowl of water inside of the perimeter. The inside was our "micro habitat". The idea was to look for a safe place for our fairies to live, sleep, eat, drink, have a bath. We looked for things in our habitat that would be useful for a fairy...grass for a blanket...clover to eat. I asked the kids to wonder what this world would be like for our fairies, (would be grass look enormous to a fairy? what if a fairy saw one of us approaching...would we look enormous to a fairy?). We took our little fairies for a walk through this new habitat, exploring and looking for insects, worms and plants...then let them have a little dip in their swimming bowl. Inside of our circle we found a caterpillar...we talked about how HUGE we must appear to the insects, and about how insects and small creatures must find us enormous and scary...and also how to treat these small creatures with reverence and empathy!
We also discussed that what is going on inside that little microhabitat is going on underneath our feet at all times...little caterpillars are crawling through the grass, the ants are busy moving, plants are growing.
Basically, a reminder to remember the world beneath our feet!
Ruby is pondering...
I'd like to share some of our other outdoor photos from this past week, (as we are still participating in Nature Awareness Month). Remember, the goal is simple, get outside with your kids every single day...turn the tv off and explore the wonders and beauty of the world around you!!
Ruby outside during a rain storm...
Matilda "helping" with the plants!!
Ruby and Solana, doing some fishin' down by the creek, using strawberry gum as bait!
Get outside this weekend!!
In awe and wonder...
Maureen
Lovely! What a wonderful creative way to experience a different perspective and to celebrate the wonder of worlds within worlds.
ReplyDeleteYou both have a lovely blog, thank you so much for stopping by my blog and leaving a lovely comment about my Spring garland:)
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Linda
What a lovely idea. We are going to do this tomorrow. I remember doing something similar to this as a teenager in biology class. We didn't use fairies or bowls of water, but we did count different types of plants. I think we had more fun throwing the hoop to the next spot! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLove Matilda's dress! This is a great exercise for kids to appreciate the world beneath their feet.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful idea! I can't wait to try something like this with my eight-month-old daughter, Luna, when she's older! For now, we just encourage her to pet Freddy, our dog, and Hermes, our cat. She also likes waving to them and to trees, which I think is precious :).
ReplyDeleteThank you for the lovely comments...It's a lovely thought, thinking there will be a few more kids gathered around hula hoops on the ground this weekend!!! xo Maureen
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