11th of April to the 22nd of April is Nature Play Week

From the 11th of April to the 22nd of April is Nature Play Week. Nature Play Week is an annual event that celebrates the importance of outdoor play and connecting children with nature. The following provides activity ideas that will help you celebrate Nature Play Week and can be implemented into the curriculum for children. If the preschool teachers came to me with this list of suggested activities I would find it very easy to provide picture books to use as provocations.

Mud Kitchen Play: Set up a mud kitchen where children can mix, pour, and create with natural materials.

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  Leaf Art: Use leaves to create prints, collages, or even crowns.

  

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  Bug Observation: Provide magnifying glasses for children to observe insects and learn about their habitats.

  

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  Building with Sticks and Stones: Encourage children to construct small structures using sticks, stones, and other natural materials.

  

  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  Planting Seeds: Teach children about gardening by planting seeds and watching them grow.

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  Cloud Gazing: Lay down on the grass and let children identify shapes and patterns in the clouds.

  
  

  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

16th September Collect Rocks Day

My friend from Momotimetoread sent me this quote because she knows that I cannot go past a good stone, leaf, or treasure from nature. On a walk on a beach last week I pocketed two stones, a small piece of driftwood and a piece of dried kelp root. They all made it home and now are part of my garden. My father was a science teacher with a passion for geology and we lived in a town famous for blowholes and columnar jointing. How could I not like rocks? So this day is especially celebratory... Collect Rocks Day. There are a lot of opportunities in the calendar to celebrate rocks and of course I have written about them before. Just put rocks in the search bar of my blog.

How to celebrate?

1. Collect some rocks.

2. Use a book to identify what you have found

3. Sort your rocks. What criteria did you use? size? colour? type?

3. Display your rocks (make a cairn or turn one into a pet rock)

4. Read some more ... about rocks.

Here's some recent books to get you started:

For more suggestions look at my Pinterest page.

3rd November International Stonework Play Day

On 3rd November it is International Stonework Play Day. This worldwide celebration is where nature, creativity, story, and humankind connect. Stonework relies on nature's ability to enhance one's imagination. It is a form of creative learning and storytelling as a response to handling stones and creating unique patterns with their various weights, shapes, and textures. It all started when Diana Suskind was invited to a school in Nepal as an Early Childhood Consultant to craft developmentally appropriate, hands-on activities. Despite a lack of resources, she realised that stones were an ideal medium for self-expression due to their movable nature.

I am so happy that this day exists. It is a day like all days when I can play with rocks which is my 'happy' place. I love to collect them, draw on them, make things with them, put them in my garden, gift them etc, etc. My father was a keen geologist and I remember holidays when we would be in the car and he would pull the car over, make all of us kids get out of the car while he showed us some particular kind of rock or geological feature. I could take you to places in NSW to see cirques, incline planes, faults, sedimentary layering, tors, plugs and columnar jointing. I grew up in Kiama on the South Coast of NSW, an area well known for basalt and the blowhole, so it is little wonder that I like rocks. Near Kiama there is a very sheltered stony bay called the Boneyard and it is a treasured play area where I can easily spend a whole day constructing cairns.

I have a Pinterest page ready for when I retire from teaching with ideas for things to make from stones and rocks. On this page you will also find picture books that will also give you inspiration for stonework day.

Another place to seek inspiration is on the webpage for this day.

Two new 'rock' books you need to see:

• A Home for Stone by Corinne Avers & Rosalind Beardshaw

When a little boy finds a lonely stone on a quiet beach, he decides to find him the perfect home among other stones just like him. But nowhere feels quite right for little Stone. Just as the boy is about to give up, he realises that he may have had the perfect home for Stone all along . . .

• When You Find the Right Rock by Mary Lynn Ray & Felicita Sala

A marvelous exploration of the special relationship children find with the natural world and the fascination and friendship they find in special rocks, from poet Mary Lyn Ray and artist Felicita Sala. Somewhere, a rock is waiting for you. One just the right color for your windowsill, or just the right shape for drawing a face. Maybe it is a rock from the heart of a mountain that will remind you of how big YOU are inside, too. Maybe it is a rock washed by the sea that knows all about the backs and forths and ups and downs of things. Maybe it is a small rock, just the right size to close your hand around and know that the rock is with you and it is just right. Through vibrant illustration and evocative text, When You Find the Right Rock carries readers along on a journey of discovery, from the mountains to the sea, that's all about learning the beauty of being in the moment, connecting with nature, and the thrill of finding a precious keepsake to call your own.

13th July International Rock Day

I don't need to write at length about celebrating rocks. I have done so before, here and here, but since then some new picture books have appeared that are worth purchasing for the library.

My favourite, This Little Pebble by Anna Claybourne, is perfect for the keen rock collector in our Prep school who wants to find out more about where their rocks came from.

Bring Me a Rock  by Daniel Miyares makes you smile as you watch a group of insects attempt to cart off a pebble.

Mine!  by Jeff Mack cleverly tells a story with just one word.

A Stone for Sascha  by Aaron Becker, like his previous gems is a wordless book but with a profound message and somewhat sombre feel.

The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors by Drew Daywalt and Adam Rex,  reveals the epic tale behind everyone's favourite playground game!

Dave's Rock by Frank Preston-Gannon, another funny story about Caveman Dave that features rocks.

 A Rock Can Be by Laura Purdie Salas gives a myriad of things that a rock can be.

And a new one I would like to see and read, A Chip off the Old Block by Jody Jensen Shaffer.

6th September Pet Rock Day 16th September Collect Rocks Day

September seems to be the time to think about ROCKS! There is Pet Rock Day on the 6th or 14th depending on which website you look at and then there is Collect Rocks Day on the 16th. I grew up in an area where there was large amount of igneous rock and I had a science-teacher father who was besotted with geology and physical geography. I loved collecting rocks, especially those pieces of basalt that had been made into smooth pebbles by the pounding of the sea. These rocks were great for drawing on, decorating, making into people and rock art. And now I'm an adult I still have a 'thing' for rocks. Recently in Ireland I found myself picking up rocks and making totems on the pebbly beaches. I wrote on beaches with stones and made rock art constantly. old habits resurfaced because of the abundance of rocks to work with...and yes I did bring two rocks home! One of them is from the beach that the movie Ryan's Daughter was filmed on, the other from a town called Greystones just south of Dublin where as you guessed the beach is made from large grey pebbles. As you can also probably guess I loved The Giant's Causeway which makes rocks appear so clever.

The children at school do borrow books about rocks and crystals. They seem to run in bursts and if one child gets interested I often find the interest spreads. Below are some of my favourite rock books in the library and here is the connection to my pinterest page where I have both children's books and projects that use rocks. If you decide to 'adopt a rock' read Byrd Baylor's Everybody Needs a Rock. Children probably won't choose to read this book themselves because of the illustrations and their lack of colour, but the text is perfect and once you read it, the children understand and are keen to choose a rock.