Minnie has recently shown a real interest in how trees change their appearance during each seasons, & last autumn she loved catching falling leaves, commenting on their colours, & scrunching them underfoot. How great that trees offer a multi-sensory learning experience in each season!
We love spending time outside, but thought for this activity we'd explore the outside indoors. So to encourage Minnie's interest in the changing seasons we made a set of trees for her to play with.
Firstly we drew around Minnie's hand & arm to create our tree shape. We created four of these.
Once cut out, we created our seasons by using different coloured felt. For Spring we cut circles from pink coloured felt using pinking shears, for Summer we cut out a selection of green leaves, for Autumn we used a few green leaves but added more using brown felt, & for Winter snow we added some roughly cut circles of white felt. (We picked up our A4 felt sheets for 40p each from a local craft shop, & still have plenty spare for another activity.)
By using a blue felt backing, the felt shapes stuck to each other, & could also easily be removed.
Spring
 |
| Summer Autumn |
Winter
These simple felt shapes have prompted many conversations & questions about seasons, trees, caring for the environment, animal habitats, composting, recycling, planting, weather, mini-beasts, food, gardens... & many more. It's been great to see Minnie continuing her exploration outside & to hear her commenting on all she is discovering.
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