Outdoor Activities for Toddlers

With the changes taking place outside as we transition into fall, it's a great time to explore the outdoors with your toddler. I love it when my kids notice something outside that is, in their minds, a true treasure. To help my two year old recognize and save these treasures from nature, we made an "outside book."

Materials:

5-7 sheets of construction paper

stapler

tape

*I'll explain the sidewalk chalk in a minute!

 I probably don't need to explain, but you simply staple your sheets of paper together, creating a little book where they can tape their treasure inside.  I'll be posting a more "advanced" version of nature books tomorrow that does not require tape, but this worked for us that day.

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It helps to start with something that is familiar to your child and discuss what they love about it. 

This is a leaf from our "umbrella tree" in our front yard that we love.

She was so excited whenever she found something new and while we taped it into her book, we discussed it's name and role in nature.

Since it was a very sunny day, we also took some time to talk about shadows. I had her stand in the sunlight as I traced her own shadow. Then we stepped back and looked at it together, talking about how it was her body blocking the sun from that part of the sidewalk.

We also traced a smaller shadow of a leaf from our favorite tree.My kids always help me to find joy in the little things and this was a fun way to capture that innocent appreciation in a little book that I can keep (at least for a little while).It was a good day...