Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it -Confucius
Forest School has had such a positive impact on our family. The lessons that our 4-year old is learning are not just restricted to him–the lessons seep into family life due to Bergen’s enthusiasm and excitement over sharing all the knowledge, skills and appreciation that he is gaining.
Recently, I mentioned in our preschool hiking post that “noticers” can be a fun addition to any outdoor adventure. A noticer is an easy to make tool that allows kids to hone in on the details of anything worth investigating. When Bergen came out of school raving (and using it profusely) about his noticer, I knew it was not only something worth creating again at home, but something to share with others!
To create your own, you’ll just need the following:
- Paper Plate
- Markers, crayons, or paint
- stick
- heavy duty tape
1. Gather your materials.
You might enjoy a quick walk to procure a stick or just find one in your backyard!
2. Cut.
Fold the paper plate in half and cut out the inner circle to create a circular frame.
3. Decorate.
Decorate the frame. Bergen simply colored “designs” all around the frame, but the sky is the limit with how to jazz up your noticer.
4. Attach the stick.
We found that heavy duty packing tape works well for ensuring that the stick stays attached to the paper plate.
5. Go explore.
Go on an outdoor adventure! When something appeals to you or your children and/or looks interesting, simply place the noticer over the object or space, and ask…
What do you notice?
Great spaces to investigate:
- Tree trunk
- Patch of dirt
- Patch of grass
- Large rock
- A flower
- A leaf
I love how the noticer helps young children focus their attention on just one area, really utilizing their sense of sight!
Do you think your children would enjoy making a noticer? What would you like to investigate?
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I think a lot of *adults* would benefit from a noticer, too! 🙂 Thanks for sharing this!
You are so right, LeAnne! Really helps to focus! 😉
This is so cool! I am slightly (okay a LOT!) envious of your son’s school! I want one of these schools here so desperately. The closest thing we have is Montessori preschool, but it is a bit more expensive than we can afford.
Anyways, thank you so much for sharing these amazing projects with me. 🙂 At least I can do this type of fun with Z at home!
We feel so lucky to have this school option for Bergen & it’s only about a mile away from our house (extra bonus)–I hear you on the affordability too–preschool can be SO expensive. Hope you two have fun making the noticer! I will keep sharing…he comes away with such great stuff from forest school.