Fall is a wonderful time to enjoy nature and its fallen treasures. When you go on walks with your children look on the ground and on the grass. On my last walk I picked up some fallen branches and twigs and found some bark on the ground. It inspired me to use some everyday materials: pipe cleaners, yarn, gardening twists, some sheer fabric to decorate the branches. You can use almost anything, be creative!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show your child how to twist pipe cleaners and wind yarn around the twigs, for younger children I used some hair elastics and colorful elastics on the bark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Older children can even choose two colours and you can playfully show them how to make a pattern: red, blue red, blue…I wonder what comes next?

You will be happy to know that while having fun and talking with you, exploring different textures and learning the words for: rough, smooth, bumpy, strechy, prickly, wooly, twisty, poky etc., children will be using their fine motor skills, gaining the strength in their hands and wrists needed for more complex activities like writing.

What other ways you can use your sticks or twigs and branches? Children use their imagination in their play and a stick becomes a magic wand! You can trace a stick on the fence to make some wonderful sounds! Playing in dirt with sticks is something children do all over the world. Don’t forget to send me some pictures.

The boy in this picture discovered a hole in the ground. After digging a bit, he decided to use the stick to measure how deep it was. What a profound hands-on sensory and math experience!