Summary

Encourage students to explore nature by creating a collection of items found in the woods or at the beach and then organizing their collections into displays.

Materials

• Woodsy area or beach
• Sealable plastic bag (gallon size works best)
• Permanent marker (to label the bags)
• Kitchen size garbage bag (for any trash found on the way)
• Old shoe boxes
• Glass jars (recycled, if possible)
• Camera (optional)

Related Video Clip

Dinosaur Train: Don and Lilly (47 seconds)

Procedures

1. PREPARATION: In a local park or nearby beach, find 4 or 5 examples of small natural objects that children might find on a nature hike, such as an interesting rock, a colorful leaf, a piece of bark, a pinecone, and so on.
2. Show students the nature objects from Step 1, and ask them where they think you found them all. Ask them to think of what other things they might find in this area.
3. Show a video clip (above) of Don Pteranodon happily showing off his nature collection.
4. Take the students outside to a woodsy area, such as local park or nature preserve. A beach is also a great place to collect. Hand out a plastic bag to each child with his or her name on it (permanent markers work well for labeling), and explain that each student will have his or her chance to start a nature collection. Explore the area for at least 30 minutes and and allow students to collect anything (safe) that they find on the ground. Examples include:
   • leaves
   • rocks
   • twigs
   • acorns
   • pinecones
   • feathers
   • pieces of dead tree bark
   • shells
   • exoskeletons from dead bugs
5. At school or at home, have students put their nature collections into shoe boxes (which you can call a "Nature Treasure Box"), or glass jars, and maybe have them organize the objects by category. You might, for example, have one glass jar that contains one "amazing rock" from each child. You could write the date on a piece of paper and tape it to the jar as a reminder of when you found these objects.
6. Students can start their own "natural history" museums, which they can present to other classmates, friends and family members.

Extensions

1. While in the woods, students can create impromptu nature art. Explain that this sort of art is made of natural materials such as rocks, leaves, sticks, mud, and so on. You can take a picture of these art projects if you wish but tell students to leave them in the woods as they would leave sandcastles on the beach.
2. Students can also create art at home (or school) by sticking nature objects into blocks of Styrofoam, preferably recycled.