Nature Walk Egg Carton

Where we live, it took summer a LONG time to make its appearance. The days were hit and miss with lots and lots of rain. At last, summer is trying to be consistent here and so that means we spend endless hours outside. 

Why not introduce your kids to colors AND nature while they're playing outside. Take them on a nature walk and let them experience the texture, color and adventure of the great outdoors.

Materials Needed: 
"Earth Tone" paint colors
(We used brown, green, yellow, white and black)
Foam paint brush
Empty Egg Carton
Nature

Instructions:
1. Paint each section of the egg carton a different color.
2. Allow to dry completely.

3. Walk through your neighborhood, the park or anywhere else you can experience nature and start collecting items that match the colors in your egg carton. Leaves, flowers, rocks, dirt...anything that sparks the curiosity of your little one.

Tip: This activity is chalk full of experiences that will help your child grow and develop. Here's just a few:

• Incorporates fine motor skills during the painting of the egg carton and collecting of the articles to put in the egg carton. 
• Gives sensory experience through new sights, sounds, and touch. 
• Helps with color matching which is a preacademic skill that will help your child later on with patterns and eventually math. Depending on the age and level of your child, you can help them match objects with the correct color by prompting, "Where should the WHITE rock go?" 
• As you spend time outdoors you can take the opportunity to teach your children new vocabulary, especially prepositions which are very beneficial in your child learning to understand and follow directions (ie: "Let's look UNDER the tree", "You found the rock BETWEEN the bushes." "You put the SAME colors BESIDE each other.")

And always remember to read a good book! Here are some that have to do with nature: