Everyday is Earth Day- Magnify glass and nature

Here's the second post in a series I will be doing to celebrate Earth Day with young children.

Check out the first one here featuring a nature walk and nature book: Everyday is Earth Day

The girls received these magnify glasses in their Easter baskets. I took them outside and we talked about all the parts of nature and our earth we could see up close through the magnify glass.



We walked around the yard and Mallory very quickly got excited about discovering nature through the glass. She was thrilled to see the objects/insects get bigger as we discussed all the details she could now see.

It became very clear how simple activities like this are so much about helping children discover the beauty around them literally in their own backyard/neighborhood.



After awhile she was enthusiastically running around coming up with her own list of items she wanted to find. "I want to find a ladybug.", "Let's look at this flower.", "Oh mommy, I found an ant."

Even my 2 year old loved exploring through the magnify glass!



Along with the magnify glass I also brought along some clip boards, papers and pencils. This is a great way to bring print outside. I thought Mallory might want to draw one of her items she discovered with the magnify glass but she chose to draw a tree instead. Picking up on her lead, I told her that was a great idea.

She made an observational drawing of her chosen tree and also wanted to do some plants as well. She's 3 year olds so this was purely about the process not the product. I encouraged her to look at the tree and we talked about the different parts of a tree.





Simple but fun way to explore our earth together!

Stay tuned for more activities in the next week to celebrate Earth Day. In the meantime please also check out Mommylabs.com Earth Day celebration blog hop for some wonderful ideas!!