• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • Email Me
    • Disclosure & Copyright
  • Start Here
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Books for Moms

Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Spelling Activities
  • Family Fun
  • STEM
  • Movie Night
  • Toddler Activities
You are here: Home / Learning Activities / Nature / Tips for Observing Nature With Small Children

Tips for Observing Nature With Small Children

April 16, 2012 By Terri Thompson

Sharing is caring!

14 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Since we are going to be spending so much time exploring nature, I thought it was important to teach the girls how to observe nature.

We recently took a trip to a local nature center and had some incredible opportunities for observation.

We saw turtles and geese and heard frogs and many varieties of birds.

We were very lucky to have chanced upon the goose in the picture above, who let us watch him for quite awhile before swimming away. Of course, he wouldn’t have stayed around for as long if we hadn’t been following some simple rules for observing nature.

When relaying these tips to children, you need to tell them why they are following these rules. They are much more likely to be good observers of nature if they know the reasons behind the rules.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Tips for Exploring Nature

1. Be Quiet. This one is absolutely essential. Talking in whispers and quiet voices can sometimes be okay, but other occasions need absolute quiet. Why? Animals, birds, and even insects are naturally afraid of humans. We need to respect them and show them that we won’t hurt them. Remaining quiet will help ease the fear.

2. Be Still. Any quick or sudden movements will frighten wildlife. Why? This is the same reason why we remain quiet. We don’t want to frighten the animal. Slow, quiet motions are best. Find a spot to sit; it’s much easier to stay still while sitting.

3. Stay a safe distance away. As the adult, it’s up to you to use your common sense. For the safety of your kids and the wildlife, you need to stay a safe distance away. If you want a closer look, use binoculars. We were observing geese and turtles, both animals that would not harm us if we stayed a safe distance away. Other animals are best observed at zoos or other controlled environments.

4. Use all your senses. Teach the kids to not just use their eyes. Your ears and nose are also important tools to observation. What kind of sounds does the animal make? What do you smell? Observation is more than just seeing.

Observing birds is a great way to teach young children the rules of observing nature.

Practice observing the different characteristics of the bird. What do they look like? What color is the beak? The head? What kind of noise does the bird make?

Record the characteristics and then use a bird guide to determine what kind of bird you are looking at.

Learning to observe nature is an important skill to have because the best way to learn about nature is through observation. What are your best tips for observing nature with young children?

**Many thanks to my mom for providing the two goose pictures.**

The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts

Terri Thompson

Terri is a writer and mom of two elementary-aged girls. She has a passion for learning and is always looking for ways to make learning fun. You can find her here writing about fun learning activities, art, craft, and family fun ideas.

Latest posts by Terri Thompson (see all)

  • Thanksgiving Math Activities for Kids - November 10, 2022
  • Paper Plate Tambourine Kids Craft - May 15, 2022
  • Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids - May 9, 2022

Recent Posts

  • Thanksgiving Math Activities for Kids
  • Paper Plate Tambourine Kids Craft
  • Outdoor Shape Activities for Kids
  • Shape Hopscotch Outdoor Game
  • Butterfly Paper Plate Wreath Craft

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Itasca Minnesota: Birthplace of the Mississippi River says:
    April 20, 2017 at 11:13 pm

    […] fun on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Check out some of my favorite posts from Terri’s blog: Tips for observing nature with small children, cork-print trees, and 10 ways to keep kids occupied while you cook dinner! Are you interested in […]

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Categories

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Designed by The Blog Surgery

Creative Family Fun uses cookies to improve your experience. These cookies provide feedback to our analytics and advertisers. We use the information to track views of the site, where you go and to know if you are a regular visitor or brand new as well as provide a personalized experience where possible. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
14 shares