Guest post from Green Grubs Garden Club = Awesome!

Hi everyone! Thanks so much Kylie for inviting me to pop over the ditch for a quick visit :-)

I’m a teacher, Mumma and kids gardening/nature club enthusiast who lives on the fringes of Auckland, NZ, with my amazing hubby and beautiful wee toddler.  I enjoyed teaching full time for 10 years (mostly years 2-4) and loved setting up and organising our schools lunchtime garden club – The Green Grubs! I now teach part time, which has allowed me to watch the amazing leaps in learning that my little Grub makes daily. It also gives me the time to indulge my passion and enthusiasm for all things green, grubby - this includes creating specialised resources to support nature based education.

I pride myself on creating practical and creative resources that get children involved in the wonder that is our natural world, and have a wide range of free nature based resources... whether you have 10 minutes to spare with your class outside with your class or a whole block, I'm sure you'll find something useful below!

There's nothing better to mark the changing seasons than a quick nature walk. Follow up your outdoor stroll with the sheet on the left ~ you can find the free worksheet portion of this Autumn resource in my TpT store here, and the coloured header on my blog here! (*The nature walk writing templates are also available in other seasonal variations (for free!) in my TpT store, so have a good rummage around while you're there).

If you're looking for a way to squeeze a little more nature into your classroom routine, you might be interested in this free set of 'Nature Snacks cards' (below) - 36 cards with prompts that encourage engagement with the natural world…some of the cards can be used inside the classroom by looking out the window, others can be used while moving as a class from one part of the school to the other, and some are best used outside in the playground!

The cut and fold worksheet below is a fun, fast, hands-on version of the traditional nature walk scavenger hunt!  Children cut and assemble the Nature Grab Box template, and then race to fill their boxes with the 12 things listed on the outside…(a small rock or pebble, 2 different flowers, a twig with 3 branches, a leaf with rough edges etc) Click here to grab this FREEBIE! 

For a great introductory activity to a nature based or environmental topic...get silly with this FREE Nature themed Fortune-Teller-Cootie-Catcher! There are 8 challenges inside the Cootie Catcher (e.g. take nine steps backwards, drop to the ground and freeze until you see an insect! Can you name the insect? Name one thing you could do to help the environment - you can't say pick up rubbish...)

Thank goodness here in our part of the world we still maintain strong connections with the great outdoors...and long may it continue!  Respect your class's need for a few minutes here and there to just burn off some energy, run bare feet and feel the wind in their hair....... in fact, why not take your shoes off and join them?


Fresh air, bare feet + grubby hands = active learning!