Washing rocks

I set up a tray for washing some pebbles we had collected on the walk we did the other day by our house. We are lucky enough to live near plenty of bridle paths, which allow us to have access to good walking routes right on our doorstep.  Anyway I have got a little off topic, which is easy to do as I am easily distracted. Here is the tray:

Nuh about to begin the activity

Zuh playing with the water

Sorting and transfering

We went to Sherwood Forest last weekend, there is a really nice walk there, well several actually, but the one we do is about 4 1/2  miles which is just about right for Nuh. Sherwood Forest is full of beautiful old oak trees, inclusing the Major Oak which is about 1000 yrs old. As its autumn it is full of acorns. Yeah, the children love collecting these and they make wonderful counters, items for sorting etc..

Ancient Oak

I  set up this transferring activity for Nuh, even though he is 5 and can probably do this easily it is a very settling and calming activity and a good exercise in self control.

Spooning Acorns

Another tray that I set up for Nuh was sorting acorns based on there various states of wholeness, so we had caps, nut and whole acorn. This also allowed Nuh to learn the names of the parts of an acorn. I set up the acticity using this little sorting tray that I bought from Amazing Child Montessori through Amazon. Anyhoo this is the completed activity:

Sorting Acorn parts