Make a Nature Crown Craft to Welcome Spring

Taking a nature walk with your little ones is especially lovely when the weather is fair and spring is in the air, but it's also a wonderful opportunity to help your preschooler develop early math skills like sorting, identifying patterns, counting and measurement! All you need to do is gather natural materials together to make a regal nature crown. Don't worry if all the nature you can find is a few twigs and dry leaves in your local park — anything can go on your crowns! Just try to not snip any flowers or leaves; it's better to wait until they fall to the ground by themselves.

Learning Goals

In this activity, your child will:

• Sort pieces of nature into sets using attributes like color, scent and texture.
• Count objects to discover how many there are.
• Copy and create patterns of repeating objects.
• Measure length using a nonstandard measurement object like string.

Vocabulary

• Attributes are the qualities or features of an item. For example, an attribute of a ball can be size, color, texture, material or bounce. In sets and sorting, the attributes of something are used to create a system of organization. For example, sorting a collection of balls according to the feature of size may result in three distinct groups (sets) of small, medium and large balls.
• Sorting means to organize items into groups (also called sets) based on some quality or feature. For example, you can sort flowers based on their shape, color or scent. There are endless ways to sort!
• A pattern is a sequence of things in our world — like numbers, colors or shapes — that repeats over and over and follows a rule. Patterns are useful to predict what came before and what might come next.
• Measurement uses numbers or comparisons to describe attributes such as length, weight or number. We use measurement to answer questions like, "How much?" or "How many?"

Materials

• Natural materials such as plants, flowers, petals, leaves, twigs, etc.
• Paper grocery bag or craft paper
• Scissors
• Glue or tape
• Pencil
• Ribbon or string

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Visit a park, garden or other safe outdoor location to collect natural materials for the crown. Bring a basket, grocery bag or any container to collect your objects. Help your child look for items like fallen leaves, twigs, pine needles and flowers with a variety of colors and textures. Then, help your little one identify the pieces of nature before picking them up to make sure they are safe to touch.

2. Use a math skill: counting! Incorporate counting as you collect your natural materials. Make collecting a game and set a collecting challenge! For example, can your child find 10 twigs and 10 leaves? Count out loud together as you put each item in your basket. You can also count the total number of items, stopping when you reach a certain number, like 20.

Three Outdoor Activities for Kids to Practice Sorting and Creating Sets with Nature

3. When you're done, lay out the natural materials you found together in a comfortable outdoor place or at a table at home. Let your child touch and play with the materials and use their senses. Ask your child:

• "What scents do you smell?"
• "What colors do you see?"
• "What textures do you feel?"

Watch

Watch: Families Explore Sorting and Collecting with Laundry

4. Use a math skill: sorting! Ask your child to sort the materials into multiple groups using their senses. For example, ask your child to use their sense of smell to make a pile of materials with strong smells and a pile of materials with no scent. Next, help your child pick a second attribute to sort the materials. For example, they may want to sort leaves and flowers by color, with red and brown leaves in one set, green leaves in another, brightly colored flowers in another and white flowers in the last one.

5. Use a math skill: patterns! Help your child create beautiful patterns using the natural materials. Start by making a pattern for your child to copy. You can use color, size and/or texture in your pattern. For example, a pattern could be green leaf, flower, brown leaf and twig. Ask your child, "What comes next?" Next, help your child design their own fun pattern!

6. Make the base of your crown using scissors, a pencil and a brown paper bag. Cut a long strip from the paper bag that is around 3 inches tall. If you don't have a ruler handy, 3 inches is approximately the length of an adult's pointer finger. Use the pencil to create marks to help you determine where to cut.

7. Use a math skill: measurement! Determine the circumference (length) of the paper crown together. Use a ribbon or piece of string to measure around your child's head. Have your child help hold the string against the paper bag to find the length for the crown. Remember to add a few extra inches to the end of the crown where the two ends of the crown will connect.

8. Help your child attach the natural materials to the crown using glue or tape in a fun pattern that incorporates color and texture. Then, glue or tape the ends of the crown together. Now, your crown is ready to wear!

Keep the Conversation Going

• Take your child's sorting outdoors! Give your child an egg carton "treasure box" to collect rocks, shells, flowers or other fun natural materials. Have them use the sections in the egg carton to sort their items as they explore the outdoors.
• Naturally occurring patterns in plants and other natural materials are exciting for little ones to explore! Take your young explorer outside with a magnifying glass to find patterns in leaves, flowers, insects, trees and more. For example, look closely at the colors and lines in a leaf and ask your child, "Which repeating patterns can you find?"
• Use the math concepts of measurement and sorting to order natural materials by length. Ask your child to order twigs with the shortest at one end and longest at the other. Turn the items into a fun piece of art by painting them with different colors and gluing them to a piece of paper or cardboard.

Book Suggestions

"A Stone Sat Still" (Ages 3-5)
By Brendan Wenzel

This calming story follows the journey of a stone and the animals that enjoy it using their senses and noting attributes like color, size and texture.

"Opuestos: Mexican Folk Art Opposites in English and Spanish" (Ages 2-6)
Written by Cynthia Weill, featuring wood sculptures from Oaxaca by Quirino and Martín Santiago

This book features beautiful photographs to explore creating sets and introduces vocabulary.

Family Math Activity: Rock Out with a Tissue Box Guitar

Corresponding Standards

California Preschool Learning Foundations

• Number Sense
  • 1.0: Children expand their understanding of numbers and quantities in their everyday environments.
  • 1.1 Recite numbers in order to 20 with increasing accuracy.
• Algebra and Functions
  • 1.0: Children expand their understanding of sorting and classifying objects in their everyday environments.
  • 1.1 Sort and classify objects by one or more attributes, into one or more groups, with increasing accuracy.
• Algebra and Functions
  • 2.0: Children expand their understanding of simple, repeating patterns.
  • 2.1 Recognize and duplicate simple repeating patterns.
  • 2.2 Begin to extend and create simple repeating patterns.
• Measurement
  • 1.0: Children expand their understanding of comparing, ordering, and measuring objects.
  • 1.1 Compare two objects by length, weight, or capacity directly or indirectly.

Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework

• Goal P-Math 1: Child knows number names and the count sequence.
• Goal P-Math 7: Child understands simple patterns.
• Goal P-MATH 8. Child measures objects by their various attributes using standard and non-standard measurement. Uses differences in attributes to make comparisons.