This activity is a kind of a hunt but also a great way to get little ones looking for and recognising letters in their environment. They have to really think about the letters, the shape they make and then what parts of that shape they can find in nature. We use a really familiar word so they are starting with letters they are familiar with — their name.

Nature Name

You will need:

• A piece of paper or card
• a marker (or some other writing impliment)
• a collection of loose parts from nature
• glue

When you head out on your walk, have a look around you in the environment and see if you can spot shapes in nature that look like the letters in your name. My name is April so when I look around for a capital ‘A’ to start my name I may spot three sticks laying on the ground in an ‘A’ shape or a few blades of grass growing that way together. I may spot all manner of things that are similar to the ‘A’ shape. Once I have found something I will collect parts to make that shape on my paper. You could also break the letters into their pieces and just look for the individual parts rather than the whole letter, for example, I might see an acorn cap and collect it to build the round part of the letter ‘p’ in my name.

Once you have collected all the parts for the letters of your name it is time to start your nature name.

Write your name on the paper.

Now, start glueing the parts of the plants to the page over the marker to make your name.

That is it! Simple.

Do let us know what you enjoyed about this activity. We would love to hear from you on Facebook, twitter and/or instagram.

Happy writing!

April