Letters – Backyard Brilliant

In honor of the mossy letter we made this week, Holden and I decided to get outside and hunt for hidden letters. I have to say, finding letters in nature is a LOT harder than I expected it to be. You can find a "Y" on just about every branch, the occasional circle that can pass as an "O" but many other letters are really tough to find. Holden is three, and he can name every letter he sees in a book, but his preschooler brain doesn't think abstractly enough to really spot the resemblance of a letter in nature. I was the one doing the hunting, but when I pointed out to him that a branch was shaped like a "Y" or a leaf curly-cued like an "S" I think he recognized what I meant (I think.... either that or next week when we review letters he'll be so turned upside down we'll have to start all over!) This activity would be perfect for an elementary school-aged child who can be a bit more creative and acknowledge that a slanty "T" can still be called a "T", etc. The other idea that I think would be really fun (and eat up lots of time and energy for your kids!) is to have them create the whole alphabet from things they find in nature. You could even set it up as a race with multiple kids, and have them gather sticks, pinecones, leaves, etc. to create the entire alphabet on the ground. The end result would look pretty cool too! The moon - totally the letter "O" We even found an "8" (No twisting of the Spanish Moss was done by me, we just found it this way.) I wish I could say that we found more letters, but after an hour of hunting, Holden got a little restless. Still, we had a fun time and it kept this Mama and preschooler more interested on their nature walk. Get outside today, and to change things up, hunt for some letters found in nature. We'd love to see what you find!