The Nature Table!

What better way is there to educate, inform and inspire children? The Nature Table!

I’ve frequently mentioned this on my blog! I’m a big fan of The Nature Table!

If I had my way, it would be a permanent feature in every primary classroom! It’s importance cannot be stressed enough! The Nature Table really had its heyday in classrooms, particularly infant classrooms, in the 1960s. It took pride of place and was one of the stars of the show! Classrooms at this time were overflowing with so much that inspired!

My own classroom, firstly in Lightwater, Surrey, where I initially ‘plied my trade’ as a probationary teacher, before progressing to a post of responsibility ( as they were known in those days) for Language Development, and then later on, in Devon, always had a Nature Table…always!

And a Nature Table was a fascinating feature; always changing, never the same from one day to the next due to the enormous interest and daily additions of ‘ Look what I found, Miss!’ 

Through the Nature Table, children could find out about the seasons too. And they could look, observe, pick up, handle, feel, touch and even smell....indeed it was a proper, ‘hands on’ experience..a joy!

When I was young, before I entered the world of teaching, my mum was an infant teacher and she would send us out to collect all sorts of goodies for her Nature Table! We would return with no end of treasures, which she would then carry, on the bus, on a Monday morning, to her reception classroom!

I loved the Nature Table in the autumn as it would offer crisp, crunchy leaves of reds, yellows, oranges and browns along with the beautiful berries of the Hips, Haws and Spindle as well as the Acorns with their fairy caps! And shiny conkers! And then there would be the smell of pine cones! Unmistakeable!

In the springtime, we would grow mustard and cress, beans and all sorts of other seeds etc. And there was always a smattering of sea shells, interesting stones and pebbles, which the children would bring in after a weekend, beach trip. And feathers galore! What fun!

And I cannot think, for the life of me, why this wonderful resource hasn’t been continued! After all, it’s something that can be made and utilised… and all for FREE!

And that is the beauty of nature, isn’t it? All around us is the wonderful world of nature…if we only but open our eyes! And all for free! 

I would say to any primary school teacher, ‘ Set up a Nature Table in your classroom and the benefits will be massive! You will reap the rewards again and again!

The illustration below ( 1959)  is by Harry Wingfield, who was one of the Ladybird Book illustrators.