How to Set Up a Nature Seasonal Shelf/Table for Children

A look at how we have created a nature seasonal shelf in our home for our children to create a sense of wonder about our beautiful world and celebrate the change of season.

Our current Spring themed seasonal shelf

Why create a nature seasonal shelf/table for children in your home/classroom?

A nature seasonal table or shelf in your home or classroom is a beautiful area for little ones to not only learn about the seasons, weather and months, but it also creates a wonderful place to put all the natural treasures that your child has collected from nature.

Children are naturally curious about nature and our wonderful world. A space dedicated to the changing seasons helps to support and encourage this curiosity and wonder.

*Please note small objects shown in the photos above or small items from nature are a choking hazard for young children. Only use with children aged 3+ under adult supervision. Always supervise your child.

Here are some things to think about and consider when setting up your space for a nature seasonal display.

Pick a space to set up your nature seasonal display.

When choosing a place for your nature seasonal display think about somewhere where your child/children will be able to interact with it and add their own items.

This could be:

• A little table

• A shelf

• A tray

It needs to be accessible to your child if you would like them to engage with it and help make changes.

Think about what to include in your nature seasonal display

Using resources you already have is a great start. You can also DIY resources, such as coloured peg dolls, trees to match the seasons, weather cards, weather chart etc.

As part of our seasonal display we have used:

• Grapat perpetual calendar

• Treasures From Jennifer weather chart

• Two Little Ducklings seasons and days of the week cards.

Our seasonal shelf is set up close to the ground to allow both children to easily access it and interact with the pieces.

Add in items from nature

A wonderful way to add in some elements of nature is to leave space for your children to add their treasures collected from nature. Some fresh leaves and flowers from outside were collected by Miss 5 to add to our seasonal display. Flowers, leaves, rocks etc all make wonderful additions to this area and show the changes in seasons e.g. Autumn coloured leaves, Spring flowers

Adding special treasures collected from nature to your seasonal display allows your child to feel connected to nature and our wonderful world. It also gives a sense of importance and ownership as it is a special place that they can continue to add items to over time.

Add in seasonal books

We haven’t added any books at the moment to our little shelf, but this is a great way to mark the change in seasons and use books to learn about the changes in weather, clothing that we wear, and activities that we do.

Add in other season themed items

We used some butterflies and flower figurines to decorate our Grapat perpetual calendar. Miss 5 enjoyed decorating this little shelf to mark the change of season. We also added in our green ‘moss’ Grimms pebbles to the shelf too.

Days of the week, months and Season cards

We also have our Two Little Ducklings cards in this area. These provide another way for Miss 5 to learn about the months and seasons and make further connections. These cards work well with our calendar. Miss 5 likes the tree illustrations, as they show changes through the year and she can compare these to our trees outside the window in our backyard. You could make your own cards at home and get your child to help draw the pictures to match.

Our months and seasons cards are a wonderful learning tool as part of our seasonal shelf

Final thoughts:

Decorating and adding new items to the nature seasonal table/shelf for children is a wonderful way to celebrate our connection to our wonderful world. I hope that my children will have fond memories of the times spent together adding treasures to our shelf and wondering about the beautiful world that we live in.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I would love to know if you have a nature seasonal display, big or small, set up for your children to explore. Let me know in the comments to below.

Until next time, have fun learning in a playful way!

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