Colors in Nature Walk

Once again I must credit No Time for Flash Cards for this idea: take an empty egg carton, paste or paint a color on the bottom of each individual egg container, and then head outside to find things in nature that match the color.

Sam initially wanted nothing to do with painting the egg carton, since she had her own project in mind. It involved paint, glue, and toothpicks (the medium of choice these days). She told me she was making “a whole world.”

Here it is:

So I painted the cups myself and when the world was complete, Sam got interested and painted some cups on her own. As both a renter and a former landlord, I bless the person or persons who invented washable paints.

When the paint was dry, we headed outside. Sam was very enthusiastic about finding matches for the colors, and she filled green immediately in our front yard.

But, like so much in parenting, the nature walk didn’t go as I expected. (What? You expected it to go according to your idea? The whole world, toothpicks and all, had a good laugh on me). Instead of walking and talking about the names of different flowers, etc. that we picked up, we ended up having to talk a lot about private property. You see, the Bay Area in spring is an explosion of color, so we didn’t lack for that; but most of the color explosions are in other people’s yards. Poor Sam would see a flower that matched our exact shade of blue and rush up to it, only to stop and then ask me, “It’s in someone’s yard. Can we pick it?”

Yeah she knows not to pick things from other people’s yards. Remember that spring happens early in the Bay Area– try January–so we’ve had time to work on that.

But during this color nature walk we had to talk about some things on a case by case basis. A California poppy growing up in the cracks of the sidewalk? Sure, go ahead. Orange. Check. A dandelion on the side of the road? No problem. Yellow. Check. A gorgeous purple flowering thing that was planted on the street side of the sidewalk (where are often weeds)? No. Why not? Well, it was clearly planted by someone and is being tended to. See the fresh mulch?

So color by color we searched for things we could safely pluck.

Rose petals blown off a flower by the breeze, stuck to the sidewalk? Yes. Pink. Check.

Red rocks in a neighbor’s yard? Man. Sam saw these and went running up the hill shouting, “Mommy, I see some red!” Our neighbors at the top of our street have rocks instead of grass in their yard. Red was one of our last colors. Sam looked longingly at the vast crimson pile. Actually it was more like brick red. “But they’re in someone’s yard,” she frowned. Then she yelped, “Mommy, look!” It was a single red rock on the sidewalk that had spilled out over the stone wall that surrounds the house.

Okay, I said. You can claim that. Red. Check. Minus? Clearly the rock belonged to our neighbors. So in allowing Sam to take it I violated the principle I was trying to teach her. Then I started to wonder: how is the rock different from the rose petals that had blown off another neighbor’s rose bush? I didn’t hesitate about the rose petals. Is it because they had separated from the flower? Because left on the sidewalk they would wither and dry up?

Interesting questions to come from a simple activity for preschoolers. Score another one for the whole world.

We returned from our walk with all colors completed except for blue.

A week later and the leaves and flowers have shriveled. Only the brown stick and the red rock retain their luster. I’ll suggest to Sam that we return the rock on our next neighborhood walk.

But doggone it, we’re keeping the brown stick.