Winter Nature Table

I love updating our nature table as the seasons change. I love how with just a little effort we can create areas of interest and of seasonal beauty in our home-(schools).

With the shorter December days, I thought that our nature table should include a cute little light, to brighten our dark afternoons up. My mind immediately started to wander to the abundance of glass jars I've been stashing away, the stack of bright tissue paper that I bought a few weeks ago and some of the Graphic Fairy's cute freebies.

This craft was quick and easy. I simply tore strips of tissue paper, modge podged them onto a glass jar, sprinkled a little glitter onto the wet glue and then modge podged two of the Graphic Fairy's images on top of the tissue paper on either side of the jar. Pop a little tea-light candle into the jar and voila!

With different images on either side of the jar, we get a little variety while it graces our shelf throughout the winter. The images I chose were inspired by our copy of Brambly Hedge 'Winter Story. A little whimsy to bring a smile to our hearts :o)

Just to the left of our little clay fox, we have a wasps nest that a friend gave us for a nature study.

Our nature jar has been updated with bee's waxed berries and pine cones resting on a soft cushion of 'snow'.

A dried flower head of Queen Anne's Lace along with our flag towers overhead.

And off to the left of our shelf we have some pussy willow from the garden. I love the delicate furry little buds. It is so pretty! At the base of the vase that holds the pussy willow, are two pine cones we found when on a walk with a friend. They were tightly closed up when we picked them off the tree, now that they are inside the warm house, they are slowly beginning to open. They remind me of roses. Of course we still have our cute little hedgehog watching over us as we go about our lessons.

Do you have a nature table/shelf/windowsill set up in your home? It is such a lovely place to display the children's nature finds and of course to add a little bit of whimsy to fuel their imaginations :o)