Over several outings, collect crayon rubbings of interesting textures -- tree bark, leaf veins, rough stones, brick walls -- onto pages of a homemade journal, labelling each one with where and when it was found. Compare and sort the growing collection by texture type as the journal fills up.
What you need
- paper stapled into a simple journal
- crayons with the paper removed
- a pencil for labelling
How to do it
- 1Staple a few sheets of paper together into a simple journal before heading outside.
- 2Hold a page against a textured surface and rub a crayon flat over it until the pattern appears.
- 3Label each rubbing with the date and what it was taken from.
- 4Return to the journal on future outings, adding new pages and comparing textures already collected.
Variations
- If a multi-day project feels like too much commitment: a single-outing version with 5-6 rubbings works fine as a standalone activity.
- How it ends: there's no forced ending -- the journal can keep growing indefinitely as a returning project.
💡 Parent tip
Let the journal sit somewhere visible between outings -- a project that's easy to pick back up gets returned to far more often than one that's put away.
What your child develops
- Observation and classification — sorting rubbings by texture type builds early scientific categorisation
- Fine motor control — even crayon pressure across a rubbing takes real hand control
- Long-term project thinking — a journal that grows over multiple sessions teaches sustained attention to a single idea
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