Create a garden scrapbook

How long will it take?

The initial activity should take up to an hour. Thereafter, allow 15 to 20 minutes on a regular basis, perhaps fortnightly or every three weeks.

What you will need

• a scrapbook
• sticky-backed plastic
• old seed catalogues
• a camera
• scissors
• glue
• paper
• felt pens and crayons

Step-by-step guide

1 Ask your children to draw a picture of themselves in the garden, write the date and their address underneath it and stick it on the first page of their scrapbook.

2 They can collect leaves and plants from the garden and put them in their scrapbook. Help them to put sticky-backed plastic over them, and to write their names by them.

3 They can draw pictures of different parts of the garden.

4 Or they can take photographs of the garden. Maybe they could choose one part, and take a picture of it on the first day of each month for a year. Then they can see how much everything changes.

5 Encourage them to keep their scrapbook near a window and draw or write the names of the birds they see coming into the garden over the different seasons.

6 Stick in the seed packets of any seeds they grow. Give them old seed catalogues to cut out pictures of plants they want to grow - or they may like to design their dream flowerbed!

7 They can draw, cut out and label any wildlife they find. They might see frogs, butterflies, hedgehogs, ladybirds, beetles, ants, bees, caterpillars, foxes - the list is endless.

8 Why don't you get them to ask other people in your family, or visitors, to add something to their book?

Tips and advice

• If fresh leaves and flowers are used in the scrapbook, tell your children not to choose thick, fleshy samples, as they will rot. Ensure they enclose the sample completely by using a larger piece of plastic than the sample. They can press samples if they wish, but this takes longer - up to six weeks under heavy weights. Some samples can be pressed and dried quickly using a microwave oven.
• Do not worry if the results of your children's endeavours don't match up to your expectations. Enjoy their efforts and praise them.
• You might be inspired to make your own scrapbook about the garden. Let them see you doing it, as this will add importance and value to their own work.
• Remind them to continue recording things in the scrapbook. Don't rely on them remembering.
• You might wish to encourage early information and communication technology skills and get the scrapbook going in digital format on the computer.