How to Make a Waldorf Children's Table

A nature table lets kids showcase their discoveries.

Nature tables are used in many Waldorf schools, and in the homes of families that home-school using a Waldorf curriculum. The nature table showcases an ever-changing, ever-growing collection of bits and pieces your child finds or makes throughout the year. It can change with the seasons or might focus on an aspect of nature such as trees or rivers.

Things You'll Need

• Small table
• 1.5 Yards felt
• Scissors
• Staple gun
• Staples
• Items from nature
• Empty tin cans in different sizes
• Small bowls
• Vases
• Small bucket
• Sandwich bags
• Small jar with holes in the lid
• Magnifying glass

Instructions

1. Cut the felt so that it's about 2 inches bigger than the table top on all sides. Place the table upside down, centered on the fabric. Wrap the fabric around and staple under the table, folding neatly around the legs. If the table is not made of a material you can staple through, use a hot glue gun. Set the table right side up.

2. Take your child out with a bucket, bags, jar, and magnifying glass. A park or nature area is ideal, but even your neighborhood should provide the beginnings of your table. Depending on the season, you might find green or dry leaves, rocks, twigs, flowers, pine cones, acorns, bugs, or soil of different textures. Take this opportunity for a lesson in respect, and teach your child to pick up only fallen items from live plants and trees.

3. Use the tin cans to display special finds by raising them off the top of the table. Form collections in the bowls, or use them to hold different kinds of soil. Allow your child to arrange their nature table in a way that pleases and makes sense to them.

4. Allow your child to play with the items on the table. This is a flexible, fluid collection. Let the bugs go in a day or two and replace them. Maybe a lucky lizard will find it's way into your child's bucket. Rocks can become people in imaginative play, living in the rich landscape of the nature table.

References

• Nature Family Crafts: Waldorf Table