Bugs, Worms & Tiny Things 🐛
Week 1: Nature Explorer Week
Welcome to the very first post in our 8-week Summer Play for Little Ones series! Each week, I'll be sharing a themed collection of activities designed with your toddler's whole self in mind — their curiosity, their feelings, their senses, and their joy. I'm a play therapist, so you'll always get the "why behind the play" alongside the fun. Let's dive in — literally.
This week we are getting outside into the great outdoors and getting down LOW. Eyes to the ground, hands in the soil, and hearts wide open. Welcome to Nature Explorer Week.
There is nothing — truly nothing — quite like the moment a toddler finds their very first worm.
The shriek. The crouch. The look up at you that says "Are you SEEING this?!" followed by approximately forty-five minutes of uninterrupted investigation.
Nature has this extraordinary ability to slow toddlers (and honestly, us) way down. This week is all about noticing the tiny, overlooked world that's been living right outside your door all along — and growing a few things of your very own. Grab your magnifying glass. We're going in. 🌿
🌸 Activity 1: Plant Something! Wildflowers, Herbs, or Food
What you need: Seeds or seedlings (wildflowers, sunflowers, herbs like basil or mint, or veggies like tomatoes and zucchini), a pot or small patch of soil, a trowel or old spoon, and a watering can.
This is less of a single activity and more of a week-long adventure — and that's exactly the point. Let your toddler choose what to plant (hold up two or three seed packets and let them pick), dig the hole, drop in the seed, cover it up, and water it in.
Then wait. Check on it together every day. Make it a ritual.
Why wildflowers? They're nearly impossible to fail at, they attract bees and butterflies (more things to observe!), and watching a meadow-mix pop up in a pot is genuinely magical. Why herbs? They grow fast, they smell incredible, and you can use them in cooking together. Why food? Because there is no greater toddler triumph than eating something they grew themselves.
Book pairing 📚 Head to your local library this week and look for garden-themed books to read alongside your planting! Some wonderful ones to ask for:
The Life Cycle of a Sunflower — perfect for tracking growth alongside your seeds
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
Reading about what's happening in your garden makes the real-life observations so much richer. Your toddler will start connecting the pictures to their actual pot of soil — that's early literacy and science happening at the same time.
Talking prompt while you play:"What do you think the seed needs to grow? Let's find out together."
🪨 Activity 2: Paint Rocks
What you need: Smooth rocks (collect them on a walk or grab a bag from a dollar or craft store), washable acrylic or tempera paint, brushes, and optional sealant spray if you want to keep them.
Rock painting is one of those activities that sounds simple and turns out to be quietly wonderful for hours.
Let your toddler paint however they want — abstract splashes, dots, stripes, or an earnest attempt at a ladybug. No directions needed. Display the finished rocks in your garden, in your plant pots, or along your windowsill as a tiny gallery.
Make it a nature connection: After painting, head outside to hide some rocks in the neighborhood for others to find (this is part of a lovely worldwide movement called Kindness Rocks — strangers find your painted rock and it makes their day). Talk with your toddler about making someone happy they'll never meet. That's big-hearted work.
Or: Use the rocks as garden markers! Paint a tomato on the tomato plant pot, a flower on the wildflower pot. Functional art by a very small artist.
Developmental note: Holding a paintbrush and making intentional marks is excellent fine motor work — it's building the same grip and control they'll eventually use for writing. But please don't tell them that. Let it just be fun.
🔍 Activity 3: Worm & Bug Hunt
What you need: Magnifying glass, a jar or bug catcher (with air holes), an old spoon for digging, and your best sense of wonder.
After rain is the absolute gold-standard time for this — worms come to the surface and suddenly the footpath is full of treasure. But any day works. Head outside with no particular agenda and just start looking.
Lift rocks. Peek under logs. Crouch at the base of a plant. Run a finger gently along bark. The world that exists at toddler-height — once you actually look — is extraordinary.
The worm rescue mission: If you find worms on pavement after rain, gently help them back to the soil with a stick or spoon. Talk about why they came up (the ground got too wet underground), and what they need to survive. This is science, empathy, and problem-solving in one small act.
Make it structured if they love it: Create a simple "bug tally" — a piece of paper divided into sections with drawings of different creatures. Every time they spot one, make a mark. Ants, beetles, butterflies, spiders, worms. Count them up at the end.
Make it open if they prefer: Just follow their lead. If they decide a beetle is a "tiny horse named Gerald" — perfect.That's imaginative play and storytelling woven into nature exploration. Don't correct the narrative. Gerald is real and he's important.
Play therapy note: Following a toddler's lead in unstructured outdoor play builds something very specific: confidence that their ideas and observations matter. Every time you crouch down to look at what they're looking at, you're communicating "what you notice is worth noticing." That's the foundation of a secure, curious child.
🧚 Activity 4: Make a Fairy Garden
What you need: A pot, trough, or small patch of garden bed — and your imagination.
A fairy garden is a miniature magical world, and building one with your toddler is part craft project, part storytelling, part gardening. It's delightful.
The idea: Fill a container with soil, add small plants or moss, then decorate with tiny fairy garden accessories — little houses, bridges, doors, mushrooms, lanterns, and tiny figures. Then decide together: who lives here? What do the fairies get up to at night?
Where to find supplies: Hobby Lobby has a fantastic range of fairy garden kits and accessories — little doors, benches, stepping stones, bridges, and tiny creatures. It's worth a browse before you go so your toddler has some choices ready.
You can also DIY almost everything with sticks, pebbles, acorn caps, shells, and bits of moss — which is honestly just as magical and gives you a nature hunt built right in.
Extend the play all week: Add to the fairy garden a little each day. Find a pebble on a walk and bring it home for the garden. Make a tiny flag from a stick and a leaf. Build a fence from twigs. The garden becomes a living, growing project — and a stage for endless stories.
Talking prompt while you play:"What do you think the fairies need to be happy in their garden? What should we add?"
🍎 Activity 5: Garden-Themed Snacks
Here's the thing — nature week doesn't have to stop when you come inside. These three simple snacks connect your toddler to the theme of growing things, and they're all ones little hands can help make.
🐜 Ants on a Log
Celery sticks spread with peanut butter (or sunflower butter for allergies) and topped with raisin "ants." A classic for a reason. Talk about real ants while you eat — you probably found some on the bug hunt! Let your toddler arrange the raisins themselves.
🪱 Dirt Cups
Chocolate pudding topped with crushed Oreo "dirt" and a gummy worm poking out. These are outrageous and beloved. Make them together — your toddler can crush the cookies in a ziplock bag (extremely satisfying), spoon the pudding, and place the worm. The pride on their face when they present this to someone is everything.
🥕 Garden Veggie Board
Arrange raw veggies on a board or plate as a garden scene — broccoli "trees," carrot sticks as fence posts, cucumber rounds as stepping stones, cherry tomatoes as flowers, hummus as a little pond. Let your toddler help assemble it. Children are dramatically more likely to eat vegetables they had a hand in arranging — this is genuinely backed by research.
Connection to the week: Pair the veggie board with a look at the seeds you planted. "This carrot started as a tiny seed, just like ours! I wonder what our seeds will look like when they grow."
🧠 The Play Therapy Bit: What Nature Does for Little Nervous Systems
Something remarkable happens to children when they're outside in green spaces. Their breathing slows. Their bodies relax. Their play becomes more expansive and self-directed.
Research on nature play consistently shows that time outdoors — especially unstructured time in natural settings — reduces anxiety, improves focus, and supports emotional regulation in young children. For toddlers specifically, the sensory richness of nature (the textures, smells, sounds, and unpredictability) provides exactly the kind of varied input their developing nervous systems are hungry for.
And there's something else. Nature is endlessly patient and endlessly interesting. It doesn't get frustrated. It doesn't have a learning objective. A toddler can stare at a beetle for twenty minutes and nature will just keep being there, offering more. That quality of unhurried, unjudged attention is profoundly regulating.
The bug hunt, the fairy garden, the planting — all of it creates a sense of agency (I can make things, tend things, discover things) and wonder (the world is bigger and more interesting than I knew). Both of these are protective factors for children's mental health that we start building right now, in moments exactly like these.
💡 Tips for This Week
On the "ick" factor: If your toddler (or you!) is uncertain about worms and bugs, don't force closeness — but do stay curious alongside them. "Oh wow, look at how it moves. I wonder how it does that." Modelling curiosity, rather than disgust or enthusiasm, gives them space to form their own relationship with creepy crawlies. Many toddlers who were initially squeamish become the biggest bug enthusiasts with a little time and zero pressure.
On the library books: Make the trip to the library part of the adventure. Let your toddler be the one to carry the books home. Read them outside near the plants if you can — context makes everything stickier.
On mess: Soil under fingernails, muddy knees, a trail of leaves through the hall — this is evidence of a good week. Consider keeping a dedicated "nature shelf" or windowsill where treasures (interesting rocks, pinecones, interesting sticks) can live without getting thrown away.
✨ This Week's Developmental Takeaways
Digging, discovering, and growing this week, your toddler is building:
Empathy for living things — caring for seeds and creatures lays the groundwork for compassion
Curiosity & scientific thinking — asking "why" and "what if" about the natural world
Patience & delayed gratification — plants don't grow overnight, and that's the whole point
Sensory integration — varied outdoor textures, smells, and sensations support nervous system development
Language & narrative skills — nature play is extraordinarily rich in story-making
🌿 Your Weekly Challenge
This week, spend at least one chunk of time outside with no screen, no agenda, and no rushing. Follow your toddler's gaze. When they stop — stop. When they crouch — crouch. See what they see.
Then plant one thing together before the week is over. It doesn't have to be fancy. A seed in a cup on the windowsill counts completely.
Come back next week when we're picking up our paintbrushes and making some gloriously messy art! 🎨
Next week: Paint the world! — Week 2 is all about creative expression, process art, and why "what is it?" is the wrong question. See you then!
About this series: Summer Play for Little Ones is an 8-week blog series from a play therapist, sharing seasonal activities designed to support toddlers' emotional, sensory, and developmental growth — one playful week at a time.
