“The most beneficial aspect of collecting is it’s a great STEM activity that teaches children a lot about categorizing, sorting, and observation.”

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If you look up the word collection online you’ll see it either means “a group of things that have been gathered” or “a set of items gathered together.” That could mean anything from toy cars to comic books to rocks. It doesn’t matter as long as it includes something you’re passionate about and that brings you joy.

How to Start a Collection:

If you don’t collect something already, but want to start, there are a few things to consider first, such as your interests. If you like history, you might consider stamps or coins. If you like books, you might consider those. You could even start a collection with an item you inherited from a friend or a family friend, (i.e., a handkerchief or a watch.)

Since Summer’s right around the corner, and we’ll all be able to go outside freely soon, one of the best things to collect are natural objects, like rocks, shells, sticks and other portable souvenirs you can find either in your own backyard, neighborhood, park or school playground.

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Nature Journal:

Before you start out on your expedition you should gather your equipment-a pair of gloves, newspaper to wrap your finds in, labels and markers-then create or buy a nature journal. To create a journal all you need is a large paper bag, a hole punch machine, a stack of three-ring binder notebook paper and some yarn to hold it all together. Now that you’ve created your journal you can bring it to life with sketches and observations from your trip about your surroundings and questions you’d like to ask yourself on your trip, such as “What types of animals do I see?”

Once you get your journal and growing collection home you can do further research on what you’ve collected, and observed, online and at your local library.

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Storing and Displaying Your Nature Collection:

To further organize your collection, as you acquire more, you can decide what it can be based on (i.e., color, shape, texture, etc.,).To remain consistent, It’s an excellent idea to record as you collect by reporting in your nature journal. To further help you write down the information a great skill to perfect is labeling your items temporarily with a piece of masking tape listing the items date and place of origin.

Later when you want to store and display your collection it’s best to use something recyclable like an egg carton, shoe box, or glass jar to reflect the natural sentiment of the hobby.