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LLMom
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How do you display the things you find on your nature outings? We have several bones, birds' nests, feathers, etc. They just pile up in a box and the kids dig through them once in a while, but I would like to set them out somehow. A shelf, a table, ??? What do you do? Pictures anyone?
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Lisa
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Erin
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Lisa
I'd love to have a series of shelves of differing heights, but for now nature finds sit on top of a low corner bookcase.
Actually this month the bookcase's focus is Christmas. Including a photo so you can see corner bookcase in entirety as the top pic only showed the nature shelf.
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Erin
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cathhomeschool
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Most of our nature finds are displayed on a bookshelf. Shells and rocks are all in a small basket on the shelf. Smaller or more delicate things (acorns, crab and egg shells) sit out individually on the shelf. Bugs are kept in a very small "tackle" box with clear lid (because we had quite a few and they had started to smell.  We've culled the collection since then because we moved.  ) At our old house we kept special rocks, shells and bones outside on the deck in addition to the inside collection. In our rent house we were more limited on space so we picked our favorite items and displayed them on a window sill. Whenever our collection location runs short on space I ask the kids to cull the collection of items that are no longer important to them.
One mom used one of those "display case coffee tables." It's a glass topped table that has a drawer right under the glass. You slide out the drawer and put your nature stuff inside. Then you can look at it through the glass tabletop. Don't know where you'd find one of those or how much they'd be, though. I found this old thread with some similar ideas using watch display cases.
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MaryM
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Options depend on size and permancy here. We have a shelf for transient things which are displayed while we are focusing on them or studying them in particular. I need a more permanent solution for ongoing displays though. This past thread has some suggestions (with pictures).
Storing, Keeping, Throwing Nature Finds
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Mackfam
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The above is on top of our cupboard in our learning room. The containers are inexpensive plastic containers I found at Walmart. Especially treasured finds are stored here for long term keeping.
I used to display our most recent finds on the top of a book shelf...and I tend to go back and forth with doing that, but right now (and lately) I need that space for baskets of binoculars, wind meter, bird identiflyer, science specimens...so, I found this little basket at a thrift store and hang it under one of my shelves with cup hooks. I purge periodically.
Can you see that cool oothecas up front there (on the left)? It looks like a tan upside down bell. This was a prized find recently. It's a spent egg sac from a praying mantis! Cool, huh!
We keep insect specimens in watchmaker's cases from Lee Valley. I find these to be so useful all over, but especially in the storage of nature objects!! I store the cases with specimens in one of those rubbermaid containers with drawers which lives on a shelf in our nature/science area.
Good luck storing nature treasures and finds, LLMom! Oi'!!!! The keeping of ROCKS!!!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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LLMom
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oooh, thanks for the ideas and the pictures! I think it might be good to do the messier things (like birds' nests) on the porch. I love the jar idea, Jen.
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Lisa
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Chris V
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*Love* seeing these pictures! Wonderful ladies! As of now, our findings are carefully placed on a rather large centerpiece (with the intended use for a decorative candle display) that is antiqued brass. I usually have this on our kitchen table and my girls "swap" out the nature display with whatever it is they have found. Unfortunately, nothing stays well kept and intact (it all gets played with frequently, which is just fine by me... I'm definitely not a "behind glass doors, only for looking" type, so touch and feel away. So once it's all abused and trashed, it gets tossed and replaced with the new findings. But after seeing so many wonderful displays (of which I simply have *no* more room in my house for  ) it might suit me well to make the room for more permanent nature displays 
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JennGM
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On a somewhat related thread, I enjoyed Macbeth's post today about saving and using jars for specimens.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Mackfam
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JennGM wrote:
| On a somewhat related thread, I enjoyed Macbeth's post today about saving and using jars for specimens. |
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I loved that post, too, Jenn!
We save all of our old peanut butter jars as they are nice and large and perfect for a grab and go. Cheesecloth is a good thing to keep on hand - a small square of cheesecloth with a rubber band around the top is great for a "vented lid".
Another favorite type of bug collecting jar here are pimento jars. They're small glass jars about the size of the old glass Gerber baby food jars and perfect for bug collecting because they're small enough to be portable. So...if you make pimento cheese...save the little pimento jars!!!
Pickle jars are great glass jars with non-plastic lids, too!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Grace&Chaos
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I couldn't figure out what do with our nature walk discoveries, so finally inspired by some very crafty moms I decided to create a "nature display area". I let the kids display them in a basket that sits on top of a low end table next to our door. We have a huge door like window next to our main entrance doors. When you come up to the entrance you can see our end table and nature finds through the glass window.
This last fall we created a banner that said "f a l l" and hung it across the window, then we cut out leaf coloring pages the boys had worked on and taped them to the window. (I really enjoyed this, I think we will do this for each season, we just switched our display to a Happy Holidays banner and our Nativity Scene. This is adorned with our recent pine cones and pine tree walk finds, I put the basket under the table for now.)
The finds stay there until the younger boys have literally crumbled them (they look at them, they play with them, they pretend, they stack, we read about them ...). I clean up the mess until our next walk and our next set of finds.
I also place some finds through out our living room bookcases, which house our nicer classic books and make our finds really stand out.
I like the ideas I'm reading about and will have to consider some for more permanent displays.
Unfortunately glass is a no no with four little boys so instead we use the plastic Gerber food containers to take on our longer walks. We poked holes on the top and they are very similar to Glad ware so they do close tightly and you can see through them  . And of course our dandy Ziploc bags are always in our tote.
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Anastasia
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I have an old spoon display that works well as a nature find shadow box. Bigger items like rocks and pinecones go in a small basket.
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: displaying nature finds
