Printable guide · ages 3–5

Nature discoveries with Tosbi

Explore a few clear examples together. Each lesson offers pictures, four short explanations, three activities and a new making task. The model is simplified; it does not diagnose a plant or predict real weather.

Materials: The on-screen cards are sufficient. Optional: large paper picture cards, handled by a grown-up; no real seeds, tasting, wildlife contact or outdoor collection is required.

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What to notice

Notice whether the child uses the new picture, stated observation or starting point rather than remembering an earlier answer. Pointing, listening and taking a pause are all welcome.

Ask “Which part of the picture helped?” Accept uncertainty when the real world does not give enough evidence. Stars show completion, not mastery or developmental assessment.

Lesson 1

Living things around us

Goal: Distinguish clear living plant and animal examples from a rock or manufactured toy.

Use only these unambiguous examples. Do not use dead leaves, wood or dormant seeds as scored living/nonliving questions. A picture is a representation, not itself a living organism.

Starting point: Begin with the plant and rock pictures.
A helpful phrase: “The tree stays still and is alive.”
A common mix-up: Moving and being alive are different properties.
Notice the transfer: Swap the bird for the frog and notice both groups.

Show: Put the plant first, then the animal.

Lesson 2

Plant parts

Goal: Locate the roots, stem and leaf in a simplified whole-plant drawing.

This is a simplified flowering-plant drawing. Do not uproot a real plant. Parts vary across species; the ring locates one part rather than defining all plants by this shape.

Starting point: Point to the soil line before naming the parts.
A helpful phrase: “Which ring is below the soil line?”
A common mix-up: Green alone does not distinguish a stem from a leaf.
Notice the transfer: Change the requested order to roots then stem.

Show: Put the roots that take in water first, then the stem that holds the plant up.

Lesson 3

From seed to young plant

Goal: Sequence a seed, emerging root and young plant in the shown growth model.

Do not promise that every seed grows. Conditions, species and timing vary. Paper cards are sufficient; small real seeds are unnecessary for this activity.

Starting point: Show the same bean across three pictures.
A helpful phrase: “What changed between these pictures?”
A common mix-up: Three pictures do not mean three days or guaranteed growth.
Notice the transfer: Use the acorn sequence without the bean cards.

Show: Now start with the acorn and grow the oak.

Lesson 4

Look before you water

Goal: Build an observe-then-ask plan rather than prescribe water from a plant picture.

No watering experiment is required. A drooping plant has many possible causes; this lesson makes no diagnosis. An adult decides care based on the particular plant and conditions.

Starting point: Describe the dry and damp cards as story observations.
A helpful phrase: “What do we know, and what should we ask?”
A common mix-up: A picture or drop count is not a watering prescription.
Notice the transfer: Use a new pot with a stated dry-soil observation.

Show: A new pot: the soil is dry. Put the soil first, then who you tell.

Lesson 5

What is the weather like?

Goal: Match sunshine, rain and clouds to explicitly described weather observations.

Use the fictional weather record. No outdoor observation or looking toward the sun is required. A weather icon cannot establish a season, climate or forecast.

Starting point: Name only what each weather drawing shows.
A helpful phrase: “Where are the falling drops?”
A common mix-up: Clouds do not always mean rain is falling.
Notice the transfer: Change from the sun/rain record to clouds/wind.

Show: A new day: first clouds, then wind. Put them in place.

Lesson 6

The seasons

Goal: Continue the named spring–summer–autumn–winter cycle from a given starting point.

This introduces a four-season calendar model, not universal weather patterns. Seasons differ across regions and hemispheres. Do not score a season inferred from a single garment or weather icon.

Starting point: Say the four names while tracing a circle of cards.
A helpful phrase: “After the last card, where do we return?”
A common mix-up: A repeating cycle has no permanent beginning or end.
Notice the transfer: Start again at autumn without changing the order.

Show: This time start with autumn and put them in order.

Lesson 7

Animal homes

Goal: Match animals to the particular habitat described in a fictional observation.

Animal species and local habitats vary. The closed answers follow explicit fictional observations; they do not claim every frog or bird has only one habitat. No wildlife contact is requested.

Starting point: Read the story observation before offering the place cards.
A helpful phrase: “Which place has what this story animal needs?”
A common mix-up: A habitat is not always a nest or a house.
Notice the transfer: Replace the squirrel with the explicitly described bird.

Show: Now put the bird and the frog in their homes.

Lesson 8

Let’s care for nature

Goal: Pair leaving a plant undisturbed with asking an adult about litter in a fictional scene.

Keep this as a fictional card activity. Do not require litter handling, animal feeding, approaching nests or plant collecting. Invite observation and adult support without assessing moral worth.

Starting point: Show one growing flower and one litter drawing.
A helpful phrase: “How can the flower keep growing here?”
A common mix-up: Helping is not the same as touching or collecting.
Notice the transfer: Place the two different care choices in a new scene.

Show: A new meadow: what do we do for the flower and the litter?

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