Printable guide · ages 6–8

Tosbi’s Nature Notebook

Ask the child to say the order, the clue or the reason before choosing. Each lesson has four short explanations, three activities and a separate showing task. The pictures are simplified models of real nature: they do not diagnose a plant, forecast real weather or replace watching the real thing. Every closed task has one accepted end state.

Materials: The screen is enough. Optional: paper picture cards, a calendar page and a plant you already have at home, looked at together with a grown-up. No seeds to plant, no animals to touch, nothing to collect outdoors, and no photo, recording, account or timer is needed.

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What to notice

Notice whether the child uses the picture or clue in front of them, such as what changes and what stays the same, instead of remembering an earlier answer, and whether they can say why. Pointing, speaking and moving cards are all fine.

Ask “What in the picture tells you that?” or “How could we check?” A star records this lesson task on this device; it does not assess development, diagnose or certify mastery.

Lesson 1

A plant’s life cycle

Goal: Put the stages of a bean plant in order, from the seed to the pods with new seeds, and show that a new seed starts the cycle again.

Use the bean and the sunflower as clear models. Real plants differ: not every seed grows, and plants flower at different times. Nothing needs to be planted, dug up or collected. Ask the child to say the next stage in a sentence, such as “Then it opens flowers.”

Starting point: Lay the five bean pictures in a row and ask what the plant looks like at the very start.
A helpful phrase: “What comes just before this picture, and what comes just after?”
A common mix-up: A picture with flowers or pods can look like the end of the story. The pods hold new seeds, so the story goes on.
Notice the transfer: Use the sunflower cards and ask the child to tell the story from the first seed to the new seeds.

Show: A new plant: the sunflower grows in four stages. Put the right picture in stages 1, 3 and 4.

Lesson 2

An animal’s life cycle

Goal: Put the stages of a butterfly and of a frog in order, from the egg to the grown-up, and show that the grown-up lays the eggs for the cycle to go round.

Use the butterfly, frog and ladybird as models. Animals grow in different ways: a chick looks like a small hen, but a tadpole does not look like a frog. Do not collect eggs, tadpoles or caterpillars, and do not touch wild animals for this lesson.

Starting point: Tell the butterfly story with your hands: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly.
A helpful phrase: “What does the animal do right after it hatches?”
A common mix-up: A tadpole or a caterpillar is not a small grown-up. Ask the child to name the stage, not only the animal.
Notice the transfer: Swap in the ladybird and ask the child to find where its story starts again.

Show: A new animal: the ladybird. Its cycle goes round too. Fill the two empty places.

Lesson 3

Observation or guess?

Goal: Tell what we see, hear or feel now, an observation, from what we think will happen later, a guess, and check a guess by looking again.

An observation is something the child can see, hear or feel right now. A guess says what may happen later. A sentence can sound very sure and still be about later, such as “The sun will rise tomorrow”. Accept a different word for it and ask which sentence is happening now. No real prediction or outdoor observation is needed.

Starting point: Read the first sentence aloud and ask: can we see or hear this right now?
A helpful phrase: “Is this happening now, or do we think it will happen later?”
A common mix-up: Very sure words, like “always”, can make a guess sound like a fact. Ask whether anyone has seen it yet.
Notice the transfer: Ask the child to make one guess about a picture and to say what they would look at to check it.

Show: Tosbi is outside on a windy day. Put each sentence in its place.

Lesson 4

Weather or season?

Goal: Tell the weather, which can change in a day, from the season, which lasts about three months, and say why one day’s weather does not change the season.

Weather is today’s sky, air and temperature; a season is a long part of the calendar year. This lesson uses the four-season model for Turkey, in the northern half of the world. A warm day in winter is normal. Do not ask the child to forecast the real weather or to look at the sun.

Starting point: Show the sky cards and the tree cards and ask which group changes more often.
A helpful phrase: “Could this be different by this afternoon?”
A common mix-up: Sun, rain and wind can happen in more than one season, so one weather card does not name the season.
Notice the transfer: Tell a new diary story with a different month and ask the child to name the season.

Show: It is a warm, sunny day in December. Which sentence is right?

Lesson 5

Months and seasons go round

Goal: Continue the cycle of months and seasons from any starting point, knowing that after December comes January and after winter comes spring.

The months follow the calendar. The seasons use the usual four-season model for the northern half of the world: winter December to February, spring March to May, summer June to August, autumn September to November. In the southern half, for example in Australia, the seasons are the other way round, but the cycle is the same. Real weather does not follow month edges exactly. The pictures show a model, not a forecast.

Starting point: Say the months together with one clap each, then stop after December and ask what comes next.
A helpful phrase: “Which season is this month in? Which season comes after it?”
A common mix-up: A list of months seems to end at December, but the year does not stop. Point to the wheel and go round again.
Notice the transfer: Start the wheel at a different month, such as September, and let the child go round one whole year.

Show: A new start: school begins in autumn. Fill the three empty places.

Lesson 6

A food chain

Goal: Build a food chain of three links that starts with a plant, and tell plant eaters from animal eaters.

These food chains are simple models with clear examples. Many animals eat both plants and other animals, and real food webs have many more links. Keep the tone matter-of-fact; the lesson only says who eats whom. No real animal feeding or watching is needed.

Starting point: Put the plant picture down first and ask who might eat it.
A helpful phrase: “Who eats this? And who eats that animal?”
A common mix-up: The strongest animal is not the start. A chain always starts with the one that makes its own food.
Notice the transfer: Ask the child to build a chain of their own with the cards and say it aloud.

Show: A new chain on the savanna. Put each one in the place with its job.

Lesson 7

A home that fits

Goal: Match animals to the place that gives them what they need: food, water and shelter.

Habitats vary within a species: frogs, ducks and seals can live in more than one kind of place. The closed answers follow the needs stated in the lesson; they do not claim that an animal lives only there. Do not ask the child to approach, feed or touch wild animals.

Starting point: Read an animal’s need aloud first, for example “It needs water for its eggs”, then show the homes.
A helpful phrase: “What does this animal do to find food? Which place has that?”
A common mix-up: A cute picture can pull attention away from needs. Ask what the animal eats and where it can hide.
Notice the transfer: Offer a new animal, such as the horse, and ask where it would find grass and water.

Show: A new place: the sea. Touch the animals that live in the sea.

Lesson 8

A fair plant test

Goal: Choose the plant test where only one thing is different, and name what stays the same.

This is a picture test. No real plant has to be kept in the dark, left dry or given too much water. A fair test changes one thing and keeps the rest the same. If you want to try something similar at home, choose a safe idea and do it together; nothing is recorded, photographed or sent. A plant kept in the dark for many days usually grows pale and weak.

Starting point: Show the first pair of plants and ask: what is different? What is the same?
A helpful phrase: “If the plants look different, what could be the reason?”
A common mix-up: A picture can look fair while one extra difference hides in a corner. Check the pots, the drops and the light one by one.
Notice the transfer: Ask the child to name one thing to change and three things to keep the same for a new question.

Show: Which tests are fair? Touch every picture where only one thing is different.

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