Bush — a step-by-step lesson for grown-up and child
This lesson gets round: your toddler becomes a bush — big circle, then small — plays peek-a-boo behind the real ones, and learns that a chirping bush is a home with residents.
What is this?
A bush is a plant that is rounder and smaller than a tree, with leaves all the way from the ground up. Bushes make perfect hideouts for birds, hedgehogs and all sorts of small garden life.
What does it mean?
The bush is the set’s shape-and-hideout card: round is a shape your toddler can be, and a bush is a hiding place they can walk past every day. It is also the first home-lesson — some leafy balls have families inside.
What does the child need to know?
Bushes are round and leafy, and plenty of creatures live in them — especially in spring, when nests are built inside. If a leafy ball is chirping away, somebody is home in there: we look from a step away, and some bushes have prickles anyway.
Why this matters
Round-shape play plus hiding play is a two-lesson combination in one card. And the chirping-bush rule gives your toddler a reason to admire gardens quietly — the first brick of respecting wild space.
What it teaches
Body shaping (big round, small round), spatial words (behind, in, round), peek-a-boo with a nature twist, sound-awareness (is that bush chirping?), and gentle-distance manners.
Words to learn
bushroundleafyhidechirpinghome
Say this to your child
“"A bush! Round and leafy — like this. Can you make yourself round? Big and round... small and round! Bushes are hiding places: birds build nests inside, hedgehogs snuffle underneath. If a bush is chirping, someone is home — we peek quietly from the path and wish them a good day."”
Step by step
- Show the card, say bush, and make yourself as round as possible — arms curved into a big round hoop, then fold smaller and smaller until you are a tiny ball of bush.
- Ask where the leaves are on the card — everywhere! — then puff up round again, a whole-body bush with a toddler inside.
- Play bush peek-a-boo indoors: hide behind a cushion bush, pop out, giggle, hide again — then swap hider and finder.
- On the walk, find real bushes and peek around one edge together, quietly, to see who might be home.
- If you hear chirping from a leafy ball, whisper the news: a family lives in there — homes are watched from the path, not peeked into.
Look closer at the picture
Round your arms and say bush. Ask your toddler to find the leaves on the card — all over! — then be bushes together: one big round each, shrinking down to two small round ones on the rug.
Ask your child
"Is a bush round or square?" "Can you be a bush?" "Who hides inside bushes?" "What do we do if a bush is chirping?" — answered with a circle, a nest-story and a whisper: "listen quietly".
What your child can say or do
"Round and leafy!" Expect bush-shapes at random, peeking attempted behind every hedge, and chirping bushes reported like weather news. Somebody may insist the family car is a bush. Admire the roundness and move on.
Out in the real world
Bushes round every garden, park and car park — the most common shape in the landscape. Each leafy ball is a rerun: round body, peek at the edge, one listening moment, walk on.
Try it together
Bush and bird: one of you is the round bush (crouched, arms round), the other is the bird hopping close — then swap. Add a whispered "chirp chirp" from inside the bush for the full effect.
Understanding check
Pass a bush tomorrow and watch the feet: a pause and a listen means the home rule is rooted. A round shape on the word bush completes the lesson.
Parent tips
Keep peeking to the edges of public bushes only — hedges by paths, never private gardens. The round-shape game doubles as a calm-up calmer: big round, small round, tiny round, still.
Staying safe
Some bushes carry prickles or irritating leaves, so peeping happens with eyes first and hands second, and every leaf stays unchewed. Standing bushes may host wasps — if buzzing starts, back away calmly, no swatting.
This lesson pairs with the Bush flashcard in the library — print it, show it, keep it on the fridge. Back to Garden Things (School Garden).