Welcome to The Curiosity Crows!
I’m an autistic explorer with a passion for natural sciences and the planet. I create hand-drawn, minimalist, black and white coloring pages—ideal for early finishers, students who need a brain break, or as top-up pages and wet break time fillers.
You’ll also find photo bundles of images taken in the days of camera film rolls, perfect for bringing a touch of exploration and nostalgia into your lessons. And paper dolls for top-up activities for your class.
Welcome to The Curiosity Crows!
I’m an autistic explorer with a passion for natural sciences and the planet. I create hand-drawn, minimalist, black and white coloring pages—ideal for early finishers, students who need a brain break, or as top-up pages and wet break time fillers.
You’ll also find photo bundles of images taken in the days of camera film rolls, perfect for bringing a touch of exploration and nostalgia into your lessons. And paper dolls for top-up activities for your class.
A fun and educational colouring activity pack, ideal for primary school students, and students learning English as a foreign language. Can be used as an individual colouring activity during wet break, as a reward, or as part of group work or games where students have to use the character within their story, space or monster setting
A fun tree themed, colouring activity to help students learn about the world around them. Ideal for primary school students, and students learning English as a foreign language.
A fun colouring activity to help students relax or to explore the patterns around us. Ideal for primary school students, and students learning English as a foreign language.
A collection of photos from my own adventures in gardens and gardening as well as some colouring pages I created for my students. Perfect for National Garden Month and topics exploring minibeasts, plants, ecology, and wildlife.
"Spring is coming on strong and, according to the calendar, is technically already here by the time this month rolls around. And for those who have not already begun looking at planting this year’s garden–it’s time to get a move on right away!
How To Celebrate National Garden Month
Enjoying and observing National Garden Month can take on a variety of different forms. Try out a few of these ideas or come up with some of your very own. Since the month has 30 days, there should be time to get really creative!
Study Up on Gardens of the World
One really great way to start celebrating National Garden Month would be by studying all the different types of gardens in the world. Whether checking out a book from the library on the architecture of formal English gardens or watching a documentary about the water, stones and plants that make up a Chinese garden, this is a great way to celebrate this month.
Visit a Botanical Garden
Many cities offer a botanical style garden that is open to the public, even if it is still too cold outside to start your own garden yet. New York City, London, Los Angeles, and Tokyo are just a few major cities that offer easy access to the joys of visiting a botanical garden.
Botanical gardens provide visitors with the ability to enjoy, learn about and appreciate exotic plants that may not be possible to grow locally. With greenhouses, garden areas and even butterfly houses, they are a load of fun to visit!
Start a Compost Area
Gardens need loads of fertilizer and composting the old matter from the garden is a great way to make it sustainable. It doesn’t even require a special container to compost, just a bit of attention. Throw that garden waste into a separate container and let it decompose over several weeks, turning it every 3-7 days to let it work faster.
Create a Small or Large Garden
For those who may find themselves intrigued or inspired by the idea, it might be a good pursuit to make plans and set about creating a garden of their own during this National Garden Month. Gardens don’t have to be large, so even those who live on a small plot in the city with a mere sliver of a yard could still have their own little piece of gardening paradise. Don’t even have that much space? It’s time to invest in a selection of pots and make your own potted herb or flower garden on those windowsills. Gardens can be anywhere, and just about anyone can be a gardener!National Garden Month is for all of those people with green thumbs, new gardeners and old hands alike, to embrace their love of gardening.
History of National Garden Month
Gardens have always played an important role in the history of human culture, from sources of food and sustenance to locations for leisure and entertainment. They have even been used to produce natural medicinals used in the home and by holistic medical practitioners.
The word garden traces its roots to Middle English, French, and German languages. In the United Kingdom, this word specifically describes a small enclosed piece of land that is placed next to a building, which might only contain grass. However, in the United States, the term garden has more to do with a place where someone would plant and grow things such as flowers, fruits or vegetables.
Multiple types of garden exist in the world, all of which are dependent on the primary purpose and the list of things that are contained in the garden. For instance, in arid regions some people may choose to have Cactus Gardens. In other places, gardeners may aim for a particular style of aesthetic, such as a Bonsai garden or a Dutch Garden rife with tulips with an eye to efficiency and a density of foliage.
Gardens have also been used to create new habitats and resting places for bees, butterflies, seasonal birds, and other delightful creatures of nature, making them both beautiful and able to aid these creatures whose natural habitats may be diminishing in some places in the wild.
While most home gardens tend to be incredibly informal and relaxed, there are also far more formal gardens that adhere tightly to a given style. French Formal and Italian Renaissance gardens adhere to a particular style, and Knot Gardens are extremely formal with specific guidelines that govern their designs. National Garden Month is a great time to research gardens and learn more about them.
National Garden Month itself is a fairly recent observance. It started with National Garden Week when, in 1986, US President Ronald Reagan signed a declaration to make the observance official the following year in 1987.
Realizing that only seven days simply could never be long enough, National Garden Month was born in 2003– and people have been celebrating this important occasion during each springtime ever since. Now it’s time to get started with the celebrations for National Garden Month this year!
Each year the islanders on the British Channel Island of Alderney take part in an arts and crafts competition to see who can grow the best vegetables, make the best cake, paint the best pictures, or make the nicest jams. It is all part of being in a community and raises money for local causes. A small collection of photos from my time in and around coastlines of Britain (Alderney, Channel Islands). Please note that some of these were taken with slide film before the arrival of digital cameras.
A colouring activity to help students learn about the colour red. Ideal for primary school students, and students learning English as a foreign language. Could be used to show a range of shades of the colour.
A colouring activity to help students learn about the colour violet. Ample space to draw their own colourful objects, and to colour in other objects. Could be used as a prompt for telling their own story.
A colouring activity to help students learn about the colour silver. Ample space to draw their own colourful objects, and to colour in other objects. Could be used as a prompt for telling their own story.
A colouring activity to help students learn about the colour grey. Ample space to draw their own colourful objects, and to colour in other objects. Could be used as a prompt for telling their own story.
A colouring activity to help students learn about the colour red. Ample space to draw their own colourful objects, and to colour in other objects. Could be used as a prompt for telling their own story.
A colouring activity to help students learn about the colour silver. Ideal for primary school students, and students learning English as a foreign language. Could be used to show a range of shades of the colour.
A colouring activity to help students learn about the colour purple. Ideal for primary school students, and students learning English as a foreign language. Could be used to show a range of shades of the colour.
