Core activity
Nature Magnifiers.
A little lens on a visitor's phone, and a leaf becomes a landscape.
What it is
A small lens is stuck onto a phone camera with Blu Tack, which turns the phone into a magnifier.
Settled 18 August 2026.
The phones are the visitors' own, so there is no kit to charge, nothing to mind on the table and
nothing to count back in at the end of the day.
It is the second activity on the Nature's
Engineers station. Looking closely at a leaf, a shell or a seed head is how a child finds the
shape they then build in paper.
Materials
- Items
lensesBlu Tacknature materialswipes
- Brought by visitors
phones
Not iOi kit, so not a row in the materials list.
Safety
| Children | Lenses and Blu Tack. Their own or a parent's phone. |
|---|
| Adults | |
|---|
| First aid | |
|---|
A lens is small enough to swallow. Under-5s arrive at this fair with
older siblings, so loose lenses stay on a table with an adult at it.
No blade, no heat, no power.
Notes
- The board already treats it as its own thing. Five subitems under Nature's Engineers carry a
LENS suffix, which no other subitem does. The tag was doing the job of a separate record.
- Whether children keep the lens sets the basis. Kept, it is per child and follows attendance. Returned, a handful is enough. The row is open and unowned, and the lenses were ordered on 31 July, before it was asked.
- What a child looks at is not set. Research best materials is open; Collect nature materials is the task against it.
- Nothing states how a lens attaches beyond Blu Tack, or whether it holds on a case, a camera bump or a multi-lens phone. Worth trying on a few handsets first.
Not part of the activity record
Questions for you