Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Earthworm Study





Students explore worm adaptations and perform 5 lab experiments. Plus they get to create a worm hotel for the classroom!

Included (18 pages):
11 pdf presentation slides
Lab 1 Structural Adaptations: label / estimate / measure / describe attributes / review worm parts
Lab 2 Behavioral Adaptations: light / moisture / sound experimentation
Lab 3 Worm Observation: build a worm hotel instructions / observation sheet
Lab 4 Predator and Prey: draw worms in natural habitat (tunnels) / draw 3 predators / draw 2 worm food items
Lab 5 Straw Paper Work Trick: instructions for kids / kids draw their paper worm


Thursday, June 11, 2015

7 Bohemian Inspired History Crafts

Wearable art with educational lessons tied in! Visit We Are Teachers for the rest of the post!



Sunday, April 12, 2015

Plant Scavenger Hunt



Take students outside for a plant scavenger hunt! Click here to download. Students tally how many vascular and nonvascular plants they find. Then they draw an example of each. Throughout their walk, they take photos of different plants that they believe represent 7 different types of seed dispersal. They check off different types of roots they come across based on their knowledge of plants. They draw an example of a stem they investigated. Then they draw 2 different leaves and describe the leaves' properties (color, size, texture).

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Biodiversity Scavenger Hunt

Kids hunt for abiotic and biotic factors in their backyard (or school yard). Then, based on their observations, they create a food chain or web to represent what they discovered in the ecosystem they explored! Click here for the printable

Monday, April 29, 2013

Ecosystem in a Bottle

pill bug photo: teacher.vbsd / fish photo: toledonative365
Create a 1 to 3 tier ecosystem using soda bottles!

Featured above:
3 bottle construction - Scribbit: Motherhood in Alaska. Also check out Cranberry Corner.
Visit Annenberg Learner for activities to go along with your eco-column!

2 bottle construction - Legacy Owensboro

1 bottle - The Geo Exchange

Visit Bottle Biology for more ideas!
Check out NFBWA to see how to make a compost column!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Simile Walk


Go on a simile walk and describe what you see! This is a great activity to get kids to think out of the box and improve their writing. Remember to use like or as.

Example:
That tree is as tall as a skyscraper.
That leaf is crunchy like a potato chip.
That rock is as smooth as satin.

Reading Connection: My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Pine Cone Experiment



Demonstrate how seeds adapt by conducting the pine cone experiment with your class! Drop a ripe pinecone into a bowl of water. Leave it submerged in water, and be amazed as the pinecone starts to close up. What's happening?! The pine cone is adapting to its environment! It closes up when wet ("protecting the seeds inside the cone"). Once dry, it opens back up! Click here for the full explanation. Check out a time lapse video of the experiment here. To find out more about pine cones - are they living or dead - click here!

pine cone via public domain

Sunday, August 26, 2012

What Can You Do With A Leaf?!



Leaf Surface Area - Practice non-standard measuring with leaves, great way to introduce the concept of area. Visit Kindergarten Lessons for more details and measuring ideas! PBS has a fun activity that integrates science and math. Kids shine a flashlight on a leaf and trace its shadow on grid paper to find the area of a leaf!

Leaf Symmetry - Check out the cool art project Beautiful Ideas did!

Science - Is a Green Leaf Really Green? Click here to find out! Also, check out Exploring Life Community's photosynthesis experiment!
Create a Leaf Skeleton - ehow

Descriptive Writing - "Meet My Leaf, " free printable from Scholastic
Leaf Descriptions - Set up a leaf station in your classroom. Kids work in pairs. One child describes a leaf. The other child has to find the correct leaf. This activity is a great way for kids to learn the importance of detail (adjectives) and comprehension (listening skills).

Leaf Hunt, Tally, Graph, Fractions - Classic activity that's always popular with young students. Go on a leaf hunt outside around the school yard. Have kids tally their leaves. Then, as a class, graph your findings! Afterwards, have kids write the fraction for each color found. Younger kids could also practice their patterning skills with colored leaves.




Leaf Art - Who doesn't like leaf rubbings! If kids color nicely, they could show leaf transformations for a geometry unit. Have them use one leaf and make their rubbings in different colors. Leaf texture via Jimmie Homeschool Mom - flickr commons



Sunday, August 19, 2012

What's Living In Your Area?

photo credit: treehouse 1977 - flickr cc

E-nature Zip Guides - Discover the various plants and animals that reside in your area! You can also search endangered or poisonous species. Earth's Endangered is another endangered species search engine, easy for kids to use, that lists animals in their region.

EOL - has lots of biodiversity experiments for kids to conduct in their own backyard! Their tools section includes fun ways to implement technology into science lessons. Kids can also create customized field guides, build / explore ecosystems with an interactive tool, and create their own bingo games.

The Butterfly Site lists butterflies found in each US state.

Once you discover the different plants, animals, and insects in your area, see if you can find them!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

What's In Your Ecosystem?

Communicate with schools around the U.S. and countries around the world to see if all ponds contain the same abiotic and biotic components. What makes up a pond ecosystem? How do organism's work together to keep it thriving? Join CIESE's Bucket Buddies or The Square of Life to observe, record, and share environmental studies with school's world-wide. Bucket Buddies focuses on pond life. Kids head to their nearest pond and fill other's in on what's going on in their local pond ecosystem. The Square of Life Project has kids examine nature in the school yard. How is their school environment different from other's? 




Saturday, July 14, 2012

Monarch Migration Project!

photo credit: science daily
Integrate technology with Project Based Learning, by tracking wildlife migration with Journey North! (track the migration of monarchs, whales, and various birds). 


Monarch Migration Project: students track the migration of butterflies around the world, while communicating with different schools (with the help from Journey North!). Click here to watch the Monarch Migration Project in action from BIE Project Based Learning


Art - Kids create special paper butterflies and send them to the next location the monarch migrates to. The student's paper monarchs travel to the same places that real monarch butterflies do. Their paper creations travel around the world!
Science - Students make observations outside of the school. They check the temperature, examine plant life, and find out what kind of environment butterflies prefer.
Language Arts - Kids write to other countries, explaining what their environment is like for the butterflies. They read what students from other schools had to say about their backyard observations!
Social Studies - Mark off the places the butterflies have migrated on a map. Plus, learn about the different cultures around the world by corresponding with other schools. Check out how kids from around the world decorated their butterflies. Is the butterfly art similar or different to your class' artwork?



Monday, June 18, 2012

Sun Baked Bricks

Make your own mini bricks, while learning about soil composition and solar energy, from 60 Second Science. All you need is clay-rich soil, water, ice cube tray (or mold), dry grass, and a sunny spot outside. Place your soil into a bowl, add a little bit of water, and stir around with a craft stick until you get a "thick" mud consistency. Next, mix in your grass. Then, press your mixture into your mold and smooth your bricks out on top. Now, bake your bricks in the sun! Talk about how the sun is a form of radiant energy, as well as thermal energy. The sun is a renewable resource that we can utilize to heat things up! When the bricks are ready, remove them from the mold and build something! You can keep your bricks natural or paint them. You can make houses for action figures, caves for animal figurines, etc. 

Monday, May 21, 2012

Hue Finder

Live Strong has a fun outdoor color match game for kids. Stop at your local hardware store and snatch a bunch of paint chip strips to use on a color scavenger hunt. Kids go around on a color hunt, matching paint chips to items all around them. Find colors inside and outside. Use you color tool spring, summer, fall, and winter. Put color cards on a book ring for easy handling. Kids can take turns using it in the classroom and outside on the playground. Optional - Have kids use a hole puncher and punch holes in the colors they find.


nature photos via alamy

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Butterfly and Moth Feeder

After learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly, create a butterfly feeder to observe the various species that live in your neighborhood! This sponge feeder is super easy to make from Rainbow Sunshine and ehow. Punch holes in a vibrant colored sponge (pink, yellow, orange, purple to attract butterflies) with an x-acto knife. Next, push through the hole with a screwdriver (4 holes, 2 on each side). Thread string through your holes so it balances when hung. Then, mix up nectar - 4 parts boiling water to 1 part sugar. Stir and let the sugar dissolve. Remove from stove or microwave, let cool down, and dip! Refrigerate extra solution for 1 week, then dispose it. Dip the sponge in the nectar so it soaks up. Finally, hang it outside. Keep your eyes peeled for butterflies! Clean your sponge and change the nectar once a week.

Besides this butterfly feeder, check out Our Big Earth's version. You can also just lay fruit on a plate. Hang it in a tree or sit the plate on a table outside via Garden Web!

photo credit: unplug your kids

Unplug Your Kids did an cool night experiment from The Learning Channel. They constructed a moth feeder, so kids could see the many different kinds of moths that reside in their environment. Click here for the tutorial!



Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Hot Rocks



ART - Jazz up your stones! First, go on a nature walk for flat rocks. Bake rocks at 225 F for 15 minutes on a foil lined sheet. Make sure your rocks are super dry before you bake them. Remove stones, don't touch them! Use a spatula to slide them onto your work surface. Hold a peeled crayon with the tip touching the stone. You can create swirls, lines, dots, anything you'd like! Experiment with different colors, I kept mine simple - black, white, gold, and silver. SCIENCE - Ask kids if the crayon melting is a physical or chemical change. It's a physical change of matter!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Aqua Scope


I saw this awesome activity on the Magic School Bus! Make your very own aqua scope to check out what lies beneath a pond, lake, river, or ocean! All you need is a plastic container (yogurt or cottage cheese container, milk jug / carton - anything will do). I used a bead container. All you do is cut a large hole in the bottom of your scope. Then, cover the bottom with saran wrap, rubber band, and head to your nearest aquatic ecosystem. Submerge the viewer into the water (don't dunk it all the way under!), leaving the opening just above the water. You'll be amazed at how your viewer suddenly gives you aqua vision power! Check out all the plants and organisms that all live together in one ecosystem. Talk about biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) components within an ecosystem.



Friday, February 24, 2012

Catch a Spider Web

via the magnifying glass
Catch a real spider web on paper! Kids can study spider silk and patterns up close! Visit The Magnifying Glass for the full tutorial!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Birds

Grab your binoculars and head outside for a bird watching expedition! Build a recreational center for birds right in your own backyard! Kids can view birds up close and personal, seeing the various species that reside in their environment.

binocular pic via squidoo

1. Milk Jug Feeder - With an x-acto knife, cut large "windows" in a milk jug. Next, tape off the edges, where you cut, with duct tape. The tape will prevent birds from getting hurt on any sharp edges. Then, punch holes with your blade underneath the "windows" you created. Find long, sturdy sticks in your backyard. They will serve as perches for the birds to rest on while they eat. Insert the sticks through the holes, so they criss cross inside. Then, punch holes in the top of your jug to hang your feeder. Thread heavy twine through the top holes. Now, pour bird seed into your jug and hang it outside. You'll see a wide variety of birds visiting for a snack! We did this in my class to celebrate Earth Day!

2. Bird Bath - Create a place for birds to cool off! Visit  Vicki O'Dell for the tutorial!

3. Nest Collector - Help birds make a nest by providing them with material! Visit Fiber Farm for the full tutorial!

4. Conduct an experiment to see what color seed birds are most attracted to. Visit Science Bob for the full tutorial!







Thursday, February 16, 2012

Nature Exchange

The Magnifying Glass set up different regions to exchange items in nature. Although the activity is over, it doesn't mean you still can't do it!

For a geography lesson, have your class team up with another school from a far away state. Collect different items you find in the environment where you live. With the items you collect, include a list of the name of each item. Then, mail the box to who you're corresponding with. In return, they will mail one back to you. Kids will get to see nature from different geographical locations.

Examples of items to send: bird feathers, pine cones, seed pods, pressed flowers, sea shells (if you live by the beach). Anything you find in nature! Check out the awesome box made by Mama Scouts below! Visit her blog to see how their nature box exchange turned out!

nature box example via mama scouts

Friday, February 10, 2012

Tree of Life Timeline

photo via Playful Learning
Over at Playful Learning, they created personal timelines resembling a cross section of a tree trunk. Click the link to read about what the kids included in each ring.