Baby time!!

I've been trying to write creative education tips this week but just can't seem to focus. My daughter's first baby is due in 2 days and that's all I can think about!

As I sat outside this morning, I thought about how fresh air is so good for babies, which finally led me to ponder environmental education and to come up with quick and easy spring and summer activities that help children to appreciate and be more responsible for their environment.

Easy open-ended science lesson - "I Wonder Why..."

Whether you live in a rural area or in the city, take an "I wonder why..." walk with your students. Take a clipboard, some paper and a pencil and ask the students to come up with as many "I wonder..." questions as they can think of.

Children might come up with questions like... I wonder why only pill bugs live under the log... I wonder why this leaf is curled and stuck together... I wonder why the plants can grow in the cracks of the sidewalk...

Investigate one question at a time with your children by exploring on the spot or by finding and reading library books on the subject and researching on the Internet. Children create a mini-booklet that has the cover title, I wonder why... (complete their question), then record their findings inside. Use the free template here... (scroll down to number 9 on the page) or have students design their own. Children insert as many blank pages as they need, then staple their book together.

6 fun activities to help children appreciate the outdoors

At a park or in the playground:

1. Ask children to shut their eyes and discover how many different scents they can smell. Newly cut grass, a pine tree, moist dirt? Ask them to shut their eyes a second time and and take another whiff of air to see if they can smell some of the aromas their friends smelled.

2. Ask children to tiptoe toward a robin on the grass. How close can they get until it flies away? Watch a bird on the grass. Copy its movements.

3. Take some paper and crayons with their labels taken off, then make tree bark rubbings of a few different trees. Compare how their patterns are the same or different.

4. Lift the bottom leaves of plants that are close to the ground. What animals live under the leaves? Why? Feel if it is cooler or moister under the leaves. Teach children to place the leaves back carefully and remind them that the leaves act like the roofs on their own homes.

5. Collect different leaves on your walk. Dump them out and see how many different ones you have. Sort them by size, shape, color or by how many points, etc.

6. Take a pair of thick gloves and a garbage bag on a walk. Have the children find and point to litter during their time outside. Unless the children have their own thick gloves, a parent or teacher should pick up the litter.

Dump the garbage into the park garbage can and discuss how littering is careless and could be harmful to the local park wildlife (animals choke on it, get tangled up in it).

Watch a recent youtube video of an eaglet that had its foot caught in fishing line. and how much work is involved to rescue one animal.

Back in the classroom...

Happy Teaching,