Nature Identification Part 1

Growing up, my grandparents loved nature. They had books to help you identify different birds and flowers. I think they were in alphabetical order, and each kind had a picture so you could learn what they looked like. Sometimes, my grandparents would find a new kind of bird or flower and look in the book to see what kind they had found. Look at your library. They should have books like this as well as books on trees, leaves, bugs, and other things that your kids may like. Then come up with some activities to incorporate the books.

Some ideas for leaves are:

• Collect as many different kinds of leaves as you can find. When you get back identify them in a leaf/tree book.
  
• Add to the activity by drawing pictures of the leaves you find and labeling them.
  
• You could also make leaf rubbings by putting paper of the the leaves and rub a pencil across so the veins and shape of the leaf show in your pencil rubbing.
• Another leaf activity for kids who like to be creative is to put your leaves in a book. Get page protector sleeves to drop the leaves into. Put in a piece of paper first with the name of the leaf on it. Then you can put a leaf on each side of the paper.