Nature Identification Part 2

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 further ideas are:

• Have some fun with photography. Kids love taking pictures, and now that most people have digital cameras, it is easier to let them take a lot of pictures. Go on a walk. Let your kids take pictures of flowers, trees, or birds that they see.
• Make a collage of the pictures you take, and label them. You can even make a digital collage on your computer.
• Catch different kinds of bugs to look at under a microscope or put into a bug box to observe.
  
• Label or draw pictures of your bugs.
  

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.

Penny Science Round 2

This is a fun experiment for kids to try. You will need, a penny, an eyedropper, and rubbing alcohol, and a cup of water. First, fill the eyedropper from the cup of water. See how many drops you can place on a dry penny before it spills off of the penny's side. (You will be surprised if you have never done this before. I usually get between 30 and 60 drops of water on a penny.) Next, repeat the experiment by dropping drops of rubbing alcohol from the eyedropper onto a dry penny. (You will only get around 10-20 drops.) Explain to your kids that the difference is that water is cohesive (bonds with itself) while rubbing alcohol is not. (In kid terms, "water wants to stick to other water like best friends. We call this cohesion. Rubbing alcohol does not do that because it is made of different stuff and it happens to not stick to other rubbing alcohol very well.")

Penny Science

I learned about this from a child's magic book. It fascinated me quite a bit as a child, yet the science behind it can be quite an educational moment. You will need a few cups of different sizes and a large stack of pennies. Put the cups somewhere that is OK to get wet. (I did mine in the sink) Then, fill the first cup with water. It must be full to the point of spilling if one more drop was added. Then, rub your finger around the rim of the cup to make sure that the rim is dry. After that, slowly place pennies in the water (carefully so as not to make waves.) You will see the water level bubble up out of the cup eventually. (It should not take too long if you filled the cup enough.) Let the kids discuss why they think the water is bubbling over the top of the cup, but not spilling. If you want, you can use this chance to teach them about the cohesive (bonding) properties of water. (It bonds to other water molecules so it stays together instead of spilling - to a certain point.) When the water eventually spills over, you can count the number of pennies that you put in the cup before it spilled. Then, repeat with a different size cup. After doing this a few times compare the number of pennies you got into each cup. Did larger cups hold more pennies?

A Little Nature Trip

Many areas have orchards where you can go to pick strawberries, blueberries, etc. with your kids. Often they will let you eat as much as you want while you pick berries. Many places will let you buy the packages of berries that you pick at reduced prices. Or, if you don't want to keep them, some places will keep your berries and pay you for picking them.

This can be a great outing with your kids. They will get to see a farm/orchard in action. It is nice for kids to realize how we get our food. It is not as simple as going to the store. They will see how food is grown and picked. Also, it is a nice way to spend a day as a family, and kids will enjoy getting to eat as many berries as they want in the process.

Educational Leaf Art

One summer, while on a camping trip, I made some leaf art that was quite fun. We used muslin fabric (cheap off-white fabric) and put the leaves between two layers of muslin. The leaves need to be fresh green leaves. Then use a rubber mallet to hit the muslin (with the leaves in between.) The chlorophyll will come out leaving the imprint of the leaf on the muslin. It is a very pretty art project, and it also helps to show children what chlorophyll is.

I have not tried this with construction paper, but it MAY work as a substitute for the muslin.

Web Art

Spiders are not my favorite creatures, but spider webs can be a fun art project. Show your children some pictures of spider webs. Then give them some black construction paper and some Elmer's squeeze glue (not stick glue.) Let them create some spider webs of their own. You can even stick some plastic spiders in the glue webs as they dry to help with the effect. (Also good at keeping them out of your bed and shoes as practical jokes if they are stuck to art projects!) If you have learned about spiders in science class, let them write some facts about spiders on their art projects.

Inventions

Get your kids excited about learning about the world around them by inventing. Here are some ideas:

• Read Mistakes that Worked about how some mistakes have turned into our favorite inventions and creations.
• Invent a new food. Start with something small like a new sandwich, cookie, or pizza. Maybe you could even try to make it!
  
• Try to invent a new machine. Don't worry so much about the mechanics of it. Just try to get the imagination and creativity to come out. Have them draw a picture of their new invention.
  

Nature Walk

Most likely your kids are still in school, and they are probably having some severe cases of cabin fever from having to stay inside all day. Get out and take a walk with your kids! You'll enjoy it, and they will let out some cooped up energy. To make your walk a little more Scientific, turn it into a nature scavenger hunt. You can make up your own list if you want, but I am going to include some links to websites that have lists already prepared.

http://www.campingtripfun.com/scavenger-hunt.html (Scroll to the bottom)

http://www.lovetheoutdoors.com/camping/kids/scavengerhunt.htm This is a really good one! It includes all of your senses by giving things to listen for, smell, etc!

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/articles/nature-hunt-project.html This one is a little more involved. It has activities and things to photograph as well. It would really be good to save for a camping trip.

Tour Your City

Many times people do not do the "touristy" things in their own city. Take a "vacation" in your own city this summer. Go to a welcome center to pick up brochures, and look on your city's website for more ideas. Visit museums, monuments, landmarks, festivals, zoos, science museums, etc. Most places have discounted prices for kids. Sometimes, you can even find places that are free or offer free times on off days (usually Monday - Thursday through the day.) You may be surprised by educational and cultural activities in your area!

Website Review ~ NASA Kid’s Club

Website: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html

Appropriate for ages: 6-13

Helps with: Science

Review: This website has several games for kids. Many are educational. At the top you can click on the level you want to play on and it will scroll to the appropriate games. The bottom has games that are for all ages. Kids can play with Buzz Lightyear and learn space facts, and science skills, or dress up for space while learning about the parts of a space suit. There are quite a few game options.

Website Review ~ Animal Corner

Website: animalcorner.co.uk
Appropriate for ages: 7-12
Helps with: Science, Research    

Review: This website is full of animal information. It's not the most kid friendly layout, but they will quickly figure it out. Kids might like to even just look around on the site just for fun, but I can see it being a big help if they have to write an animal report. Animals are categorized by where they live to help kids find what they are looking for.

Website Review ~ Weather Eye

Website: http://weathereye.kgan.com/cadet/forecast/figger_cloud.html
Appropriate for ages: 8 - 12
Helps with: Science     

Review: This website teaches kids how to predict the weather by looking at clouds. Then, it gives them a couple opportunities to try out their new skill. I think it will be interesting for kids, because it is something they can try in real life. After trying the little quiz, you can try wind forecasting if you like.

Timed Flashcards

Flashcards are a great way to help kids study. Here's an idea to take it one step farther: use Power Point to create a simple slide show of the flashcards. (Even if you have no experience with Power Point, you could put together a slide show quite easily.) The great thing about using Power Point is that you can time the child's response easily. You can set the slides to change every so many seconds, so that you know if the child answers in time. This would be a great tool for practicing any timed response. For example: math facts, sight words, vocabulary words, etc. Then, the child has until the slide changes to answer.

Website Review ~ Hippo Campus

Website: http://www.hippocampus.org/
Appropriate for ages: 8 and up    
Helps with: Math, Science, Government, History, Psychology, and Statistics    

Review: This website is a great tool. You can search through all of the topics listed above and find video lessons on hundreds of subtopics. For example, you can search U.S. History and find videos of most major historical events. Additionally, you can switch to the textbook tab and search through quite a few textbooks. Each textbook includes a list of topics to help you find what you are looking for quickly. This site is very easy to navigate through and holds a wealth of information.

Website Review ~ Kids Health

Website: http://kidshealth.org/index.html
Appropriate for ages: 8 and up
Helps with: Learning about health

Review: This website has individual pages for parents, kids, and teens. The site provides articles about health as well as ideas for science experiments and health related puzzles. The kids' site is very age appropriate. I think that kids might enjoy some of the puzzles. Also, I think this site would be very helpful if a student needs to do any research relating to health. There are lots of articles to read and a glossary of medical terms.

Website Review ~ The Science Explorer

Website: http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/
Appropriate for ages: 8-12
Helps with: Science

Review: This website has several simple science experiments. They are intended to be done with items from around the house. Some require adult supervision, while others could probably be done independently. I like this website because it can help to cultivate a child's curiosity in a good way. It is good for children to learn how things work and to experiment with science in everyday life. I found that the experiments are very clearly illustrated. It should not be hard for children to follow these directions with a little help or (if there are no safety issues) on their own.

*If you like this site, they have published 2 books full of more experiments. The Science Explorer and The Science Explorer: Out and About.