Science Based Archives - Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Foraging and Feasting Nature Unit Study and Lapbook (Nature Book Club Link Up 6)

June 20, 2018 | 3 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

My kids have always loved ways of learning how to live off the land. This foraging and feasting nature unit study is not only a way to teach Tiny some basic survival skills, but a great way to sneak in tips about how to cook.

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression about our foraging efforts because we’re currently city dwellers although not by choice. That means we have a lot to learn even if we can find a field nearby that is legal and safe to forage. Even though we don’t live in the country anymore, we still have a love of it.

Besides enjoying the beauty of nature, learning the basics of foraging makes for a fun unit study and appreciation for the gifts of plants.

When you can tie in learning about nature with a practical life skill like cooking, I think that it’s a win win.

Foraging and Feasting Nature Unit Study and Lapbook

Making healthy choices for food is important to us as well, but it starts first with being able to identify how to forage.We live in an area that has lots of wildlife and nature, but it’s still a city like I mentioned earlier.

On our nature walks we try to take time to identify plants along the way and learn about wild edible plants.
It’s not just a matter of finding the right plant parts, but identifying which parts are safe to eat and ones are tasty. We’ve been learning out of this beautiful book, Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook to use for our guide for this fun summer unit study.One of the reasons I chose the book was because not only did it have beautiful detailed plant images and colorful plant guides in the front, but it has tons of recipes. A science cookbook as I call it.In addition, at the bottom in the gray area are details about how to use the plant parts.Although it may seem easier to identify plants, one key thing we have been learning is that it’s equally important in which parts of the plant are the most tasty.Also, you need to learn how to leave enough of it to so that it can replenish and that may mean taking an inventory.

So it’s responsibly foraging too so that enough remains of the plant to reproduce.There is so much to learn about each of the plant parts and their uses for cooking that it has taken us a while to identify and learn about them.

It has made an awesome reference book for tying in science and nature study with a life skill like cooking.

I’ve gathered some resources to help you round out this unit study and of course I have my next free nature study lapbook that I’ve been doing in this series.

Edible Wild Plant Unit Study Resources, Lesson Plans, and Activities

Plant parts you eat.
Plant Part Exploration – Stems.
Needs of Plants.

Which Plant is Which.
5 Edible Plants for the Brown Thumb Gardener.
Edible model plant cell.

Get the Culinary and Survival Skills You Need to Survive ZPoc.
52 Weeks to a Healthier You: Grow Your Own Produce.
Exploring Edible Cactus: Day 4 Hands-on Learning (The Desert).

How To Identify Plants On A Nature Walk.
Edible Plants and Wild Crafting Handbook.
Surviving in the Wild: 19 Common Edible Plants.

Seed to Plate Lessons.
Edible Wild Plants from dirt to plate. Note: Huge 410 page book.
Edible Plant Parts.

Probing into Plant Parts.
Survival Curriculum.
10 Plants that Could Kill You – YouTube

Edible Parts of Plants – YouTube
16 page booklet showing all of the plant parts we eat.
Free Book – The First Book of Plants.

Plant Parts We Eat.
Make char cloth to start a fire.
Plant Parts We Eat – 11 page pdf.

Science Fun You Can Eat -Parts of a Plant Salad.
How to forage for wild edibles with kids.
Homeschooling Wild Food.

A Beginners Guide to Foraging for Wild Edibles With Kids.
Foraging For Wild Edibles With Kids.
Choosing and Using Edible Flowers Book.

Download the Free Foraging & Feasting Lapbook at my Facebook Group – Homeschool Dynamics by Tina Robertson.

This lapbook is a facebook follower freebie. When You Join my Group, look for this in the Files Section.

If you’re looking to do any nature studies, you’ll want to get a few of the NaturExplorers. I love those studies for multiple ages.

You’ll love these other nature studies articles:

Are You Ready to Party?
Welcome to the Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 6.

The Nature Book Club is a monthly link up beginning on the 20th day of each month.

It’s a monthly book club devoted to connecting children to nature.

Also, join our new Nature Book Club Facebook Group!

Nature Book Club theme for June: Nature Hike and Nature Discovery

The Nature Book Club is brought to you by these 10 nature loving bloggers which are your co-hosts! Are you following them? If you don’t want to miss anything, be sure to follow each one.

5 Senses at Sunset Walk from Barbara at Handbook of Nature Study
Discovering Nature in the Garden Scavenger Hunt from Jenny at Faith & Good Works
Nature Walk Alphabet Hunt from Emily at Table Life Blog
Guided Tide Pool Hike from Eva at Eva Varga
Foraging & Feasting Unit Study & Lapbook from Tina at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Fairy Gardens and Online Book Club from Dachelle at Hide The Chocolate
Decoupage Art with Nature Walk Findings from Katrina at Rule This Roost
Summer Nature Hike from Thaleia from Something 2 Offer
Leaf Shape Hunt from Karyn at Teach Beside Me
Easy Peasy Beginner Nature Journal Ideas for Kids from Cassidy at Freshly Planted

Upcoming theme (July): Beach, Sand & Shells

Party Rules

Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until 11:59 p.m. EST on the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
You can link up to 3 posts.
Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature your posts.That’s it!
Let’s party.
Find us #NatureBookClub

An InLinkz Link-up

Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity

June 13, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

As we’ve been working our way through the NaturExplorers : Beautiful Birds unit study, we’ve been learning so much about types of birds, what they eat, how they fly, and even where they go when they migrate. In our area, we tend to see the same few species of birds, but I still wanted the kids to be interested in observing them.

NaturExplorers suggested graphing the different kinds of birds we observe in our neighborhood and one of the printable notebooking pages shows kids how to keep up with bird colors by using tally marks. My kids, though, needed a little practice with bar graphing.

So we decided to do a bird color bar graphing activity to keep them watching out for the feathered friends who frequent our family home!

Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity

To do this bird color bar graphing activity, you’ll need the following supplies:

Graphing paper
Colored pencils
Clipboard (optional)

You don’t have to use a clipboard, but I found that having it helped the kids keep up with their graphing much better. Especially when they’re outside and they decide to have an impromptu dirt digging session, which happened on more than one occasion.

We used colored pencils for the bird colors we see the most often. We see lots of cardinals and blue jays, so we included red and blue. But we also see lots of brown thrashers and crows, which meant including brown and black as well.

To make the graphing simpler, we started the bars by just coloring the first outer square edges. That way, we’d make even bar shapes going up. If you don’t keep a bar graph neat from the beginning, the bars will look crooked and make the graph almost impossible to read. (Ask me how I know.)

We saw a good number of cardinals, but we saw even more blue jays. I love them both.

But we saw more crows than any other kind of bird! That was pretty neat.

We suspected that it was because we usually saw individual cardinals and blue jays (and even brown thrashers). But crows were always in big groups. It’s common to see 15 of them at once sitting on a telephone line.

We’ll see if the crows stay on top over the next few weeks or if they’re upset by one of the other bird species.

The kids absolutely loved doing this activity. And they were getting some math practice without even knowing it. That’s always a win in my book.

Share these other hands-on nature study activities when you’re learning about birds with the kids!

Hugs and love ya,

Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook (The Nature Book Club Link Up 5)

May 20, 2018 | 7 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When the Texas wildflowers blanket the fields here we’ve never been able to stay indoors. We’re always thinking of ways to get outside. Sharing this wildflower unit study and lapbook along with some hands-on ideas, I hope they’ll help your kids get excited about a fun wildflowers nature study.

Here are a few fun facts about wildflowers.

Wildflowers by definition are soft-stemmed flowering plants that bloom once each year.
Some regenerate from the same rootstock (perennials), while others grow from seeds.
The flowering stem typically grows upright, but may be climbing, creeping, or trailing.

Wildflowers can be identified by color, but also by the shape of the flower head:

Bell shape
Cross shape
Trumpet shape
Ray flower
Two-lipped shape
Iris
Pea-shaped

Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook

I’ve rounded up some resources to make this wildflower unit study come to life.

Wildflowers Lesson Plan & Ideas

Petal Attraction. Why different pollinators are attracted to different types of flowers
Wildflowers in Bloom has images of many of the most showy wildflowers.
Use this poem about botany for some memory work or copywork.
Great interactive site about the biology of plants.
Life science plant structure and function lesson plan. 13 page pdf.

Seed dispersal. 8 page pdf.
Wildflower vocabulary.
Oh wow, check out this list of state flowers.
Celebrate wildflowers through art.
Native plants – our medicine.

Flowers seeking pollinators. Geared for 2nd to 7th grade.
Wildflower bingo and lesson plan.
Fun with flowers printables. Nice!
Pollinator Activity Book.
Bee Guides. Helpful.

Flower dissection instructions.
For the littles, printable flower color cards.

Texas wildflowers guide.
Plant life cycle worksheets.
Another list of state flowers.

Studying seeds printable book.

Wildflowers Media & Interactive.

Video about Flower Pollination.
How Plants Grow Game.
Photosynthesis video and karaoke.
Parts of the Plant.
Parts of the flower interactive guide.

Funny young teen making edible candy flower.
Pick the Pollinator.
Life Cycle of a Flowering Plant.
Up Close Parts of Flower – Harcourt School

Fun and EASY Crafts, Hands-on Ideas, and Activities About Wildflowers!

Look at these ideas for making wildflower notecards, making your own perfume, preserving wildflowers, and a wildflower book mark.
Do not miss these fabulous and free 7 coloring books full of wildflowers. These also make great covers for the outside of your lapbook. They coloring books are California Plants to Color, Coloring Book of the Western Great Lakes Region, Plants to Color from the Aspen Forest, Wildflowers of the Colorado Mountain Tops, Wildflowers of Ponderosa Pine Forests, Celebrate Wildflowers of Southwest Idaho and Wildflowers of the Western U.S.

Look at this Nature Study: Daffodils – Dissection, Poetry & Drawings.
Oh goodness, what is there to not love about the ideas on this flower and garden site? Tissue paper flowers, make flowers out of household items like straws, make paper flower baskets, create stinkin’ cute hand print flowers, spinning paper plate flower, make cupcake wrapper flowers, egg carton flowers, crepe flowers and make a booklet that opens up into a daisy.
Make leafy animal crafts.
Something for the littles, cut and paste shapes to make flowers.

A long list of fun things to do with plants.
Use a plastic bottle to make a flower. Great for a tween or teen.
Springtime STEAM: Wildflower papermaking.
Creative flower arrangements. Great for a tween or teen.
How to Press Flowers. Top 10 Tips.

Z Is For Zinnias| Planting Wild Flowers.
Botanical Illustration step by step – Painting a Sweet Pea.
Create a dish garden.
Make a hydroponic garden with bottle.
Flower experiment for kids.

42 flowers you can eat.
Preschool math counting flower petals.
How to make a flower crown.
Spring flower activities for kids.
Cork-Stamped Flower Craft with Corks and Buttons.

Dyeing flowers.

Books & Fun Activities About Wildflowers

And grab this free reading guide to go with the book, Miss Lady Bird’s Wildflowers.

And grab this free make your own flowers guide to go with this sweet book, Rose’s Garden. While waiting for her garden to bloom children bring Rose flowers they’ve made from different material.

Download the Free Wildflower Lapbook at my Facebook Group – Homeschool Dynamics by Tina Robertson.
This lapbook is a facebook follower freebie. When You Join my Group, look for this in the Files Section.

If you’re looking to do any spring nature studies, you’ll want to get a few of the NaturExplorers. I love those studies for multiple ages.

Other Nature Study Ideas

Parts of a Dandelion Nature Study.
DIY Wildflower Seed Bombs.
Exploring Wildflowers.
Fun Flower Garden for Kids with Upcycled Cartons.
See Like a Bee Wildflower Hunt.

Nature Sensory Bags.
All About Flowers Printable Unit Study: Flower Printables for Kids.
Sorting parts of flower.
Daffodil dissection :: parts of a flower lesson.
Cheeto pollination experiment.

You’ll love my other nature study ideas and posts below:

Hands-On Mixed Media Flower Art Fun Nature Study

Are You Ready to Party? Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 5.

The Nature Book Club is a monthly link up beginning on the 20th day of each month.

It’s a monthly book club devoted to connecting children to nature.

There is a theme for each month in 2018. We welcome your nature book and activity related links!

The Nature Book Club theme for May: Wild Flowers

The Nature Book Club is brought to you by these 11 nature loving bloggers which are your co-hosts! Are you following them?
If you don’t want to miss anything, be sure to follow each one.

Miss Rumphius Mixed Media Art from Emily at Table Life Blog
Wildflower Walk and Pressing Flowers from Barbara at Handbook of Nature Study
Wildflowers Nature Study from Jenny at Faith and Good Works
Oregon Nature Study Quiz: Wildflower Edition from Eva at Eva Varga
Wildflower Fairy Poetry & Art Activity from Melanie at Wind in a Letterbox
Flower Fairy Peg Dolls from Cassidy at Freshly Planted
Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms Online Book Club from Dachelle at Hide the Chocolate
Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook from Tina at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Fingerprint Painting on Canvas Activity from Katrina at Rule This Roost
DIY Flower Press from Thaleia at Something 2 Offer
Dandelion Life Cycle Learning Activities from Karyn at Teach Beside Me

Upcoming theme (June): Nature Hike and Nature Discovery

Party Rules

Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until 11:59 p.m. EST on the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
You can link up to 3 posts.
Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature your posts.That’s it!
Let’s party.
Find us #TheNatureBookClub

Let’s Party! Add Your Nature Post below – The Nature Book Club

An InLinkz Link-up

Did You Miss some Awesome Nature Post in Our Previous Parties?

Hands-On Mixed Media Flower Art Fun Nature Study

May 14, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

You’ll want to grab my free Nature Lapbooks.They are facebook only follower freebies.

Be sure you join my Homeschool Dynamics by Tina Robertson facebook group

Written by Shawna at Not the Former Things.

Every spring, my youngest son and I go to the local nursery and pick out a few, inexpensive, flowering plants. He brings them home and plants them in “his pot.” It’s a springtime routine we have enjoyed together since he was a toddler.

He likes to get his hands in the dirt. I love the look of flowers on my patio. It’s a win-win.

This year, I decided to take this gardening activity and use to it to fuel a quick nature study as well.

Hands-On Mixed Media Spring Nature Study

What you’ll need for this activity:

Flowering plants (either purchased or in your own yard)
Something to draw and color with (we used chalk pastels because they are very forgiving, but color pencils, crayons and even markers will work too)
A large piece of white construction paper (make sure it’s pretty heavy)
Clear glue

Nature Study At Home

The day after my son planted his special spring pot, we completed a basic geology lesson about soil.

I began by asking him what components he thought made up soil. He was easily able to answer broken down pieces of rock, but we decided to do some more research.

Soil is defined by Dictionary.com as the loose top layer of the Earth’s surface, consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with decayed organic matter (humus), and capable of retaining water, providing nutrients for plants, and supporting a wide range of biotic communities.

You’ll love this AWESOME art program that I use!

We learned that different soils exist in different locations around the globe, based on their environment and weather. This came as a bit of surprise to my son, so we spent some time discussing a the clay soil we saw on our last family trip, verses the rocky silt that exists in our backyard.

Then, we decided it was time to move on to the fun, hands-on part of our learning.

Mixed Media Nature Study

In the past, we have collected items from the beach and from our hikes in the forest, and then used them to create mixed media art as a record of our experience.

Instead of using shells or pine needles, for this activity, we used the soil, leaves and flower petals available in our own flower pot.

He started by drawing his potted flowers with chalk pastels. (Because he dislikes the feeling of chalk on his fingers, he always wears latex gloves, but it works.)

After blurring the chalk lines, we then took some of the leaves and flower petals from our plants (only a few to keep the pot looking pretty!).

You’ll love these nature living books curriculum!

We then glued the leaves and petals to the picture in various locations.

After allowing the glue to dry, he grabbed a handful of our soil and we observed the various bits of rocks and sticks that blended together to create our top layer.

We then spread glue around the bottom of the picture and rubbed the soil into it to create an additional area of interest in his art.

That’s it! The result was a beautiful representation of our hands-on, spring time activity.

I really love this idea for anyone not able to get out into more obvious natural environments like a hike through the woods or a tide pool at the beach.

Nature study can happen anywhere, with the help of a few pants, some soil and an interested learner!

See more fun ways to learn about nature in your homeschool!

From Egg to Sea Turtle Nature Unit Study & Lapbook (The Nature Book Club Link Up 4)

April 20, 2018 | 7 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

From Egg to Sea Turtle Unit Study & Lapbook

We made a detour on finishing up high school for a quick nature read about sea turtles. I chose Our Sea Turtles as a spine and we weren’t disappointed. Today, in sharing from egg to sea turtle nature unit study and lapbook, I’ve rounded up some awesome links and ideas for you.Also, I created a fun lapbook for about upper elementary to middle school for your kids. Of course, you can decide what ages to use the lapbook for because I never make my lapbooks baby-ish. I use cursive font and avoid baby-ish or goofy looking clip art the best I can.

First, let me show you how much we loved the book Our Sea Turtles. It is a 282 page reference book with beautiful color pictures on each page.

It has several sections, including:

The Species, Sea Turtle Form and Function, Life Cycle and History, Ecology, Our Sea Turtles on Land, Our Sea Turtles in Water and Saving our Sea Turtles.

One thing we learned right away that we did not know was that not all turtles in salty waters are sea turtles.
Sea turtles are truly marine animals and one of the things that makes them different is their shell. Sea turtles don’t really have the ability to pull in their head and limbs inside although they can still withdraw their neck.

Although we know that sea turtles are mostly herbivores, we did learn that they won’t pass up some easily captured prey.
Also, we learned about some of the predators of the sea turtle. The Northern raccoon, ghost crab, fire ants, laughing sea gull, bobcat, fish crow, dolphinfish, crevalle jack, tiger shark and bull shark a few of the sea turtle predators.

What was really interesting was learning what was inside an egg. Sea turtles have an amniotic egg.
The features of a sea turtle egg include a papery eggshell that protects but is porous (to air and water vapor), and an allantois (fetal membrane) which facilitates respiration and helps with waste.
The yolk sac supplies nutrients for the embryo and it shrinks as the turtle grows.
What we didn’t know was that the amniotic sac is like the equivalent to the placenta in mammals.

Sea Turtle Lesson Plans, Guides, and Background Information.

Along with reading the book Our Sea Turtles I really loved a lot of these resources.

This Sea Turtle, a Journey of Survival 12 page educators guide I found super helpful and used a lot of the information from here to do the lapbook. So be sure to download the guide to use for the lapbook.
This 22 page pdf educator’s guide has a great roundup of vocabulary words.
Grab this fun coloring page with crossword puzzle activity.
You love this Sea Turtle Inc. site for lots of lesson plans and hands-on ideas like make a sea turtle habitat, make a magnet sea turtle for older kids (cool), and a template to create your own hatchling for younger kids. So cute.

Then here is a free discussing and activity guide to use with the book Sea Turtle Science which is also good.

This 9 page elementary school guide has some great question and answers or facts about sea turtles.
A super nice 180 page educator’s guide with printable lab cards and hands-on ideas. Nice!
You’ll love this massive 160 educator’s guide One Ocean from National Geographic on who lives in the ocean which includes background information on sea turtles.
Grab this beautiful and colorful sea turtle poster.
Use these free maps to add in some geography to your unit study as you learn about tracking the sea turtles.

This Grenada Fun website has a wonderful graphic for teaching the parts of a sea turtle along with background information. It’s the one I used for making the minibook in my lapbook.
You’ll love this ultimate sea turtle guide.
Look at this fun prek sea turtle unit study over at Homeschool Preschool.

Sea Turtle EASY Hands-on Ideas and Activities

There is a fun and easy build a geometric turtle activity that is in the Sea Turtle, a Journey of Survival guide I shared above.
Build an origami turtle.
Grab all these wonderful printables over at U.S. Fish and Wildlife like fact sheets, coloring pages and posters.
Look at this fun hands-on idea for the littles over at Munchkins and Beans to learn about sea turtle life cycles.
Make this clay sea turtle over at Buggy and Buddy.

Make fun egg carton sea turtles over at Crafty Morning.
I love this easy sea turtle paper plate life cycle craft at Wikki Stix.
I love this tin foil turtle for some art.
Nice coloring pages and make great covers for your lapbook although I have created some for you too.
Sea turtle templates for sewing.

What a fun keepsake – do a hand print turtle craft.
Make a 3d turtle craft.

Sea Turtle Media:

How Baby Sea Turtles Find their Way Home.
This is a great graphic for Sea Turtle Facts.

Then also, our unit study reminded us of the co-op we had where my sister brought a turtle shell Native American craft made by one of her Native American friends. I love when we have a tie in to what we learned before in one of our co-ops.

Then of course a family visit to the ocean is a great field trip.

The Galveston coast near us had these new and beautiful benches that are part art and part bench.

Local schools got to decorate them with facts about the marine life that live in the ocean. It not makes for a beautiful enhancement to seawall, but a fun way to learn facts.

I think doing a mosaic like this would make a great art project too.

You’ll love this lapbook.

You’ll want to grab my free Sea Turtle lapbook and this is a facebook only follower freebie.

Be sure you join my Homeschool Dynamics by Tina Robertson facebook group.

The minibooks include:

What Makes a Turtle a Sea Turtle?
7 Species of Sea Turtles layered book.
What Are the Sea Turtle Parts?
The Anatomy of a Sea Turtle.
Sea Turtle Tagalongs trifold book.
From Egg to Sea Turtle Life Cycle Circle book.
The Struggle to Survive.
Predators petal book.

If you’re looking to do any spring nature studies, you’ll want to get a few of the NaturExplorers. I love those studies for multiple ages.

Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 4.

The Nature Book Club is a monthly link up beginning on the 20th day of each month.

It’s a monthly book club devoted to connecting children to nature.

There is a theme for each month in 2018. We welcome your nature book and activity related links!

The Nature Book Club theme for April: Eggs

The Nature Book Club is brought to you by these nature loving bloggers which are your co-hosts! Are you following them? If you don’t want to miss anything, be sure to follow each one.

Here are the co-hosts, their choices of books, and activities for the month.

Bird Nest/Eggs nature study pages from Barb at Handbook of Nature Study

From Egg to Sea Turtle Unit Study & Lapbook from Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Free Gustav Klimt Artist Study Pages from The Usual Mayhem

Felt Bag Handicraft from Wind in a Letterbox

Clay Eggs Project from Table Life Blog

An Online Book Club choice from Hide the Chocolate

Egg Scavenger Hunt with an Egg Carton from Rule This Roost

A Mermaid’s Purse: A Surprise Discovery Within from Eva Varga

Citizen Science – Nest Watch from Eva Varga

Egg Identification Nature Bingo {Free Printable} from Freshly Planted

Eggs Nature Study Free Printable Word Search from Faith and Good Works

You’ll also love these other nature studies:

Upcoming theme: May The Nature Book Club Theme – Wildflowers

Party Rules

Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.
The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until 11:59 p.m. EST on the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
You can link up to 3 posts.
Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature your posts.That’s it!
Let’s party.

An InLinkz Link-up

Hands-On Literature Nature Study: Simple Tree Craft

March 26, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Written by KT Brison at Lit Mama.

Spring is here, and that means most of us homeschooling mamas are getting out all our nature study materials, making notes, and organizing some fun educational activities to get our kids outside and learning some science (without them even realizing they are learning science).

For us, the ultimate goal of nature study is to make science fun. We’ve found that the best way to do that is to supplement with a picture book.

Hands-On Literature Nature Study With The Busy Tree

Using picture books for nature study

Using a picture book to kick off a nature study has several benefits. All kids love stories, so reading a story that incorporates some lessons in it is a great way to engage littles and get them ready to learn.

Good picture books have illustrations that show your kids what to look for when they head outside. They describe the natural world within a fun (and usually personified) tale. Best of all? They give mama ideas for what to study.

As you read a picture book with your kids, notice all the different topics you could study once you’ve finished the book. Pick one and find resources such as books, magazines, and printables to help your littles learn about it.

Then head outside and see if you can find the subject in your yard or at the park. Come back home and read the book again while your kids make a craft related to the topic.

Hands-on nature study with picture books

Picture books offer plenty of opportunities for hands-on nature study fun. One of our favorites is The Busy Tree by Jennifer Ward, because it not only teaches about trees in a gentle, poetic voice, it describes many of the animals who live in or find food in trees.

With this book, you could lead into a nature study about chipmunks, squirrels, spiders, ants, woodpeckers, owls, moths, cocoons, tree growth, and even how trees provide our oxygen. You could go a step further and study trees as an ecosystem.

There really is a large variety of learning opportunities in The Busy Tree. My boys really loved the book, so we used it several times to create nature study lessons on different subjects.

If you need resources to go with some of these topics, you can find a free 39-page Tree Unit Study here. If you want to study owls, there’s a free Owl Unit Study here.

Hands-on tree craft for The Busy Tree

Creating crafts from found items while you’re on a nature walk is another way to engage your kids in nature study. After you’ve learned a bit about trees and/or their inhabitants, take a walk and collect some sticks and twigs. You’ll need thick, straight sticks to create the trunk and thinner, branched twigs to create the tree top.

What you need:

Short cardboard tube
10-20 thick, straight sticks the length of the tube
2-4 thin, branched twigs
Quick-dry tacky glue
Green construction paper
Scissors
Pruners (optional but they make it easier, although they should only be used by an adult)

What you do:

Cut your thick sticks to the size of the cardboard tube with pruners.

Run a bead of glue vertically along the tube.

Line one end of stick up with bottom of tube and press to glue.

Hold in place 10-20 seconds until glue has time to grab hold.

Continue around entire tube, making sure the ends of the sticks don’t go over bottom of the tube.

Stand the tube up–you have your tree trunk.

Now run a line of glue just inside the top of the tube.

Press the bottom end of one of your branched twigs against the glue.

Hold in place 10-20 seconds until glue grabs hold.

Continue gluing twigs to inside of tube until you are happy with your tree’s branches (we used 4 twigs).

Set aside to allow glue to finish drying.

For a spring tree like ours, cut small leaf bud shapes from construction paper.

Dot back of leaves with glue and press onto ends of twigs.

Fill in with leaf buds until your tree makes you happy.

You can vary this craft by making full-sized green summer leaves or even autumn leaves, depending on the time of year you read The Busy Tree.

Making it count

Nature study is an important part of education because it provides so many subjects to study–biology, geology, ecology, chemistry, and more.

Including stories in your nature study will help your kids relate to their lessons, allowing them to remember what they’ve learned as they grow and build on past lessons.

Picture books provide you with the best way to incorporate stories into education, and the best way to make it count is to draw from the picture book to create study topics, nature walk themes, and hands-on activities that your kids will enjoy and remember for much longer than they would a worksheet or lecture.

So pull out some of their picture books as you’re organizing this year’s nature study and get creative. Your kids will thank you.

Try some of these other nature study ideas!

Kids Easy Crafts and Activities that Celebrate Snow

February 21, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Warm weather is almost here, but winter may still have a few blasts of Arctic air left in her. So, if all the snow has got your kids griping about having nothing to do, I have just what you need to get them excited and celebrate snow!

KIDS SNOW ACTIVITIES

This is by no means an exhaustive list of snow-filled fun, but it’ll turn them into huge fans of this time of year. And you just might have a good time, too!

Snowball Wars

You could get the neighbor kids involved in this one and establish teams, or have each of your kids fend for themselves. Set up boundaries and build a snow fort for home bases for each team/child. Give them some time to stock pile a few good snowballs, and establish any necessary ground rules (i.e. no hitting above the shoulders). This can be played like “capture the flag” where each team hides a flag and the goal is to steal the opposing team’s flag and bring it back to home base. If a child is hit with a snowball, he’s sent to an established “jail” until a teammate can come set him free by tagging him.

If you don’t have enough players for teams, simply have a great time throwing snowballs at each other! Be sure to establish a safe word in case the play gets a little too rough. You can also set a timer so all the players have a chance to catch their breath, restock on ammunition, and gear up for the next battle!

Fort Building

You can find snow brick makers at just about any store that carries toys. Another option would be to use a small bucket. These things make building a snow fort super simple, and a whole lot of fun! The kids can build up walls or even use their problem-solving skills and create an igloo. You can turn it into a competition based on who makes the largest fort, who makes it the quickest, and who’s is most creative. Once all of the forts are completed, they’d be perfect to use for the snowball wars!

Another way to build a fort is to use a huge pile of snow left by snow plows. Using a shovel, dig a hole from one side of the pile through to the other. Depending on how much snow is piled up, the kids could even create various tunnels and endless fun.

Sledding

This may be an obvious one, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s worth making it happen. Sledding is a blast for all ages! There are all sorts of different types of sleds to choose from. You could go all out and get some pretty fancy sleds that allow for extra speed and are easier to maneuver. They are a lot of fun, but your kids will likely have just as much fun on something as simple as a cheap saucer – a round sled that looks much like a trash can lid. There’s just about anything you can imagine in between the fancy and the plain, so pick what will work best for your family and head to the nearest hill.

Even if you don’t have a quality hill outside your back door, a quick google search will lead you to a nearby hill. You’ll likely be able to find a tubing hill or a tobogganing hill which means you won’t have to bring your own equipment. It also means you could go sledding several times throughout the winter and it’ll feel like an entirely new experience every time!

Hiking

Hiking through a winter wonderland is a completely different experience than any other time of the year, even if it’s a trail you’ve traversed many times before. The snow changes up the scenery in a unique way, making it both beautiful and peacefully quiet. Without all of the greenery, you and your kids will be able to see deep into the woods, and spot things, like sleeping bee hives or deer nests, that would otherwise be hidden.

As you trudge through the snow, keep an eye out for fresh animals tracks. The snow is a perfect canvas for displaying the trails of all sorts of creatures. Your kids will also enjoy noting the different plants and wildlife that grow and thrive in the frigid temps.

KIDS SNOW CRAFTS

Symmetrical Snow Globe

This super simple craft allows for both the not-so-talented artist and the gifted artist to shine. Fold a plain piece of paper in half. Cut out the shape of half a snow globe from the side without the seam. Open the paper and draw half of a scene (notice a trend?) on just one side, using the fold line as the center line. Next, draw the exact same scene on the other side of the globe but making it the mirror image of the original side. You now have a perfectly symmetrical snow globe. Laminate it, if you’d like, to hang in a window.

The beauty of this craft is the scene your child draws can be as simple or as intricate as they desire to make it. The gifted artist can enjoy his gift, while the struggling artist can still be successful and produce an exceptional piece of art.

Snow Ice Cream

Why not put that snow to good use and turn it into a delicious treat? All it takes is three ingredients: snow, vanilla, and condensed milk. It couldn’t be easier! And you could whip it up inside the warm house or right out in the snow.

Send the kids out with a large bowl or bucket to fill with a good ten cups of snow. Take roughly half of the collected snow to work with first, adding about a teaspoon of vanilla and half of a can of condensed milk. Using a wooden spoon, mix the ingredients into the snow until well blended, then add more snow and more condensed milk until it reaches the desired consistency and taste. Store leftovers in a storage container in the freezer.

And if you want to do the cheat version, look at my Hands-on History: Make Maple Snow Candy – Pioneer Activity.

Tin Can Snowman

You could recycle your empty condensed milk cans for this one, but any three empty cans will do. If you can get your hands on 3 varying sizes, your kids will be able to make a snowman a little more true to size. With this craft, though, it isn’t as important because the cans won’t be right on top of each other. This tin can snowman is also going to be a wind chime!

Paint each can in white and add some sparkles or snowflake confetti while the paint is still wet. Glue on eyes, a nose, and buttons using pom poms or felt. Glue on a ribbon for a scarf. Using a hammer and a nail, poke a hole in the top of each can and use twine or yarn to string through each hole, tying a washer at the hole to hold the cans up and keep them separate. Add in additional washers throughout the yarn to clink against the cans in the wind.

You’ll also love these other ideas:

There is all sorts of fun to be had in the snowy winter! Enjoy!

Hugs and love ya,

Free Arctic Ground Squirrel Lapbook & Unit Study Resources (The Nature Book Club Link Up 2)

February 20, 2018 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Nature study in the winter can be fun and it doesn’t have to be complicated. We decided to add to our Arctic and Inuit Unit Study by doing an Arctic ground squirrel lapbook.

Also, I’m excited today because it’s time to link up for The Nature Book Club.

First, grab these resources that I know you’ll love and to help you with a Arctic Ground Squirrel Lapbook and Unit Study.

It wasn’t easy finding many books, but the one we used was real helpful.

Arctic Ground Squirrel, About the Tundra, & Other Helpful Resources

Fact Sheet.
Background information. This one will help you to fill out the lapbook.
Arctic Ground Squirrel background information.
Resilience of the brain of the Arctic Ground Squirrel.
Squirrel slumber.

Natureworks.
Skulls of Alaskan Mammals. 71 page pdf guide with great facts for not just squirrels but other mammals.
Furs of Alaska Mammals. 74 page pdf guide
Alaska Tundra Wildlife. This is a HUGE 251 page download with pictures, cards, and background information to talk about the tundra.
Snowy Activity.

General Squirrel Resources

Coloring page for an older child.
Craft – make a squirrel from leaves (cute)
Squirrel lapbook for younger kids
Craft- Squirrel Paperplate
Squirrel Poem

Origami Squirrel (too cute)
Squirrel Dot to Dot
Learning Contractions? – Match squirrel word cards with the acorn contraction
The Busy Little Squirrel Unit Study

If you’re looking to do any spring nature studies, you’ll want to get a few of the NaturExplorers. I love those studies for multiple ages.

Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 2.

The Nature Book Club is a monthly link up beginning on the 20th day of each month.

It’s a monthly book club devoted to connecting children to nature.

There is a theme for each month in 2018. We welcome your nature book and activity related links!

The Nature Book Club theme for February: Winter Birds and Nests

The Nature Book Club is brought to you by these 10 nature loving bloggers which are your co-hosts! Are you following them? If you don’t want to miss anything, be sure to follow each one.

Here are the co-hosts, their choices of books, and activities for the month.

Small Worlds Preschool
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin – Peg doll squirrel and owl

The Usual Mayhem
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin – Beatrix Potter artist study printables freebie

Rule This Roost
Build, Beaver, Build! Life at the Longest Beaver Dam – Beaver Habitat Building

Hide The Chocolate
Stellaluna – Bat Online Book Club

Table Life Blog
Nuts to You! – Easy Watercolor Squirrel Art

Eva Varga
Our Foray into Squirrel Taxidermy – Taxidermy

Wind in a Letterbox
Meerkat Mail – Postcard Art Activity

Handbook of Nature Study
Tracks, Scats, and Signs – Nature Walk-Looking for tracks, scat, and signs

The Playful Scholar
The Groundhog Day Book of Facts and Fun – Good Reads For Fun On Groundhog Day.

Everyday Graces Homeschool
Frederick by Leo Leonni – Watercolor bookmarks and nature notebook page.

You’ll love the giveaway we have this month!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Nature Book Club theme for February: Small Mammals

Party Rules

- - - - Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up
      - The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until 11:59 p.m. EST on the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!
      - You can link up to 3 posts. Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.
      - By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature your posts.That’s it!
      - Let’s party.
    An InLinkz Link-up

Foraging and Feasting Nature Unit Study and Lapbook

Edible Wild Plant Unit Study Resources, Lesson Plans, and Activities

Download the Free Foraging & Feasting Lapbook at my Facebook Group – Homeschool Dynamics by Tina Robertson.

Are You Ready to Party? Welcome to the Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 6.

Also, join our new Nature Book Club Facebook Group!

Nature Book Club theme for June: Nature Hike and Nature Discovery

Upcoming theme (July): Beach, Sand & Shells

Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity

Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook

Wildflowers Lesson Plan & Ideas

Wildflowers Media & Interactive.

Fun and EASY Crafts, Hands-on Ideas, and Activities About Wildflowers!

Other Nature Study Ideas

You’ll love my other nature study ideas and posts below:

Are You Ready to Party? Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 5.

The Nature Book Club theme for May: Wild Flowers

Upcoming theme (June): Nature Hike and Nature Discovery

Let’s Party! Add Your Nature Post below – The Nature Book Club

Did You Miss some Awesome Nature Post in Our Previous Parties?

You’ll want to grab my free Nature Lapbooks.They are facebook only follower freebies.

Be sure you join my Homeschool Dynamics by Tina Robertson facebook group

Hands-On Mixed Media Spring Nature Study

Nature Study At Home

Mixed Media Nature Study

From Egg to Sea Turtle Unit Study & Lapbook

Sea Turtle Lesson Plans, Guides, and Background Information.

Sea Turtle EASY Hands-on Ideas and Activities

You’ll want to grab my free Sea Turtle lapbook and this is a facebook only follower freebie.

Be sure you join my Homeschool Dynamics by Tina Robertson facebook group.

Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 4.

The Nature Book Club theme for April: Eggs

Upcoming theme: May The Nature Book Club Theme – Wildflowers

Hands-On Literature Nature Study With The Busy Tree

Using picture books for nature study

Hands-on nature study with picture books

Hands-on tree craft for The Busy Tree

Making it count

KIDS SNOW ACTIVITIES

KIDS SNOW CRAFTS

Arctic Ground Squirrel, About the Tundra, & Other Helpful Resources

General Squirrel Resources

Welcome to The Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 2.

The Nature Book Club theme for February: Winter Birds and Nests

The Nature Book Club theme for February: Small Mammals

Party Rules

My Middle & High School Geography & Science Curriculum Luv

My Middle & High School Language Arts Luv (Because it works!)

Archives

Are You Ready to Party?
Welcome to the Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up No 6.