Connecting Kids with Nature

More years ago than I want to admit, I graduated with a master's degree in outdoor education. I have always loved the great outdoors. I find it to be like a detox to my stress level. There's just something about hearing the rustling leaves, birds singing, and yes, even the crickets at dusk. In fact, studies show just how helpful spending time in nature can be. 

Spending time in nature is actually an antidote to stress. It is proven that nature can reduce stress and feelings of anger or anxiety. It can even lower your blood pressure and give you a dose of the feel good chemicals that bring about happiness.

Nature is great for me, but as a teacher, I also want that benefit for my studets. Some of the ways nature specifically benefits students is increased attention, self-regulation, fitness, calm, creativity, and even more. If we know that nature has this effect, how can we change things to get kids out there more often?

The average kid spends between 6-9 hours in front of a screen each day. Screen time has the opposite effect of nature. Kids are less focused, more impulsive, more likely to be overweight, and less creative. So if we know better, why is it that we do not do better? I think it really comes down to the fact that parents are busy, teachers are busy, and neither one has the time to figure out activities to connect the kids with nature. 

I'd like to share some simple activities that can be done at home or school that will help get kids out into the wild enjoying the great outdoors a little more.  

First, let's look at some books about nature. These books can be used with younger kids because they have beautiful illustrations, but I was really trying to focus on kids that were a bit older, like upper elementary. The thing I liked about these books, that made them a good fit to also use in upper elementary is that they have some more advanced vocabulary that you could introduce to the children. I put a picture and a brief description of each book down below. Good books can help build interest in a topic, in this case, nature, so they are very helpful in that way. After we check out a few books, we'll look at some activities that you can do as well.

This book features a 37 line poem that serves as a "nest" for 160 other poems found within the 37 lines. 

This book tells the true story of Margaret Lowman who, as a child, was obsessed with leaves. She turned her love of leaves into her career later in life when she became a female scientist exploring the very top of the rainforest.

This is the true story of an entomologist. Back when girls were not suppose to have any interest in bugs, Evelyn fell in love with them, eventually working with insects at the London Zoo.

 

Charles Henry Turner had an inquisitive mind. Even though he lived long ago during the time of ratial predjudice, he did not let that stop his love of learning. He went on to become the first black entomologist.

This book is beautifully illustrated and has just about everything you'd ever want to know about insects....and then some. There are other nature books in this series as well. 

Introducing kids to books about nature can increase their awarness and love for it. I love these books because a few of them focus on jobs that are quite unusual, but have something to do with nature. 

Now for the activities. There are lots of ways to make being in nature enjoyable. First, let's look at how to spice up an ordinary hike or walk. Lots of families take walks, and if we're honest, lots of kids complain that they have to go. So, why not add some activities along the way? One great way is to have the kids do a scavenger hunt. It keeps them engaged and helps them have a purpose during the walk. Another fun twist you could do would be to let them create their own scavenger hunt along the way and use it later or trade with another child. Try giving children a camera instead of a checklist for added excitement. Kids love to take pictures and document what they see. 

Another activity you can do is to have children collect little pieces of nature in a lunch bag. After the walk is over, have them lay the items out and take a picture of everything arranged on a large paper. Turn it into a seek and find game. Have them write a list of things to locate in their picture and share with a friend. 

How about going on a color walk. Kids could focus on colors while walking. Start by listing out all the colors they want to focus on. As they walk, have them write down anything they see in that color. You could even create color poems or similes afterwards.

Teach kids observation skills using the five senses. Have them look at an object in nature from different perspectives. Look up close, from far away, from the top, from the bottom, from the left, from the right. Draw the item from different vantage points. Have children collect different kids of leaves. Compare and contrast the different leaves. Categorize them. Identify them. Use them to create paint brushes or a crayon rubbing. 

Create a simple bird feeder with a pinecone, peanut butter, and bird seed. Observe the different birds that come by. Make a graph of the birds. Do sketches of the birds. 

Watch for and observe insects. Draw them in detail. 

Play in nature...build a simple fort. Climb a tree or walk on fallen logs. Create a scene from found nature items. Have someone guess what your scene is. It could be from a movie or Bible story, or a scene from a book you are reading....instead of writing about what you visualized, build it. 

There are really so many different ways to enjoy nature. Just get your kids out there. Find a way to connect them to nature. 

If you would like to check out some resources to help you explore nature with your child or class, click on any of the pictures below. 

This resource has 21 different easy to do activities for connecting with nature, including most of the ones mentioned above.

This journal has 10 different pages that can be copied to help students write about and draw observations from nature. It is a true nature journal.

Titanic in the Classroom

It's been a while since I have studied the Titanic with my classroom, but it is always a hit and something they enjoy. This year I decided to add it back into my curriculum. I pulled a lot of ideas from Teaching With a Mountain View. Her blog is amazing and full of inspiration! I am not sure what it is about the Titanic, even more than a hundred years later, students are still touched by this story. 

Titanic Reading

My first thought when planning this unit was to create a reading-heavy unit that also tied in other subject areas. I sat down to look for different book ideas for my readers. Since I have third through fifth graders, I decided to go with different books based on the needs of the readers. I settled on three different titles and split the students into groups based on those. These are the three books I settled on.

I loved that all of my readers could access this story no matter how high or low their level. They could all feel a part of the real learning we were doing. We practiced all sorts of reading strategies with these books. 

While learning about the same topic, it was important to me that all students, no matter their level, were able to feel apart of the whole class conversations about the historic event of the sinking of the Titanic. As we learned, we dug deep into the story through strategies like determining importance, inferring, making connections, visualizing, and numerous others.

Titanic Social Studies

As we went dove into social studies through the frame of the Titanic, we were able to study class in the early 1900's students were surprised to find that the classes were separated and that the classes had so much distance between them. We watched videos and read books that all pointed this out. We enjoyed trying out a third class tea and on our final day with the Titanic, we saw the huge discrepancy when we had a first class tea. We talked about etiquette and how the tables were set. They were shocked over all the different pieces of silverware a first class meal required. 

We also read books and learned about the human spirit. How people gave up their place on a lifeboat for others, how the ship officers went down with the ship, how the orchestra played until the ship's final moments. We heard about how the lifeboats could hear people calling for help, but how most were too afraid for their own safety to go back and rescue those freezing to death in the icy water. 

Titanic Science

In science, we did a few activities. One of the activities was to become boat builders ourselves and engineer boats that could safely float while holding a heavy load. It was interesting to see the various boat designs that the students came up with. We noticed that the flat-bottomed boats seemed to work the best, especially those that had a very large, flat bottom.  

Another experiment we did was to freeze a water balloon to create an iceberg. Students were surprised when we popped the balloon and dropped the icy ball into the water to simulate an iceberg. They were shocked at how little peeked above the water and how much was below it. This helped them understand the important conversations about how the iceberg that was hit by the Titanic was so dangerous. Most of the iceberg could not even be seen.  

Titanic Writing

To connect writing, we did some subject/predicate poems. These were super powerful to me and easy for the kids. We practiced writing a poem together on the board. We chose the topic of playground and then wrote a bunch of subjects, or nouns, on the whiteboard. Afterwards, we went back through and gave each noun a predicate, or action verb. Then I read one of the Titanic poems that I had found so they could have the idea of how you could turn the poem into a story using two-word phrases. The results were amazing, and heartbreaking. 

Here are a couple of examples from my class. 

1

Titanic leaving

People cheering

Pool splashing

1st Class relaxing

2nd Class playing

3rd class immigrating

Lookout seeing

Passengers snoring

Iceberg hitting

Travelers rushing

Lifeboats going

Unsinkable sinking

#2

People swimming

Dining room stunning

Guards guarding

Maids cleaning

Boat bumped

Iceberg hits

People wondering

Swimming stops

People shake

Compartments fill

Water spills

Kids scream

Babies wail

Lifeboats fill

Lifeboats lower

Titanic snaps

Titanic sinks

Lives lost

People crying

Titanic passes

Titanic gone

I love how they turned out!

Titanic Class Projects

For a project, I sent instructions home with students about a month in advance. They were to create a diorama showing one part of the story of the Titanic. They had to write about the scene they chose and why they picked that one, and be ready to present it to the class. Originally, I scheduled the Titanic project presentations for April 15, the day the people were rescued, but I unknowingly scheduled it on Good Friday, which we had off. So We rescheduled it for April 19, our first day back from Easter break.

The students wowed me with their projects. Even many of the students who do not have much help at home came with beautiful versions of their chosen scenes. They were so proud to share and it was great to see their artistry. We created a small museum of projects down the hallway leading to our classroom so others passing by could also view the projects.

Shark Week Book Spotlight & Research Activity

How do you celebrate Shark Week? Do you celelbrate with books? With Activities? With Research? Do you celebrate at all? If your class is like mine, they are absolutely obsessed and excited about all things shark. I don't know if it is the perceived danger, the powerful jaws, the fact the they are some of the strongest preditors in the sea, but they LOVE all things sharks. If I can capitalize on a love they have by inserting it into my curriculum, I am all over it. Why even wait for shark week? You can study sharks any time!

A couple of weeks ago I was at Five Below, browsing the aisles and I came upon a book section...I have a weekness for books and when I found this one, I knew it had to come home with me. I mean, who doesn't need another shark book for their growing collection? ...all in the name of student reading engagement, right? 

Let's take a quick peek inside the book. It has super cute grapics with over 100 facts! The book has many different engaging sections that are set up in a unique way compared to other shark books I have seen before....which equals, we are gonna learn something new or at least learn it in a new way.

The different sections are perfect to enhance research on sharks. I also love the speech bubbles as though the sharks are talking directly to us. 

This book busts some myths that give sharks a bad rap. Students are always surprised to find that these powerful preditors are actually not commonly a threat to humans. It also ends with telling ways that people can help protect sharks. That is a win for sure!

This book has laid around my house for a couple of weeks just waiting for me to create something with it. Well, today I created a research guide activity that goes right along with this book, although it can be used with other books or even online research too. 

If you are looking for ideas for upper elementary students to use while learning about sharks, you can check out this resource that helps bring the facts to life in one booklet. Here is a peek at the inside of my research guide. It has seven different sections covering these different topics:

Location: Use a map to record the areas where six different sharks live

Anatomy: Draw and label the parts of one shark.

Smarts: What makes sharks so smart?

Senses: How do sharks use their senses to thrive and survive?

Teeth: What types of teeth do sharks have?

Danger: What danger do sharks pose to us?

Save the Sharks: How can we protect sharks?

If you want to see more or are interested in purchasing this research guide, you can click the link here to be taken to the product in my store.

Looking for even more shark related activities for all your shark-loving students? Be sure you also check out my Shark Bite Multiplication Game. It's a blast!

Classroom Transformation: Wild Kratts

I've been wanting to do this classroom transformation since September when educators around the world were challenged by the Rock Your School movement. It was extremely difficult to hold off on this for a few extra weeks, but personally I was unable to make it happen until today. (Long story of moving schools, selling and buying a house and having to be out of my house for showings and inspections and all the things that come with that....and also commuting between 45 minutes to an hour each way. But all that is about to end when we officially move within 15 minutes of work in a few weeks.) Anyway, It happened today and my students LOVED it! They stayed on task so well. 

I decided I wanted to do something different for my classroom transformation, but I just could not decide what. I thought about my science curriculum unit and it was animal adaptations. That's when an idea hit me. I wanted to create a Wild Kratts theme! I just love that show and so do my kids. It is perfect since it is all about animals. I decided to focus on five different animals that students could encounter any day in the area where we live.

Day one was all about worms.

Day two will be all about fireflies.

Day three will focus on bats.

Day four we will learn about opossums.

Day five will be about skunks.

Today we learned about the creature powers (adaptations) of worms. First, we learned how worms secrete a special fluid that is released through the skin. We learned how the fluid made it easier for worms to slide through tunnels and through dirt and gravel without getting hurt. After learning about this special adaptation, we made our own slime in groups, following a recipe. 

Afterwards, students were excited and ready to do some more. We moved on to a close reading activity. It was all about worms. Students were given six problems. Each problem listed two truths and one lie. Students had to read through their paper that told them all about worms. They had to highlight the truths to prove that those were not the lie. Once they found the two truths, they circled the lie and had to check it. There were flip check cards around the room for self-checking. After getting an answer right, students came to me to get one of the supplies for making dirt dessert, only they had no idea what the items were for, because I did not tell them. Most students were able to figure it out. I gave them these items in this order.

1. a cup

2. a spoon

3. an Oreo cookie in a ziplock (this is when most students figured it out)

4. a gummy worm

5. another gummy worm

6. a pudding cup

Once everyone in class was able to earn all their supplies, we worked through the steps to making dirt dessert. Students are going to use that knowledge to create a flip writing assignment that shows the steps to creating dirt dessert.

Of course we ran out of time to complete everything, but I'm totally O.K. with that. There's always tomorrow. I always overplan.

At the end of the day, my principal said she was wondering why my class was so noisy at the beginning of the day. But then my daughter, who is in her class, had told that I had done a Wild Kratts transformation. Love the excitement when kids realize it's going to be a great day.

Dinosaur- Room-Transformation

For a while I knew I wanted to do a dinosaur room transformation in my classroom. A dinosaur room transformation was on my mind because almost all little boys love dinosaurs and this would time in nicely to our unit on animals. Also, a dinosaur room transformation would be just the thing for my own little guy who was one of my students this year. He has had a passion for dinosaurs since he was a little bitty guy and even at one point said he was going to be a dinosaur when he grew up so....I say, Bring on the dinosaur room transformation! I gathered information from the amazing Hope King! 

The day before our dinosaur room transformation, I could hardly wait to surprise my seconds with one of these little boxes. I did not let them see these boxes until the end of the day and when they left to go home, I handed them out with instructions to not peek or open the box until they left school for the day. Right away, the buy-in and engagement were high. I could hardly contain myself because I also wanted to see how they responded when they opened the boxes, but that would have ruined the surprise and I would have been peppered with even more questions than before. 

Inside the box was this little note along with an egg and a dinosaur. The note told them that tomorrow they were going to become paleontologists and learn about dinosaurs of the past. I also asked them to return the box the next day, although a few of my littles never did return these, it's O.K. I packed the little boxes that were returned away for another round another year.  The eggs and dinosaurs that were included helped me to split the class into groups the following day by color. I picked the dinosaurs up at the Target dollar spot and the eggs came from Dollar Tree. I create the boxes from popsicle sticks and stamped the word "Danger" on the outside. Those took a long time to create and that is why I decided to keep them to use another year. I tied those little boxes up with a piece of red yarn and called it good. 

I tried to make the learning environment come alive by creating a darkened room (I covered the windows). I placed dinosaurs around the room and put these eggs in a nest, which was actually a wreath. I had dinosaur sounds playing on the computer as well to add that sensory detail and make it more believable. 

I quickly pushed some of the desks together to create jungle jeeps for teams of three. To create the jeeps, I took a black plastic table cloth and covered the table and glued strips of tinfoil to make the grill and then added pie pans for the headlights. I taped a pool noodle with a sign to each jeep. The sign showed a dinosaur name for their group as well as a color. 

Our first activity was that each group was given a bucket of dinosaur eggs. They were to open each egg and inside the group found strips with the names of different states. The strips told students where dinosaurs have been found. They had to find the states and color them on their maps of the U.S. It was interesting for them to see all the different places that bones from these giant creatures have been found. We did find that no bones had been discovered in our home state. 
Inside the giant eggs that were in the nest, were puzzles. We learned that paleontologists have to put together bones like a giant puzzle. Sometimes they have all the pieces and sometimes they do not.  

Another activity we did was this dinosaur poop activity. We found out that scientists can examine poop to discover more about an animal. Examining poop will help scientist find out what an animal ate. Students had to dig though the poop to find different pictures hidden inside. Each picture had a type of food that dinosaurs ate on it. They had to take the food and sort it into whether the dinosaur would have been an herbivore or a carnivore. 

To make the dinosaur poop, I mixed up a cake mix but did not cook it. I added some random things like Cheerios and seeds to make it a bit chunky. I provided a bucket of water so the students could wash off the cards they found for the sort. The cards were laminated so they would not be ruined. This was one of my favorite activities because the students were completely grossed out and yet loved it so much. Next time, I would do this outside cause this made a huge mess in our classroom.

Students pretended to be paleontologists and searched the room for different pieces of bones that would go together to create a dinosaur. Once they found the pieces, they built a dinosaur skeleton. 

 This was a fun game called Dinosaur Meal that we used when a challenge was completed. Students came up with their teams and rolled the die. Then the had to try to get an egg from the dinosaur's nest without getting bitten by the dinosaur. 
These are some of the dinosaurs that were scattered around our room. I had some helpers create some dinosaur footprints on the brown paper as well. 

Throughout the day we had a warning horn that would blare. Once it blared, students had to stop everything and take care of an emergency situation that arose. Before they could go on with their task, as a team they had to solve a math challenge. Once they came up with the correct answer, they were able to continue on with their regular task. 

At the end of the day, each student received a dinosaur excavation kit. It had a plastic dinosaur and a block to dig through to find the bones to the dinosaur they had. We had such a fun day of learning!