Ask your parents or your friends to join you… and enjoy your time together!
1) Put one foot quietly in front of the other and walk like a fox. How close can you get to a squirrel or rabbit?
2) Observe birds and imitate their movements. How do different birds move?
3) Walk out your front door. How many shades of green can you see?
4) Serenade a spider. “The itsy bitsy spider…” How many different kinds of webs can you find? Draw your own web.
5) Look for animal signs: tracks, poop, feathers, matted down patches of grass, nibbled plants, scratches in tree bark…
6) Make a crayon rubbing of a leaf or the bark of a tree.
7) Gather up a variety of interesting rocks. Spray with water to make the colors stand out. Investigate why rocks have colors. Tap them together and make rock music!
8) Start a nature journal or an art book.
9) Set out seeds for birds in the winter and watch to see who comes!
10) Make wind chimes out of materials you find on the ground (a stick and shells, for instance).
11) Collect the smells along your path. Can you catch a smell? Borrow different things (like pond water, earth, a flower) to put in jars. Close your eyes – can you tell what you’re smelling?
12) Slither like a snake, or tuck like a turtle!
13) Snoop around flowers and plants to see what insects you can find.
14) Roll over a log to discover what’s under it (remember to put it back when you’re done).
15) Collect a bunch of different fallen leaves in a bag. Then empty out the bag and try to match the leaves.
16) Think about how people stay warm in winter, then investigate how animals do it.
17) Try to identify some trees without leaves.
18) Look for soils of different textures and colors.
19) Lie down and look at the clouds.
20) Keep phenology records (dates of bird sightings, first blooms, trees turning color, etc.).
21) Take a hike through your neighborhood or yard and try to find something that is one of the colors of the rainbow. Look hard to find something that matches all the colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo (a purple blue), and Violet.
22) Learn the calls of three common birds in your neighborhood. You can even check out audio tapes from the library to help you learn the names and calls of the birds. Dazzle your friends when you name a bird by its sound without seeing it. Try to find the bird to check your answer.
23) Walk through your neighborhood or nearby park and write down all the different things you can smell, such as fresh cut grass, moist soil, flowers, and rain. Can you smell different things at different times of the day? When do you smell the most things? Do you think the types of smells change during other seasons?
24) Make snow angels… listen to the sound of falling snow.
25) Make your own icicles. Puncture a very small hole into a hanging container, fill it with water, then leave it slowly dripping over night. The next day you should have your own icicle.