Nature Connections September

Nature Connections: September

Activity #1 (page 234-235)

This is a fun way to get children to use some of their different senses as your changing their perception of their environment by being outside when its dark out.

Activity #2 (page 222)

Go on a Nature Quest!

Doing a nature walk with children is a great way to get them in tune with all of their different senses.  

Activity #3 (page 223)

A tree losing it's leafs with a squirrel on it

This activity is a follow up activity to the previous one. The children would be redrawing the objects that they observed while they were outside.

The Human Body

The Human Body:

 The human body is something that everyone can relate to. Children are fascinated and are still learning how their bodies work. So what better way to teach them about it than with fun activities, videos, and books. 

Resources:

There are so many different videos, and songs that you can show children to get them to learn about different parts of their bodies in a fun way. 

Using diagrams is a good way for the children to see the insides of our whole bodies. Also showing different layers of our bodies such as our bones, organs, and muscles.  We can also be teaching the different functions of our bodies. 

Children's Books:

Science Journal: Insects and Small Animals

Children are naturally curious about the small creatures that are living around them. Building off of their curiosity is an amazing way to incorporate their own interests into school activities. There are many activities you can do with children to help them understand more about these different creatures. Some activities consist of nature walks, bug finds, life cycles, learning about different habitats, identifying different parts of insects and animals, and so much more. One example of a fun way to learn about habitats is too look at the way ants create their homes. You could bring in a glass enclosure, and have the children observe what the ants are doing. 

Other activities:

This is a checklist style scavenger hunt. You can take the children on a bug hunt, and learn more about the bugs that they saw on their journey. 

This is a fun way to get children up and moving, and at the same time learning about the way different insects or small animals move. 

There are so many similarities and differences between different insects and animals. Categorizing them by their features is a great way to get them thinking about the attributes of these creatures. 

Doing diagrams will help children learn and understand more about the insects and animals that they are surrounded by or ones that they are interested in. 

Children's Books:

My Microbe: Chicken Pox

My Microbe: Chicken Pox

In class we chose a microbe that we then had to create a children's book from. The purpose of the book was to give some insight to children about what the microbe was.  I chose chicken pox. My book talks about what the chicken pox are and how what you can do to get better. Learning about different microbes from a children's book can really convey some important information to children. 

Nature Connections: August

Activity #1

Activity #2

How Do You Use Water?

Things to think about 

1. Do you know where the water comes from when you turn on the kitchen faucet or where it goes when you flush the toilet?
• The water from my house comes in and out of a water treatment plant. 
2. Do you have a well?
• I don't have a well
3. Do you live near a creek or river, pond or lake, the ocean?
• I live near a river, and the ocean.

All of the ways that I use water:

• A drink
• Cooking 
• Showering/bathing
• Brushing my teeth
• Cleaning 
• Swimming
• Freeze it
• Washing machine 
• Putting out a fire 
• Toilet

 Thoughts continued 

1. How much water do you use to take a shower vs. taking a bath?
• This answer all depends on the size of your bathtub, and the amount of time you spend in the shower. An average bath holds about 30-40gallons. The average shower runs at about 2-3gallons per minute. If you take a short shower, you will use less water than a bathtub.
2. Which uses more water: A dishwasher or hand washing?
•   According to different online sources it says that dishwashing saves a lot more water, soap and energy than hand washing does!
3. How much water does it take to run a load of laundry?
•  You could use anywhere from 15-45 gallons of water per load. 
4. Do different models of washing machines use different amounts of water?
• Yes the newer models use much less water than the older models. As I mentioned in the question above, different models can use anywhere from 15-45 gallons of water.

Activity #3

Ocean Edges Are Important 

There are four oceans, and four major large seas. Something that I have wondered was what is really the difference between an ocean and a sea?

• Oceans are much larger than seas. The sea typically sits between the land and the ocean. Essentially the sea is just a subsection of the ocean. 

Seeds and plants

 

Seeds and Plants

Children always seem to be so fascinated when it comes to planting seeds and watching them grow. There are many activities that you can do with children to teach more in-depth about seeds and plants. You can learn the different parts of the plants, the life cycle of plants, plants in different environments, and so much more. 

Children's books:

Videos:

Giant squid

Violet the Squid

In our latest class we learned a little bit about the Giant Squid. The Giant Squid is about 33ft long, and weights around 440 pounds! Unfortunately these creatures only live for about 2-3 years. They have 8 arms, and 2 tentacles which they use to hold their prey. These are quite interesting animals, and children would have a blast learning about them. 

This past week we were asked to create our own 3D Giant Squid. As soon as we were prompted to do so, my mind started to race with ideas about how to recreate this creature. I went online to try and get even more inspiration, but nothing was really catching my interest. I then started to think back about how I created 3D objects through out school, and I came up with the idea of paper mache. I went back and forth about this decision because I didn't really remember how to do it, but I decided to challenge myself anyway. My first step was to create an outline of the shapes that I would be using to create the squid. I had two of each shape, and then I taped them together. I left enough space so I was able to stuff them with newspaper. Once I did this with each shape, I took strips of newspaper, covered them with the paste, and started to lay them over the shapes. I continued this process until each piece started to take shape. I connected each piece with the paste and newspaper as well. Once each shape was covered with newspaper, I let it dry for a while. I began to lay the colored tissue paper down when the newspaper was semi-dry. I then repeated the process of paste and tissue paper where I wanted it. I let that dry, and then glued the eyes on. I attached the arms and tentacles on with little velcro spots. I approached this project as a challenge, and it was, but I had a fun time trying to figure out the challenges along the way. 

Outline of the squid

Wrapped in newspaper

Starting with the colored tissue paper 

Completed Squid

Materials:

• Paper
• Newspaper
• tissue paper
• Scissors   
• Tape 
• Paste
• Water
• Flour/glue 
• Paint brush 
• Velcro 
• Eyes 

Children's Books:

Science Phobia

My Experience:

I have a love hate relationship with science. I find some science topics very interesting, but I haven't had a science teacher that has made me love it yet. My earliest memory of disliking science was in 6th grade. My teacher was very strict, if we did something that was against her rules she made us do push ups or sit ups in front of the whole class. I was more focused on doing the right thing instead of learning about science. The rest of my middle school science teachers were also very strict. This was a struggle for me because we did fun lessons, but I just really disliked the teachers. Once I got into high school I already had my mind made up that I just didn't like science. My teachers were less strict in high school, but they just weren't great at teaching the content. Everything was memorization, and they weren't great at helping you out when needed. I always use to say that they were "too smart" to teach us. I was always only taught one way, and there was little explanation.

My Phobia: Ophidiophobia

Ophidiophobia is the fear of snakes. I absolutely hate snakes. I avoid certain areas around my house because I have seen snakes there before. I'm not sure what caused me to hate them, but just the thought or pictures of them freak me out. I would insert an image, but as I mentioned my heart starts to race at just the sight of snakes.

Science Journal: Blue Whale

The Blue Whale 

Fun Facts:

1. A mammal
2. Length: 98ft
3. Weight: 200 tons which is equal 
4. to 400,000 lbs.
5. The largest animals ever on earth
6. Eat ballen
7. Carnivores
8.  Can eat 40 million krill 
9. Life span is about 90 years
10. They come to the surface to breath
11. 12% of their length is their flipper
12. A pod is a group of whales
13. They have about a 20inch blowhole

Many children (and adults) have a hard time visualizing different measurements. Telling a child that the Blue Whale is the biggest animal on earth with a record length of up to 108ft may not mean much to them. They might compare that to being as tall as the tower they built earlier, or as heavy as a million elephants. To help children understand the concept of size it would be beneficial to use a scale of measurement that they are able to understand, an example of that would be themselves. 

In class we decided to do a similar activity. We knew the whale is 98ft, but how long is that really. We came up with the question of how many college students equals the length of a Blue Whale. First we had to measure 98ft in the hallway. Once we knew where it started and ended, we all began to lay down onto the floor to see how many of us it took to equal the length. We came to the conclusion that it takes 17 college students to equal the size of a Blue Whale.

Measuring the 98ft Blue Whale

Length=17 college students

The activity that we did in class is something that can easily be done with children as well. Children will have an exciting time learning about the whales, as well as realizing how big the whale really is. Here is a video of a class using and actual foot to measure the length of a Blue Whale. 

Nature Connections Part I

Activity #1:

Nature Around Me

The first activity I have chosen is about the nature around me. I observed the nature around my house that is in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. This activity is a simple listing of nature items that you see in your environment. This is a great activity that will get children to look closer to what is around them, as well as potentially becoming more curious about the nature they are surrounded by daily. Doing this activity in different environments would become a fun class discussion about how nature varies.

Beehive that was outside of my house

Activity #2:

A Quick Drawing Lesson!

This is an art based activity that involves drawing. The first part of the activity is to draw an object with your eyes closed while not lifting your pencil off the paper. My Drawing 1 is the image that I created doing so. The second part of the activity is to keep your eyes open, but still don't lift your pencil off the paper. The next part of the activity is to draw a very quick and basic outline of your image. There are two more parts to the activity where the drawings then become much more detailed. This is a great activity for the visual learners. The children are able to draw and visualize their observations of the object they are creating.

Activity #3: 

The Colors of the Seasons

Activity two is a fun way to bring art into observation. During this activity the children would be choosing colors that they associate with the different seasons, and then coloring in the wheel. This is only one of the many ways you could set up a chart of the colors. To follow up with this activity the children can discuss why they selected these colors, and why they fit into the seasons that they chose. Another way to do this activity is to have the children color match with items in nature using paint to create similar colors of items they find during the different seasons. 

Activity #4:

A Story about Nature

The first memory about nature that came to me was the time I went to the Bahamas. I went on a cruise three years ago with five other family members. The small island of Coco Cay is a beautiful piece of land, it's nothing that I am use to seeing around Maine. The water here was so clear, and very bright blue. There were all sorts of fish just swimming with the people in the water. The land had such gorgeous flower and trees. There was a path that went around the island where there was no touristy attractions, just the untouched nature. I saw things from crazy looking birds, to giant lizards just casually walking around. It was amazing to experience the different forms of nature that are seen in the Caribbean versus what I typically see in Maine. 

A few pictures I took while on the island

The activities that I have chosen are the from the book "The Nature Connection" By Clare Leslie.

• Activity #1- Pg. 12-13
• Activity #2- Pg. 32-41
• Activity #3- Pg. 28-29
• Activity #4- Pg. 26