ECH 384: Science Education for Young Children: 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.