Take it Outside

Easy ways to educate and entertain your kids this winter

By wildlife expert Todd Hollett

My kids love science, and winter is an exciting time to study the wonders of nature. The winter freeze provides extensive hands-on opportunities that hit on many school subjects, including earth and life science, astronomy, biology and botany. With the right ideas, the backyard and the woods beyond can become our very own cost-efficient science lab.

Winter Zoology

Many animals like to snooze the winter away, but certainly not all of them. Animals that can be easily observed in winter are fish such as trout and smelt, muskrats, otters, beavers, weasels, moose, caribou, hares, skunks, porcupines, foxes, coyotes, mice, squirrels and an abundanceof birds.

My kids love to take a stroll in the woods making observations about what animals are eating; looking for tracks, tunnels and trails; taking photos of animal activity in the snow; and looking for signs of winter insects such as galls, and leaf miners and rollers.

Travis Durnfurd photo

About 30 species of birds overwinter here and can be attracted to your yard if you provide them with energy rich foods, water and shelter. Just by watching a backyard feeder, kids can learn to identify a variety of birds; see which species stay all winter and which ones are only here in winter; what they eat; how they sound; which species flock together; what they use for shelter. Note any injuries, anomalies or leg bands that might set the birds apart. A bird feeder may also indicate what predatory species are still around, as they might also be lured to the feeder for the possibility of an easy meal. Wing impressions and tracks in the snow can make for interesting photographs, and bird watching in general is a lesson in patience.

Nature Journals

Winter nature journals are a fun way to practise writing and observation skills. Many surprising things can happen during this sleepy season, making for some interesting recordings. Citizen science projects such as the Cornell Ornithology Institute’s Project Feeder Watch and the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count are in full swing during the winter and can be found easily online. Use nature journals to compile research on the life, behaviour, calls and songs of birds and other wildlife, and observations about changes in species between seasons. Items collected outside (leaves, acorns, flowers etc.) can be sketched in the journals.

Stargazing

Winter is the best time for stargazing, as the cold air holds less hazy moisture than the balmy warm summer air, making for very clear nights. Also the earlier evenings provide more time for kids to look skyward before bedtime. Amateur astronomers can learn the circumpolar stars, record nightly activity such as meteor showers and constellations, practise night photography, draw the phases of the moon, record sunrise and sunset time and location, and map the night sky in relation to their house.

The beginning and midpoint (depending on your viewpoint) of the cold winter season is marked by an astrological event known as the winter solstice. It occurs on December 21 or 22, when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky. This is when you will notice the shortest day and the longest night of the year. On December 22, the first of two winter meteor showers, the Ursids, occurs. The second, the Quadrantids shower, occurs every January 3, and appears as a bright fireball in the sky.

Jim Desautels photo

Circumpolar stars are the stars that encircle the Earth’s North and South Poles without rising or setting. Two of the most prominent constellations are Orion, the great hunter, and the Dog Star, Sirius. The Orion group, one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations, is visible the world over. Sirius is the brightest star and one of Earth’s nearest neighbours; the Dog Star is gradually moving closer to the solar system, so its brightness will increase over the next 60,000 years.

Did You Know?

Every snowflake has six sides and they form from water vapour, not raindrops.

Weather Watching

For the meteorologically inclined, a weather calendar is a great activity. Keep track of how much and what kind of precipitation your area receives and compare it to other areas; note the difference year over year; track the date of first snowfall and how much of each type is received in a winter storm. Researching the number of storms from year to year makes for interesting statistics. Many people keep track of the daily and nightly temperatures; seasonal highs and lows are also interesting facts.

Silent Nature Walk

Choose an area away from busy roads, homes and businesses for a silent walk. Without the roaring of car engines, the slamming of doors and the murmur of people talking, you’ll be able to hear a surprising variety of sounds: snow crunching, snow and ice falling, trees creaking, pond ice cracking, birds chirping and echoes.

If you own a cabin deep in the woods, night is a great time to hear other sounds. When everyone else is asleep, great horned owls are out and about. If you open your window, or are brave enough to go for a stroll into the darkness, you’ll probably hear the owls hooting and calling to a mate. Woodpeckers drumming on logs as they look for insect larvae carries a great distance in the frosty air as well.

Deborah Head photo

If you walk in an area familiar to you, a regular route, note the aspects of nature you are missing that you normally see during the warmer months. Use a stormy day inside to research the reasons they aren’t there.

Winter Botany

Plants go dormant during the winter, but their root systems are still alive and well in the frozen earth. Winter presents the perfect opportunity to learn how to identify plants by their branches and seeds. It is a great time of year to learn about evergreen trees, as most retain their needles all year; how to identify winter grasses and plants; which berries stay on the plants during winter and which ones are eaten by wildlife; which plants stay green or retain leaves or fruit year-round and which ones wilt; how to identify different types of conifer cones; and how to photograph the effects of frost on leaves.

C.A. Lorenzen photo

Studying tree shapes and bark texture is easier in winter, as trees are not obscured by leaves. Bark texture can be recorded by doing bark rubbings: hold a thin piece of paper against the bark and rub a crayon or pencil across it to get an impression of the bark, and use that to identify the tree type.

Snow and Ice Science

Anyone living in Atlantic Canada knows more than one type of snow: back-breaking wet and heavy snow; dry, powdery snow; and the always blinding, wind-driven drifting snow. Tracking atmospheric conditions can help us determine why we are getting the type of snow we see falling.

Not only are there different types of snow, there are different classes of snowflakes: simple prisms, stellar plates, sectored plates, stellar dendrites, fern-like stellar dendrites, hollow columns, needles and many more. It is great fun to try and catch snowflakes on mittens or a black cloth and try to draw the fanciful shapes that they form.

Ever wonder why we measure snow in centimetres and rain in millimetres? Measure the water content in snow by collecting a jar of snow and allowing it to melt. You’ll discover by the water that is left that 10 cm of snow is not the same as 10 cm of rain.

Another experiment with beautiful results is blowing soap bubbles in bone-chilling temperatures. Or take a classic experiment, the erupting volcano, and winterize it by moving it outside and building the volcano out of snow.

Wanda White photo

Those icicles that appear on the eaves of your house? Turn them into science lessons. Record their lengths and how their shapes and colour change from day to day, noting the outdoor temperature and amount of sunlight each day.

One more icy challenge: take several types of containers (e.g. plastic, glass, metal) outside, filled with water, and measure how long it takes each to freeze to solid. For variation, add table salt, sugar and baking soda to some of the containers and see how it changes the freezing pattern.

Tips for Working in the Cold

Use hand and foot warmers for comfort if outside for a long time.

Keep your camera close to your body heat to help preserve battery life.

Use a pocket-sized notebook and a pencil for notes; the ink in pens sometimes stops working in cold temperatures.

Dress for the weather to avoid heat loss and hypothermia.

Dress in layers so you can add or take away layers depending on conditions.

Always tell someone where you’re going, how you are getting there and when you plan to be back.

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