Activitykit Easy activites to help you explore nearby nature
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“Nature Play Day reminds us it’s OK to be outside, it’s OK to play, get grass-stained knees, dirty palms and a sticky shirt. It’s more than OK ... it’s NECESSARY!” - Adam Kreek, Olympic Gold Medallist and Nature Play Day Ambassador
Celebrate Nature Play Day Canada On June 15th,
the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada and its members, collaborators and fans are encouraging all Canadians to get outside and play! For more information, inspiration and to register your event go to www.natureplayday.ca. Looking for ideas? This Activity Kit contains simple, easy-to-use activities to inspire you to get up, go out and jump into nature! The activities are suitable for a variety of audiences and age ranges and have been reprinted with permission from WildBC, BC Parks and the Young Naturalists’ Club of BC. Looking for more ideas? Check out the website and see what other Canadians are doing on Nature Play Day! Have a favourite activity to share? email: info@childnature.ca
Photo: rastafabi
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Sensory Wakeup Ci r
This introductory activity wakes up your senses and helps you get the most out of your time in nature. Gather the group in a circle and tell participants that you’ll be waking up their senses to better explore and observe the environment. Ask them to list our main senses and remind them of ones they may not think of, such as our sense of temperature, hunger, and air currents.
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Wake the senses up one at a time!
Touch: Have everyone rub their hands together
vigorously until they feel heat energy being generated between their palms when they pull them apart slightly. Do this until everyone has “woken up” their fingers.
Hearing: Have everyone put on “deer ears” – cup hands
around their ears so the area for capturing sound is enlarged. To demonstrate how effective larger ears are, have everyone take their “deer ears” off as you keep speaking, and then put them on again, noting how much louder your voice or other sounds become. Try having the group put the “ears” on backwards to hear sounds behind them. Now have everyone close their eyes (to block out the dominant sense of sight) and count the number of different sounds they hear in a 20 – 30 second time frame. Younger students might want to hold up their fingers for each sound. Ask people how many sounds they heard, and to describe some of them.
Taste: If it is raining, have everyone taste a
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raindrop, or some seawater if you are on the beach, but otherwise save the tasting for lunchtime!
Smell: Have everyone close their eyes and focus on their sense of smell by taking a breath through their mouths and then two big breaths through their nose. Have different people in the circle describe what they smell. Now have the group turn to face out of the circle and repeat the smelling exercise; ask for any different scents. Sight: Send the group out from the circle to do the Rainbow Chips activity (see Activity #2).
This activity is re-printed with permission from Get Outdoors! An Educators Guide to Outdoor Classrooms in parks, Schoolgrounds and other Special Places. To download a free Get Outdoors sample pack or learn more visit www.wildbc.org.
No need to take a plane for this minibeast safari! Head out to a nearby green space, look closely and get ready to be amazed. Handy things to take along: • • •
Magnifying glass Notebook and pencil Shallow container
Remember to handle all mini-beasts with care and put back in their habitat once you’ve made your observations!
Go on a mini-beast safari!
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ground level critter hunt
1. Choose a habitat - the garden, park, lakeside or seashore 2. Find 4 different creatures in that habitat.
3. Study them where you find them. It’s OK to pick them up gently but put them back exactly where you found them. 4. Make a sketch of each ‘critter’ you find. 5. Describe how it moves. 6. Describe its habitat - wet/dry, dark/light, hidden/open and so on. 7. Try to figure out what it is feeding on. 8. Tell one extra interesting thing about each ‘critter’ that you observed or found out about it.
9. Did you discover anything else that was new to you on your ‘critter hunt’? Want more nature everyday? Join the club! www.ync.ca
Photo: E. Wind
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This activity is re-printed with permission : The Young Naturalists’ Club of BC’s Bronze Action Award Guide. The YNC connects children and their families with nature through a network of nature clubs in BC. www.ync.ca
Photo: milkmartin
rainbow chips We all look at things but how often do we really observe them? This is a fun and easy activity that gets participants looking closely at things around them, and hones their observation skills. What you need: paint chips (free from the local paint store)
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All the colours of the rainbow (and then some). Collect a selection of paint chips from your local paint store, ensuring that you get a good range of colours and shades. Cut up the chips if they are in strips, and place them in a bag. Hand each participant a “rainbow chip”, telling them that every colour of the rainbow exists in nature all around us, and send them off to match their chip colour as closely as possible with something natural (human-made items like garbage or clothing don’t count!). Ask them not to pick their matched item if it is alive, but to show it to someone close by. Offer some hints: turn leaves and stems over to see colours beneath, look closely at rocks and pebbles, lichen, tree bark and sap. Once they have found a match, give them another colour chip to match, or a whole strip of paint chips of similar shades to match. Critical Questions: What surprised you the most about this activity?
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What colours were hardest to find? Extension: Paint Chip Poetry - Based on the name and colour of their paint chip, have students write a haiku, cinquain or other type of poem.
This activity is re-printed with permission from Get Outdoors! An Educators Guide to Outdoor Classrooms in parks, Schoolgrounds and other Special Places. To download a free Get Outdoors sample pack or learn more visit www.wildbc.org.
More Nature
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There are many organizations to help you connect with nature everyday! Some of them helped create this activity kit. Check out their websites for more information ideas. BC Parks WildBC Child and Nature Alliance Young Naturalists’ Club of BC