Jodi Valenta – Page 4 – Kids Discover Nature

Top 10 Earth Day Activities for Children

by Jodi Valenta

Happy Earth Day!
In our house, Earth Day is big! I was a child of the ’70s when the first one started, and my parents always made a point of teaching me that I needed to help care for the earth. As a result, I am environmentally conscious and I strive to teach my family how to be earth-friendly. Each Earth Day, we pay special homage to our Mother Earth by doing an earth-friendly activity. We have done many over the years, so I thought it would be helpful if I passed them on to you.

Top 10 Earth Day activities for children:

1) Plant a tree.
2) Go far a walk. Take a reusable bag with you and pick up garbage you see along the way.
3) Take your bottles, cans cardboard, etc. to the recycling center. Allow your children to keep the money you receive from returning any deposits.
4) Spend some time at your local nature center learning about native critters, plants, and trees. Better yet, volunteer to help plant a flower bed, clean up trash, or fill bird feeders.
5) Plant a vegetable garden. There are few things more earth-friendly than growing your own food, especially if you go organic!
6) Organize a play date in the outdoors. Work together to clean up an area of a local park.
7) Go to a natural food store and buy items to make an organic lunch, then go on a picnic.
8) Ask your kids to help you start composting. They can help dig up worms to add and add kitchen scraps each day.
9) Go for a bike ride instead of a drive in the car.
10) Pledge to spend more time outdoors with your kids!

Have a great day! And read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to your kids tonight. 🙂

Nature Crafts

Fairies and Elves in the Yard

by Jodi Valenta

A favorite childhood fantasy right in your own backyard

You can inspire your child’s imagination in your own backyard and connect them to nature at the same time! Children enjoy stories about fairies and elves and creating a home for them utilizing natural materials is a fun way to keep them busy and allow their imagination to bloom!

Making Elf and Fairy Houses
You can make them anywhere using materials you find in the yard or in a park. Ideas are fallen leaves, fruit, bark, seeds, nuts, sticks, moss, stones or anything your children find interesting. Follow these steps to help your child create on on his or her own.

Find an appropriate spot to build the houses such as between the roots of a tree, beside a log, among a pile a stones or beside a boulder. Allow your child to choose a spoton their own.
Allow your child to arrange the materials into a house they envision in their imagination.
You can help them add walkways, windows, fencing, doors, and a even a garden.
As children search and play they will become familiar with the natural materials and develop an awareness of the never-ending process of growth and decay as they find rotting leaves or chewed nuts.
Allow them plenty of time to create whatever they want.
Choose somewhere they can return to easily. Their play can be ongoing over time and they may create an entire village.
Try visiting different environments where they can collect different types of materials.
Make sure everyone washes their hands when finished!!

I introduced this activity to my children and my five-year old daughter was enthralled. She was so involved that she forgot to ask me to play tag or hide n’ seek, which is a daily favorite. My two-year-old son enjoyed copying my daughter and made little piles with his collected materials and he beamed with pride. We were outside until dusk and I had to drag them inside!

You can look forward to watching their little village grow over the next several weeks and then be buried under the first snowfall. It will be especially exciting to rediscover it next spring when it magically appears again after the snow melts.

You can end the day with a fun romp in the giant leaf pile. The perfect end to a perfect day outdoors.

Warning: Do not let your children collect fungi or berries that could be poisonous. If there is any question in your mind a “no touch” policy is best.

Insects

Inchworm, inchworm…you’ll go far!

by Jodi Valenta

Inchworms seem to be everywhere in the sping and summer and youn children are often mesmerized by them. I remember when I was a kid I used to catch them by their silken thread and watch them “inch” along on the palm of my hand. I never thought much about them beyond that, except that I had one I used to ride. Remember those?

I also remember a song I used to sing about an inchworm that went like this (written by Danny Kaye in 1952):

Two and two are four

Four and four are eight

Eight and eight are sixteen

Sixteen and sixteen are thirty-two

Inchworm, inchworm,

Measuring the marigolds,

You and your arithmetic,

You’ll probably go far.

Inchworm, inchworm,

Measuring the marigolds

Seems to me you’d stop and see

How beautiful they are.

What exactly are those tiny little green worms? Once when my daughter asked me, I was stumped and had nothing to say except “it’s a little green worm.” How lame an answer was that! After a lifetime of seeing them I had never done the research to figure out what their role is in the ecosytem

I recently Googled “inchworm” and was very interested in what I learned. According to Wikipedia inchworms are the larvae of the Geometer moth. They are green, grey, or brownish and hide from predators by fading into the background or resembling twigs. Many inchworms, when disturbed, stand erect and motionless on their rear legs.

Armed with this information, my kids and I went outside to search for them. I explained that the tiny caterpillar eventually turns into a moth. We were enthralled by watching them flying on their silken string threads wondering where they would end up.

Bugs are always a great way to connect children with nature. They are easily accessible and are interesting to watch. It is amazing how something so tiny can be the subject of hours of play and learning…for both of us!

Nature Activities for Kids

Bring the Outside In

by Jodi Valenta

There are those days when going outside to play just isn’t in the cards. That has been the case for my children these past few days. My daughter is recovering from a stomach bug and it is just too darn cold for my son to be outside. When the temps are in the single digits and the wind chill is fierce, his little fingers become icicles in a matter of minutes. Needless to say, we are are going a little stir crazy and could use a breath of fresh air.

In my quest to connect my children with nature, I was thinking about how I can bring the outside inside on days like this. So, I went to the cupboard and rooted around for all the collections of various natural materials we stored in boxes after the summer and fall. At the time, I was tired of picking them up of the floor and finding them hidden all over the house. Now, I was relieved to see our stone and shell collections as well as the acorns, leaves and sticks we stored in boxes. I knew an art project using these items would keep them busy for a while.

I covered the kitchen table with newsprint and combined the natural materials along with the art supplies we have on hand such as contruction paper, paint, markers, glitter, pom-poms, cotton balls, popsicle sticks, paste and old buttons. Without providing much direction, I told my kids to create something using the materials we collected. I winced, waiting for the complaints about how “boring” my idea was and all the excuses about why they should watch a movie instead. When I opened my eyes, they were both busily working on their masterpieces. “Wow, I thought, “this nature thing works inside too.”

Thirty minutes later…no I am not kidding — an entire 30 minutes…. they were still enjoying the activity and created beautiful works of art that are now adorning our refrigerator.

No doubt, the winter weather makes it challenging to keep kids connected to nature. It is much easier to connect them to the TV or computer. As I look ahead at the cold months that lay before us, I think about how I am going to do it. You are probably thinking the same thing. Well, I am here to offer help. My plan is to try to get them outside for at least 20-minutes on the more mild days, which I consider 25 dregrees and up (and includes buddling up in layers and snowsuits). On the bitter cold days, when it is too cold to go out, we will have to connect with nature in different ways. No doubt it’s going to take some creativity to do it. My formula will be to combine trips to the local nature center (we have a terrific one close by that has many great indoor activities) with reading books, going for drives and doing many, many art projects!

I invite you to join me as I attempt to overcome the overuse of electonic media to entertain my children during the winter months. I have many great ideas for indoor and outdoor activities. I would also like to hear your ideas, so please share!

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Top 10 Earth Day Activities for Children

Fairies and Elves in the Yard

A favorite childhood fantasy right in your own backyard

Inchworm, inchworm…you’ll go far!

Bring the Outside In

Take the 30-Day Outdoor Challenge