Nature Walks & Collaging

Taking a short walk in Nature through your neighborhood each morning is a great teacher for noticing new growth and changes in Nature and cultivating an appreciation of our environment. Walking and breathing fresh air is beneficial for health and conducive to focusing the mind for the day’s educational studies. Give each child a notebook they can decorate with pictures by collaging or drawing some of their favorite parts of Nature.

Children can write and draw about Nature in their journals. Youth can also collage a Nature box from a used copy paper box to store treasures they find on family Nature walks.

Kitchen Scrap Garden

A fun activity that can be done any time of the year is creating an indoor kitchen garden in a sunny window from leftover vegetable scraps like the base of a celery stalk, top of beets, carrots, avocado pits, and many more vegetables and fruits.

Links to how to start a Kitchen Scrap Garden:

https://kidsgardening.org/garden-activities-kitchen-scrap-gardening/

https://www.apieceofrainbow.com/veggetables-herbs-regrow-kitchen-scraps/

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jesseszewczyk/16-food-scraps-that-you-can-regrow

Nature Story Time

Find uplifting and inspiring stories about Nature, either in books or magazines or via online storytellers. After children listen to or read the story, give them a 10 minute period to reflect on the story and what it taught them. Let them speak about the lesson they learned or write about it in their journal. We suggest you create a relaxing story time with your children to explore aspects of Nature, listen to and read free stories online, or watch Nature specials.

Parents can involve children in creating Nature lesson plans by giving children choices about the environmental theme for the week or month. Some themes to explore are water, earth, air, insects, birds, humans, animals, plants, trees, growing vegetables and fruits, growth and reproductive cycles and rhythms in nature, climate change, recycling, and pollution.

Online resources for all these are plentiful. If you’re stuck for ideas, search online for "nature-themed lesson plans" or "kid's nature sites" and find something that suits you. Let older youth explore links, choose topics, and help create lessons.

Helpful Links

Kid's gardening and ecosystem activities and lesson plans for all ages:
https://kidsgardening.org/explore-our-resources/?_sfm_content_type=Activity

Kid's environment and kid’s health:
https://kids.niehs.nih.gov/topics/environment-health/index.htm

Environmental Protection Agency website for kids:

https://www.epa.gov/students

The focus of GreenFriends for the last few years has been on source reduction, especially plastic reduction and re-use, and water conservation, which should appeal to older youth. Check out these links :

https://www.greenfriendsna.org/what2do.html
https://www.greenfriendsna.org/srcampaign.html
https://www.npr.org/2016/01/19/463084193/how-a-great-teacher-cultivates-veggies-and-kids-in-the-bronx-in-17-photos http://www.greenfriendsna.org/chicago.html
http://www.greenfriendsna.org/turtle_barn.html

We wish you all the best with inspiring and instilling in your children a love and reverence for Nature.

Anaswara - Turtle Barn Farm, Oklahoma

Disclaimer

Any reference in this website to a specific product, process, or service does not constitute or imply an endorsement by GreenFriends North America or MA Center.