Most kids enjoy getting out in nature and learning about animal habitats. By exploring the outdoors, they learn to truly care about the nature world. Thus, nature walks are a crucial part of a science program for kids. Along the way, play some games with the children to make your walk more fun and educational.
Who Lives Here?
As you walk, tell the children to try to spot as many animal or insect homes as they can. As they find burrows, nests, hives, cocoons, anthills, holes in trees and galls, talk about how the animals and insects use their homes, how they find food in their habitat and why each species has a particular type of home in a certain area.
Caterpillar Hunt
In the area on the side of a path or yard, hide pipe cleaners in trees, in the grass and under the leaf litter, after shaping them into various animals, as Jennifer A. Bauer, Janet Brown and Ken Murray say in "Wildlife, Wildflowers and Wild Activities." Or, simply pretend the pipe cleaners are caterpillars and the children are birds. Choose colors that blend in with the surroundings, as the authors suggest, and place animals in the spots where we find them in nature. For example, place a bird on a tree branch. Make sure there's no poison ivy in the area, and set clear boundaries. After kids find the caterpillars or animals, talk about where these creatures live and which predators in their habitat hunt for them.
Collaborative Drawing
Sketch a big picture of a certain type of habitat on the board or on a large sheet of paper. For example, draw a meadow with a stream running through it and a forest at the edge. Then, have kids take turns adding one animal or plant to the drawing. This activity works well after you complete a lesson on a particular habitat.
Group Story
Bring the kids outside, and collect small twigs, leaves, seeds and other natural objects you find on the ground within a small, designated area. Then, begin a collaborative story about these objects and any insects or animals you see. Each person says one line, and must mention a new plant, insect, animal or other natural element that he sees or hears. At the end, talk about the relationships between them all. This is a great way to focus on microhabitats, or small areas within a larger ecosystem. As Bauer, Brown and Murray say, looking at microhabitats will show kids how much is happening in just a few square feet of forest space.
Tree Games
Play a game called Tree Tag to help kids learn which trees grow in a certain habitat, says Outdoor Nature Child. A certain type of tree, like a pine, serves as base, as the website describes. Talk about why these trees are there and what life they support. Ask the kids for whom else the tree serves as "base." Pretend the kids are an animal or insect species who lives there and stays safe from predators in the tree. Wind down with "Know Your Tree," in which each child leads her blindfolded partner to a tree and helps her to touch it, as Outdoor Nature Child describes. The blindfolded child feels the pattern of the bark and branches, and then after walking away from it, guesses which tree she touched.
