Winter Trudge

Bundle up your students and take them on a trudge through the snow to get a close up look at trees in winter. Have students lie under each tree and look up. 

Observe the trees, the sky through the branches, and search for animal homes noticing similarities and differences in evergreen and deciduous trees.  

Measure the snow depth under each tree and use snow shovels to dig for tree treasures (pine needles, cones, etc.) that can later be used  for exploration and manipulatives in the classroom.

Winter Songs
Snowey Pokey
You put your right mitten in, You take your right mitten out,
You put your right mitten in and you shake it all about.
You do the Snowey pokey and you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about.
Note continue with additional verses:
You put your left mitten in
You put your scarf in
You put your right boot in
You put your left boot in
You put your hat in
You put your snowself in

Tickle Tree
This is my tickle tree,
As you can plainly see,
It will tickle you,
As it has tickled me.
So if you are not careful, this little tickle tree,
Will make you say Hee, Hee, Hee.

Frost
Sung to: "The farmer in the Dell"
The frost is on the roof  (point hands over head)
The frost is on the ground  (point to the floor)
The frost is on the window  (make a window with your hands)
The frost is all around  (make large circles with hands)

I'm a Little Pinecone
Sung to: "I'm a Little Teapot"
I'm a little pinecone
brown and small
I live in a pine tree, oh so tall.
When the cold wind blows
I dance and hop -
down to the ground with a
PLOP, PLOP, PLOP!

Who is Made of Snow
Sung to: "Do your ears hang low?"
Who is made of snow
When the temperature is low?
Who stands outside
When The ground is cold and white?
Who starts to melt
When the warm sunshine is felt?
Who is made of snow

Winter Art Projects

Mitten Symmetry Art

Fold construction paper in half then reopen, have children paint  with pine cones on one half of the paper then fold the two halves together again and  have them press all over it.  Open it back up and you have a symmetrical pattern.  After it dries, fold it together again and cut out a mitten shape--you should end up with a pair  of matching mittens.  Staple a string between them and hang them for display.

Snowman Name Graph

Use blue paper, have children cut out small circles from white paper and write the letters of their name on each circle.  Assemble the circles, spelling their names and one with a face into snowmen let them draw details and hang together.  See whose name makes the tallest and shortest snowman.  Arrange them from shortest to tallest and create a class snowman book.

Snowmen Pie faces

Using pie plates filled with snow, a baby carrot, button eyes  and chocolate chip mouth make snowmen faces in each pie plate and place different  places--freezer, outside, in room. Check your snowmen often and chart changes.  Discuss results of each location.

Scarf Patterns

Cut a long construction paper in half and tape to make a long scarf, let children create fringe on edges with scissors and glue shapes in patterns along scarf.

America’s State Parks First Day Hikes

DES MOINES – Iowa State Parks will sponsor free, guided hikes in five state parks on New Year’s Day as part of America's State Parks First Day Hikes initiative in all 50 states. 

America’s State Parks First Day Hikes offer individuals and families an opportunity to begin the New Year rejuvenating and connecting with the outdoors by taking a healthy hike on January 1 at a state park close to home. First Day Hikes offer a great way to get outside, exercise, enjoy nature and welcome the New Year with friends and family. 

“We are excited to host First Day Hikes as part of this national effort to get people outdoors and into our parks.  First Day Hikes are a great way to cure cabin fever and burn off those extra holiday calories by starting off the New Year with an invigorating walk or hike in one of our beautiful state parks,” said Todd Coffelt, chief of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources State Parks Bureau.  

Priscilla Geigis, president of the National Association of State Park Directors (NASPD), said last year, state parks across the country hosted nearly 28,000 people who hiked 68,811 miles as part of America’s State Parks First Day Hikes. “Think of it as the start of a new and healthy lifestyle, for the whole family. Whether you’re staying close to home or traveling, join us at one of America’s State Parks on New Year’s Day,” Geigis said.

Iowa’s state parks boast a variety of beautiful settings for year-round outdoor recreation, and each First Day Hike will offer an opportunity to explore the unique natural and cultural treasures close to home. 

“Studies have proven that getting outdoors is one good way to relax and recharge the body, mind and spirit,” stated Lewis Ledford, NASPD’s executive director.  “We hope that hiking along a trail in a state park will become part of an individual’s or family’s regular exercise routine.”

First Day Hikes originated more than 20 years ago at the Blue Hills Reservation, a state park in Milton, Mass.  The program was launched to promote both healthy lifestyles throughout the year and year round recreation at state parks.  Last year marked the first time all 50 state park systems have joined together to sponsor First Day Hikes.

Park staff and volunteers will lead the hikes, which average one to two miles or longer depending on the state park.  Details about hike locations, difficulty and length, terrain and tips regarding proper clothing are listed on the America’s State Parks website.  Visit www.naspd.org to find a First Day Hike nearest you.

In Iowa, hikes will be offered at the following locations and times:

• Bellevue State Park, Jackson County – 1 p.m. – meet at South Bluff Nature Center
• Brushy Creek State Recreation Area, Webster County – 1 p.m. – meet at Prairie Resource Center
• Mines of Spain State Recreation Area, Dubuque County – 1 p.m. – meet at EB Lyons Nature Center
• Walnut Woods State Park, Polk County – 9 a.m. – meet at Walnut Woods Lodge
• Waubonsie State Park, Fremont County – 1 p.m. – meet at park office

For more information about the hikes, go to the events calendar on the DNR website.

America's State Parks is committed to promoting outdoor recreation in state parks as a way to address obesity, especially among children.  Getting kids outside and unplugged from video games and other electronic media creates a unique connection with nature that promotes physical and mental well-being and encourages creativity and stewardship of our shared resources.

MEDIA CONTACT: Todd Coffelt, Chief, State Parks Bureau, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, 515-725-8485.        

Edible Ornaments for Wildlife

Start a new classroom holiday tradition this year - decorate a tree in your schoolyard or a nearby park with edible ornaments for wildlife.  Help students make predictions about what might happen to the “treats”, who might visit them and which treats they will like the best.  Return several days later to check your treats, look for evidence of animal activity and chart your findings.

Apple and Orange Slices

Thinly slice apples and oranges, string through a bit of thread in each, and hang each piece separately from branches.

Bird Bags

Buy netting material and fill it with birdseed. Hint: Adding finely crushed eggshells to the mix will provide the birds with calcium!

Bread Ornaments

Spread peanut butter on both sides of a slice of bread.  Press coated bread into a pan of rolled oats or birdseed. Use holiday cookie cutters to cut shapes from the slices. Poke holes through your ornaments with a pencil and slip a string through.

Crackers or Cheerios Bracelet

String together salt-free crackers (think Ritz, or the types that have small holes) or Cheerios in the shape of a bracelet to slide over the tips of branches.

Millet Delight

Purchase millet from your feed and seed store; top with a red ribbon and hang it from the tree.

Orange Baskets

Hollow orange halves and fill with peanut butter (and shortening/cornmeal) and birdseed mix.

Peanut Heaven

String raw peanuts and loop them together. Finish off with a colorful ribbon.

Pinecone Pleasure

Collect pinecones of all sizes. Attach a ribbon loop to the top of each one. Combine peanut butter and oatmeal, spread the mixture over the pinecone and roll it in birdseed. Then, hang on the tree.

Popcorn Party

String together popcorn – but make sure that it's all natural; no butter or salt added.

String of Pearl

With a needle and thread, string together different kinds of grapes. For a dash of color, alternate grapes with raisins and cranberries.

Suet Loot

Melt beef fat or bacon grease and let it cool. Add birdseed, peanut butter, fruit or granola. Mesh onion bags make great suet containers and are easy to hang!

Bringing Nature into Your Classroom

Bring the outdoors inside by incorporating natural objects and nature awareness into all aspects of your curriculum. Follow these suggestions from Project Learning Tree’s Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood.

Involve the Children

• Collect natural objects (pebbles, rocks, bark, seeds, twigs, leaves, acorns, pinecones). Children can use them in the art area; display them on the Discovery Table; and sort, count, and compare them in the math area.
• Grow potted plants. Rosemary, mint, thyme, basil, and sage all grow well indoors. Install grow lights, if necessary. You can even grow lettuce and eat it!
• Adopt a classroom pet. Classroom pets can help children learn how to care for animals and provide many opportunities for observing animal behavior and physiology. Classroom animals can range from hamsters to ants. Except for some insects, wild animals do not make good pets and are often illegal to own. If you do not wish to adopt a permanent classroom pet, consider temporarily keeping ladybugs, caterpillars, or snails in a terrarium.
• Cut out animal tracks, and tape them to the floor. Place them in each animal’s walking pattern.
• Arrange glow-in-the-dark stars into constellations on the ceiling.
• Hang cutouts of clouds, birds, bats, bugs, and other airborne objects from the ceiling.
• Use a nature calendar to track daily weather, moon phases, and other natural events.
• Put a thermometer with a highly visible liquid tube and large numbers just outside a window.
• Set up a bird-feeding station outside a window. Keep binoculars and labeled pictures of common birds and animals nearby.
• Set up a sundial in a sunny window, and teach children how to mark the shadows. Place a vase or other object in the window, and record shadow lengths at a specific time of day over the course of the school year. Watch the shadows change with the seasons.
• Collect or build child-friendly instruments that replicate natural sounds (e.g., rainsticks, drums, birdcalls).
• Construct mobiles made of twigs and leaves.
• Showcase nature are projects in a designated display area.

Continue to fill the day with nature

• Play CDs of nature sounds. Play a different animal song each day of the week when the children arrive. For example, play cardinal songs on Mondays, green frog calls on Tuesday, and cricket songs on Wednesdays.
• Stock the reading corner shelves with nature-themed picture books, guides, and reference books.
• Provide nature journals for each child to use throughout the year.
• Furnish wooden flower presses for pressing leaves and other plant material.
• Supply costumes and puppets of animals and plants that live in your area.
• Provide small logs of different tree species. Children will enjoy feeling how one tree’s bark differs form the next. You will need to replace these items as necessary. Be careful bringing these items indoors as they are often homes for many insects and other living things.
• Provide fat crayons without paper wrappings to make rubbings of natural objects like leaves and bark.
• Take or collect full-color photographs of plants and animals that live in your area. Label and laminate them. Organize them into a field guide to your schoolyard, or leave them loose for children to select and sort.

Science Crafts

Try these inexpensive, not-too-messy, fun crafts to help your kids become scientists this winter. 

Dancing Spaghetti 

Mix water with baking soda in a clear glass or cup, and add a few small pieces of spaghetti to the mix. Then add vinegar. Bubbles will form on the spaghetti and make it “dance”.

Floaters & Sinkers 

Fill a large bowl, kiddie pool, or water table with water. Collect a variety of objects that sink and float. Make sure to collect objects that are similar in size but vastly different in density, like a rock and a tennis ball. Ask the kids to predict whether the object will sink or float and let them drop it in the water. Have the kids classify them into two different stacks, the “Floaters” and the “Sinkers”.

Magnetic Boxes
 

Fill a clear plastic container with metal objects (e.g., nuts and bolts, pipe cleaners, bobby pins, brads paper clips). Hand each child a strong magnet and let them experiment with lifting the objects in the container without touching them.

Shadow Boxes
You will need:

• Shoe box lid
• White glue
 (lots of it!)
• Watered down tempera paint
• Paintbrushes
• Natural objects

Collect, with your kids, a variety of natural objects from your schoolyard or a nearby park. Pour a large pool of white glue into the bottom of a shoe box or shoe box lid and let the kids drop their objects into the glue. To add a little color, the kids can drip the watered down paint onto the glue. It will take a few days for the glue to dry but then the box can be hung on the wall like a picture!

Shiny Pennies

Collect dirty tarnished pennies and have the kids soak them in a bowl of vinegar. Within a minute the pennies will be instantly “shined”. For an added bonus, rinse some of the pennies in water after the vinegar dip and then compare them to the vinegar only pennies; if you wait an hour the vinegar pennies will start to oxidize and turn green. VARIATION: use a variety of solutions to shine the pennies -  try salsa (the acid in tomatoes also acts to clean the pennies), lemon juice, soap and water, and vinegar and see which one works the best.

Plant an Indoor Sponge Garden Gardening is a great way for kids to get their hands dirty and learn about nature, but in most of the country it's impossible to do year-round. When the wind starts howling, plant a sponge garden in your classroom.

What You Need:

• new, clean sponge, any color
• small plate
• grass seeds
• water
• clear plastic wrap

What You Do:

1. Soak the sponge in water and wring out until damp. Place on plate.
2. Sprinkle with grass seeds.
3. Sprinkle with water.
4. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set plate in sunny spot.
5. Sprinkle with water as needed to keep sponge only slightly damp.

For more fun science experiments, check out the following websites:

• http://happyhooligans.ca/20-science-activities-toddlers-preschoolers/
• http://www.education.com/activity/preschool/science/
• http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/science/activities/preschooler-kindergarten/
• http://babbledabbledo.com/20-science-projects-for-preschoolers/
• http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/50091/preschool-science-experiments

Setting Up a Woodworking Center

Looking for a new way to help your students develop large and small motor skills, solve problems, encourage creativity and build self-esteem? Follow these suggestions from Project Learning Tree’s Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood to set up a woodworking center in your classroom.

Show the Tools
A woodworking center should start with a child-size workbench equipped with a vise. Introduce tools one at a time; by the end of the year, the woodworking center could feature the following equipment:

• safety goggles
• sandpaper and files in a variety of grades and sizes
• wood glue
• lightweight hammers
• large-headed nails, such as roofing nails
• short screwdrivers with large stubby handles (straight slot and Phillips)
• large screws
• hand drills
• pliers
• tape measures, rulers, and squares
• carpenter pencils and notebooks for planning and sketching
• vises or C-clamps
• small whiskbroom and dustpan for cleanup

Establish the rules

• Everyone must wear safety goggles in the woodworking area whether he or she is using tools or just watching.
• An adult must be present when tools are in use.
• Tools have special jobs and can be used only for that job. Hammers are used only for hammering nails into wood.
• Tools and supplies must be put away. Use a pegboard in the woodworking area to hold tools. Trace around the tools on the pegboard, and write the name of the tool next to the outline. This system makes it easier for children to return tools to their proper places.

Follow these suggestions

• Check home-improvement stores, lumberyards, and construction sites for scraps of wood. Soft woods are best.
• Introduce tools one at a time to small groups of students.
• Pound large-head nails (roofing nails) into stumps for practice. If your children are not ready for hammering real nails into wood, let them experiment by hammering golf tees into Styrofoam packing pieces.
• To avoid children hurting their fingers when nailing, use needle-nose pliers to hold the nail. Children can also push the nail through a small square of paper and then hold the paper to get the nail started.
• Use a vise or C-clamp to hold wood for sawing, drilling, and hammering. Most injuries happen to the hand that is holding the material-not the hand holding the tool.
• When sawing, either both hands must be on the saw or the “other” hand must be behind the child’s back.

Balancing Technology and Nature

Kids love to use technology. Technology offers an exciting way to engage children with the natural world. Use these suggestions to help your students learn new ways to interact with nature and each other.

Practice First

Before using a technology for the first time, let your students explore the technology and teach them how to use it properly. Something as a hand lens might be an entirely new experience for a child.

Get Digital

Take students on a nature walk. Give students opportunities to photograph things in their outdoor environment and bring this information back to the classroom.

Digital Recording Device

Record environmental sounds in a variety of areas around the school. Replay them in the classroom and have students use the information collected to construct a sound map.

Enhance Outdoor Exploration

View things in different ways by using magnifying lenses, bug boxes, and binoculars.

Changes in the Environment

Become aware of changes in the environment by observing sundials, windsocks, and thermometers.

Look Up Information About Nature

What kind of tree is that? There’s an app for that! See a cool bird? Google it!

• WildLab Bird - A free app that can be downloaded onto the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (try iBird Lite for Android). Use WildLab Bird to learn the basics of bird identification. This application uses audio, photographs, maps, and the process of elimination to help identify over 200 bird species. Sightings can also be entered into a national bird watching database for comparison.
• WildObs Observer - A free app that can be downloaded onto the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Android. WildObs Observer allows users to search for and identify thousands of species of mammals, birds, snakes, plants, and more. Log your wildlife encounters for your own calculations or upload them to a national database for comparison.
• Leafsnap - A free app that can be downloaded onto the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (Andriod version in development). Leafsnap uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from individual leaf photographs you take in the field. This application contains high-resolution images of bark, flowers, fruit, seeds, and more. Currently Leafsnap specializes in tree species found in the Northeastern United States, but expansion to include all US regions is underway.

The Sound of Nature

Nature is filled with an abundance of unforgettable sounds such as breezes whistling through leaves, birds singing early in the morning and streams gurgling over rocks. Use these fun ideas to help your students explore the many sounds of nature.

Forest Concert

Plan a field trip to a nearby nature area. Allow students time to sit and listen for the various sounds from nature, such as those made by birds, insects, and other animals. Talk about the different sounds you hear and ask students to imitate the sounds they heard. Try these suggestions for how to imitate the sounds:

•       birds – hoot, tweet, chirp or whistle
•        insects – buzz, hum, or chirp
•        squirrels – chatter
•       wind – rub hands together; blow air; whistle, swish, or swoosh
•        rain – tap feet or pat thighs; clap hands
•        thunder – stomp feet

Listening Walk

Before heading outside your listening walk, teach your students American Sign Language for a few outdoor sounds (e.g., wind, rain, animal, bug) – printable American Sign Language cards are available on the Project Learning Tree website.

Lead your students on an outdoor walk and use the signs to “tell” one another what you hear. Talk about the sounds heard:

• How would you describe this sound?
• Where to you think it is coming from?
• What do you think is making it?
• Can you imitate it?

Match the Sounds

Make two matching sets of plastic eggs filled with naturally “noisy” items (e.g., acorns, pebbles, grass, sand, soil, wood chips). Invite your students to shake the containers and find the matching sounds. Number the eggs and make a chart so you can record the matches.

Mother Nature Had a Prairie Song

Compose a song with your students using the sounds around the Old MacDonald theme. Instead of “Old MacDonald had a farm…,” create a new beginning that ties into the nature theme, such as “Mother Nature had a prairie” (or a pond, forest, etc.) A few animals found in a pond habitat, such as frogs and fish, would be a great verse or two. Integrating other animals and their habitats will reinforce student learning.

Natural Instruments

The natural world is home to many objects or materials that can be used to create sounds. Rubbing twigs together, crunching leaves, tapping rocks, or blowing on a blade of grass produce sounds that can be used to create “instrumental” creations. Combining natural items together would be an excellent way of making instruments. Challenge students to create their own natural sound makers to share with their classmates. Use their creations to study rhythms and other musical topics.

Recording Studio

Set up a recording studio with instruments, microphones, recording devices, CDs of nature sounds and blank media. Encourage your students to mix the sounds they make with natural sounds to create new sound recordings. Replay the new recordings and ask students to choreograph dances inspired by sounds in nature.

Reading Connections

Baylor, B. 1997. Other Way to Listen. Aladdin.

Carlstrom, N. 2000. Way to Wyatt's House. Walker & Company.

Clement, C. 1993. The Voice of the Wood. Puffin Books.

Davol, M.W. 1992. Heart of the Wood. Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.

Merriam, E. 1993. Quiet, Please. Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.

Owen, R. 1994. My Night Forest. Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.

Showers, P. 1993. Listening Walk. HarperCollins Publishers.

Taylor, B. 1997. The Other Way to Listen. Alladin.

Shapes in Nature

Looking for a fun way to teach your students how to identify common shapes – take them outside. Shapes are all around us in nature. Here are some suggestions for finding them and fun ideas for further exploration.

Dance with Leaves 
Using a variety of leaves, ask the children to show you how they might use their body 
to look like the same shape as the leaves. Scatter leaves and play a version of musical 
chairs. When music stops each child goes to a leaf and makes their body look like 

the leaf shape. 

Hide and Seek with Shapes Game

Place small natural items (such as leaves, rocks, flowers) that are basic shapes onto a tray. Cover up the tray and take one away. Let the children guess which one is missing.

I Spy with Homemade Binoculars

Make binoculars for your students by stapling, gluing or taping two toilet paper tubes together. Punch holes in the tubes and attach yarn to make a neck strap. Encourage each child to decorate their binoculars with paints or stickers.

Using their binoculars, have children play, “I Spy”, for shapes within their natural environment.  Begin by saying, “I spy with my two eyes something the shape of…..”.  Children then have to look for that item and either name it, or go stand by it, if able.

Schoolyard Shape Guide

Make a shape guide to your schoolyard. Encourage children to find things outside that are different shapes and take pictures of them. Come inside and print the pictures and make a book. Have the child dictate their picture and write it down. Make into a book to read to the class and then add to your library.

Shape Scavenger Hunt

Take pictures of shapes both inside and outside the school. Make a copy of each picture. Have your students locate where that shape is.

Shape Walk

Give each child a construction paper shape cutout and have them string them onto a necklace (a labeled shape template is available on the Project Learning Tree website).  Take a short walk outside and have them look for various shapes outside.  When you return to your classroom, hold up each shape and have them tell you what they saw outside that was that shape.

• What did you see outside shaped like a ___________?
• Which shapes did you see the most?
• Which shapes are your favorites?

Spiral Art

Coil short lengths of rope into spirals. Press them into paint or ink and use them to print on paper. Make patterns or, with pens or markers, fill in more details to create artwork.

Twig Shapes
Provide twigs in varying lengths and shapes. Let the children make the shapes with 

the twigs (printable shape cards are available on the Project Learning Tree website). You could also cut the twigs so they are fractions of each other (e.g., two red twigs are the same length as one gray twig).

Reading Connections

Carter, D.A. 1996. Colors and Shapes. Little Simon.

Cole, H. 1998. I Took a Walk. HarperCollins Publishers.
Dodds, D. 1996. The Shape of Things. Candlewick Press.

Dotlich, R. 2000. What is a Triangle? HarperCollins Publishers.

Dotlich, R. 1999. What is a Square? HarperCollins Publishers.

Hoban, T. 2000. Shapes, Shapes, Shapes. HarperCollins Publishers.

Hoban, T. 1998. So Many Circles, So Many Squares.      HarperCollins Publishers.

Pallotta, J. 2004. Icky Bug Shapes. Scholastic, Inc.

Rau, D.M. 2006. Star in My Orange: Looking for Nature's Shapes. Lerner Publishing Group. Roemer, H.B. 2004. Come to My Party and Other Shape Poems. Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated.

Rotner, S. 1992. Nature Spy. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Roy, J.R. 2005. Patterns in Nature. Benchmark Books.

Sohi, M.E. 1995. Look What I Did with a Leaf! Walker & Company.

Stockdale, S. 1999. Nature's Paintbrush: The Patterns and Colors around You. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Swinburne, S.R. 2002. Lots and Lots of Zebra Stripes: Patterns in Nature. Boyds Mills Press.

2015 Take It Outside Art Contest

Celebrating wildlife artist, Maynard Reece & Iowa Fish

Category I First Place 2014 Winner 

Ethan H

“We really had a good time doing the contest. It brought in a lot of good discussion and even the teacher aides were surprised at some of the facts I shared from the DNR website. The kids loved it.”

The Department of Natural Resources invites you to enroll your class in our fourth annual “Take It Outside” Art Contest.

This year’s contest will celebrate the great contributions of wildlife artist, Maynard Reece. Reece is considered one of the founding fathers of wildlife art. As a child, he spent many hours exploring Lake Okoboji. His teachers discovered his artistic ability at the age of 13 and entered one of his drawings in the Iowa State Fair. As a young adult, Maynard worked at what is today known as the State Historical Museum collecting specimens for the museum’s collection and painting fish to create the plates for the original publishing of Iowa Fish and Fishing – this was instrumental in launching his career as a freelance artist. Reece’s fish drawings can be viewed on the DNR website. 

Students are encouraged to use their artistic skills to create an image of their favorite Iowa fish (see the eligible fish list in the complete contest rules) in its natural habitat. Fish species fact sheets are available on the DNR Education website (click on Fact Sheets/Fish in the Document Library). Starting next month, check out our Take It Outside: Fish Iowa! blog for more information about Iowa fish and Maynard Reece.

New This Year!

We are partnering with the Wildlife Forever^® State-Fish Art^® Contest to host an Iowa State-Fish Contest in conjunction with our annual Take It Outside Art Contest. The first place artwork in each judging category will be submitted for National Awards. First place winners at the state level will be honored at the annual State-Fish Art Expo this summer.

For more information visit our website.

Complete Contest Rules
Student Entry Form
Educator Registration Form

Nature Themed Snack Ideas

Celebrate Food Day by introducing your students to healthy nature themed snacks today and throughout the school year. These “recipes” are from Growing Up WILD and Environmental Experience for Early Childhood. If you are interested in getting trained in these materials, contact our program.

No-Cook blender applesauce

6-7 small apples

½ cup sugar or honey (optional)

dash of cinnamon

2-4 tablespoons of water

Peel and cut apples. Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Ants on Log

Spread cream cheese on a carrot stick, celery stick or pretzel log. Put a row of raisin ants on top.

Spider Crackers

Spread a round cracker with cream cheese or other spread. Place another cracker on top, creating a sandwich. Tuck pretzel sticks into the edge of the sandwich to make 8 legs. Use a small amount of spread to attach eight sunflower seed eyes and another larger round cracker for the abdomen.

Dippin Bears

Mix one 8 ounce container of plain yogurt and 2 tablespoons of fruit preserves in a small bowl for dip with bear-shaped graham crackers.

Tuna Boats

Make “boats” by cutting tops of whole wheat rolls and filling with tuna salad. Add a cheese triangle “sail” with a toothpick.

Beach Snack

Pulse granola in a food processor until it looks like beach sand. Sprinkle a layer on the bottom of a clear cup and add a layer of blueberry yogurt. Add a gummy fish for a fun surprise.

Pretzel Poles

Use pretzel sticks for fishing poles and bean spread or cream cheese for bait. Have children “fish” for fish-shaped crackers.

Earth Tone Animals

Cut animal shapes out of pie dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar before baking.

Track Crackers

Spread softened cream cheese or hummus onto whole grain crackers. Arrange small strips of carrot, red pepper, or chow mein noodles on each one to resemble a bird track. Use raisins to create a cat track.

Rice Cake Owl

Spread cream cheese or other spread on a large rice cake. Add two banana slices for eyes and two raisins for pupils. Place a triangle of cheese under the eyes for a beak.

Deer Sandwiches

Cut small sandwiches in half diagonally. Orient the sandwiches so that one of their points faces “down” and becomes the deer’s noses. Press raisins into the bread for eyes and a nose. Add pretzel sticks for antlers.

Favorite Tree Hunt

Go on a “Favorite Tree Hunt” around your schoolyard or at a nearby park. Visit several trees, pointing out the bark types, leaves, seeds, and shapes. Let each child pick a “favorite tree”. Invite the children to share about their favorite tree and why they chose that particular tree.

Take pictures of the children and their favorite trees. Make a bark rubbing of the tree. Let the kids collect a leaf, seed, or twig from their tree.

Create a class Our Favorite Trees scrapbook showcasing the kids’ collections they gathered from their trees and the bark rubbings. Encourage each child to draw a picture of their favorite tree and tell why their tree is special.

Visit the “favorite trees” often, including in different seasons so the kids can see the differences.

Visit the Project Learning Tree website for a printable card you can share with parents to extend learning at home with family and friends.

Pound leaf pictures

Materials: hard wood surface; hammer with flat head; paper towels; paper or fabric (muslin) for printing; variety of leaves

Gently hammering a leaf releases its chlorophyll and makes a print of the leaf on cloth or paper. Layer, in this order, a thick small board, a paper towel, the fabric or paper on which you want to print, a leaf, and another paper towel. Begin by pounding lightly to release the color without bursting the plant cells to pieces. Lift up a corner and peak at the impression. Continue hammering if necessary. Display the pictures on a bulletin board and out of direct sunlight.

Reading Connections

Brenner, B. 1998. The Tremendous Tree Book. Boyds Mills Press.

Florian, D. 2002. Summersaults. Greenwillow Books.

Green, M.L. 2008. Underneath by Favorite Tree. PublishAmerica.

Iverson, D. 1999. My Favorite Tree: Terrific Trees of North America. Dawn Publications.

Jones, A. 2008. The Wish Trees. AuthorHouse.

Locker, T. 1995. Sky Tree: Seeing Science through Art. HarperCollins.

Romanova, N. 1992. Once There Was a Tree. Penguin Group (USA)

Ryder, J. 1991. Hello, Tree! Lodestar Books.

Sanders, S. 1997. Meeting Trees. National Geographic Society.

Camouflage Detectives

Many animals have special coloring, markings or physical features that help them blend in with their surroundings. Help your students become camouflage detectives and discover creatures hiding in plain sight around your schoolyard or a local park. How many expert hiders can you find?

Talk with your students about why animals are hard to see in nature. Ask children to describe the color, size and shape of different animals, such as squirrel, bird, turtle. Look for animals that live in trees. How are they different from animals that live in the water?  Why do some animals want to hide?  Can you find an animal that is hiding? 

Questions to probe:

What do you think might live in this area?

What color do you think they will be?

What size of creature might be here?

What do you think they need to stay alive?   

Many animals have physical features to scare away predators. In the spirit of Halloween, explore some of these “costumes” with students. Invite students to use the animal inspiration to design their own “scary” outfits. Whether they simply draw their designs or actually create them, stage a fashion show in which they explain their idea and the animal defenses that inspired it.

Camouflage Adventures

Can you find the Mitten Game?
Play a hiding game with a bright colored mitten. Have one student cover their eyes. Hide the mitten. The class helps guide the “finder” using their body language…..COLD: close to the floor, means you are not near the mitten.  WARM: hands to the ceiling, means you are getting close to the glove.  Was it easy to find the bright mitten?

Let’s try a dark mitten. Play the game again and compare. Was it harder to find the dark mitten?  Would a clear glove be hard to find? If you were an animal would you want to be easy for find? What would you wear if you were in front of your school?

Hide and Seek

Encourage children to bring in old T-shirts. Take art supplies outside and let children decorate the shirts. Challenge some to use a bright color and others to try to create patterns and colors that would blend in with the local environment. When the shirts are dry, have children pull them on over their clothes, and play a game of hide-and-seek. Which children are easiest to find?

Reading Connections

Barrett, J. 1988. Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Dell, P. J. 2006. Why Do Tigers Have Stripes? A Book about Camouflage. Capstone Press.

Fredericks, A. D., and K. Povelite. 2000. Clever Camouflagers. T&N Children’s Publishing.

Gilpin, D. 2010. 3-D Close Up: Animal Camouflage. Advantage Publishers Group.

Goodman, S. E. and M. Doolittle. 2001. Claws, Coats, and Camouflage: The Ways Animals Fit Into Their Worlds. Lerner Publishing Group.

Heller, R. 1992. How to Hide a Butterfly: and other insects. Penguin Group Inc (USA).

Heller, R. 1995. How to Hide a Meadow Frog: and Other Amphibians. Penguin Group (USA).

Helman, A., and G. Jecan. 2008. Hide and Seek: Nature’s Best Vanishing Acts. Walker & Company.

Kalman, B.  2010. How do animals hide? Crabtree Publishing Company.

Lionni, L.  2000. A Color of His Own. Random House Children's Books.

Otto, C. and M. Lloyd. 1996. What Color is Camouflage?. HarperCollins Publishers.

Pledger, M. 2004. Hiding in the Woods: A Maurice Pledger Nature Trails Book. Silver Dolphin Books.

Rustad, M. 2009. Animal Camouflage in the Forest. Capstone Press.

Tildes, P. L. 2000. Animals in Camouflage. San Val.

Whitehouse, P. 2003. Hiding in a Forest. Demco Media.

Wood, A. J., and N. Palin. 1996. Hidden Pictures: Find a Feast of Camouflaged Creatures. Lerner Publishing Group.

Fall Trees For Kids Grants Awarded

Trees For Kids will fund 17 different projects totaling $67,000 to give more than 1,400 students hands-on experience planting 639 trees, and learning about the benefits that trees can bring to Iowa schools and communities.  

Each planting event will have an educational component with the students which include a planting demonstration. More than 225 adult volunteers will assist at the planting events, and given training to assist student with proper planting. Project Learning Tree training is provided to educators to create lesson plans and utilize curriculum with the planted trees. 

Grants are awarded to the following schools and groups: Chariton Housing Authority, Charles City High School; Clinton CSD; Decorah High School; Denison Arbor Committee; Durant Elementary, Sumner; City of Eddyville; Gilmore City; City of Milo; Ottumwa CSD – Liberty Elementary; City of Pleasant Hill; Roland-Story FFA; City of Sergeant Bluff; Clark Elementary, Sioux City; City of Slater; South Tama County FFA; and Woodbine Community Foundation. 

Forty-two different species will be planted throughout the state to help provide diversity to Iowa’s urban forests.  

The environmental impact of planting trees can now be quantified using a USDA Forest Service Tool called i-tree design.  This tool was utilized on each grant to determine energy benefits, stormwater runoff reduction, and carbon sequestration for the useful life of the trees.  It is available at http://www.itreetools.org/design.php. 

The useful life is estimated at 60 years, and crown growth modeling over the lifespan of the trees is utilized to provide accurate and increasing benefits over the lifespan of the tree.

Over their 60 year lifespan, these trees will save more than 189,000 kilowatt hours of electricity by shading buildings and more than 54,600 therms by slowing down winds and reducing building heat loss.  

Those trees will help reduce flooding throughout by intercepting over 38,700,000 gallons of storm water and will reduce over 9,000,000 pounds of atmospheric carbon dioxide through CO2 sequestration and decreased energy production needs and emissions.  

Trees planted around schools and in neighborhoods have also shown to give youth increased levels of concentration, lower levels of aggression, lower levels of obesity, and fewer symptoms of ADHD.  

Communities are made more livable by having a healthy, diverse tree canopy.  

The Trees for Kids and Trees for Teens grant program is funded by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Forestry Bureau, MidAmerican Energy, Black Hills Energy, Alliant Energy, Iowa Bankers Association, Trees Forever, Iowa Tree Farm Committee, and the Iowa Woodland Owners Association.

For information about how to apply for a spring Trees For Kids grant, go to our website or contact the grant coordinator at laura.wagner@dnr.iowa.gov. 

Who Lives in a Tree?

Fall is a perfect time to explore where the squirrels and birds live within the tree branches. For more activities to get kids outside exploring this fall, visit our Early Childhood Classroom Resources webpage.

Ask the children to describe their homes.

• What materials make up your house?
• What rooms do you have in your house?
• What do you do in your house?
• Where do you eat and sleep?
• To you have a yard to play in?

Explain that animals and plants have homes, too.  Using a tree or picture of a tree, ask:  Have you ever seen an animal using a tree as its home or habitat?  What animals have you seen eating or sleeping in a tree?

Create a ven diagram comparing the children’s houses to animal houses. Make a dictation on chart paper with each child listing an animal or plant they have seen in or on a tree. Talk about the animals on your chart and encourage the children to describe their personal experiences they have had with any of those listed.  As you talk about each animal, ask the children to make the animal’s voice. 

Tree Walk

Go on a tree walk to find examples of animals and plants that depend on trees in your schoolyard or surrounding neighborhood. Look for:

• animals (e.g. squirrels, birds, insects) living in tree holes or nests, hiding from predators, eating tree fruits, perching or nesting in tree branches
• vines climbing up tree trunks to seek and soak up sunlight
• lichens growing on bark
• mushrooms growing on dead or dying trees
• snags or fallen trees providing homes for many animals and plants

Investigate a few trees up close - collect some of the fallen objects. Take pictures of things that are too large to collect or are still attached to the tree.

• look around for fallen bark, fruits, leaves, nuts, seeds or twigs that might show signs of animal or plant life
• look on the ground for animal droppings that show animals live in the tree or eat the tree’s fruits or seeds. Look- don’t touch!
• look on the bark for scratch marks caused by sharp claws or antlers.

Write a class book about animals that live in trees.  Encourage children to choose an animal that they have seen in a tree.  Children can add a page to the book by making a drawing of the animal in the tree and dictating text about how their animal uses the tree (e.g., for a home, for sleeping, eating, protection, etc.) 

Visit the Project Learning Tree website for a printable card you can share with parents to extend learning at home with family and friends.

Reading Connections

Allen, J. and S. Mendez. 2009. Animal Homes. Kingfisher.

Bishop, Nic. 2004. Forest Explorer: A Life-Size Field Guide. Scholastic, Inc.

Brenner, B. 2004. One Small Place in a Tree. HarperCollins Publishers.

Canizares, S. 1997. Who Lives in a Tree? Scholastic, Inc.

Gregoire, E. 2004. Whose House Is This?: A Look at Animal Homes. Capstone Press.

Hoberman, M. A. and B. Fraser. 2007. A House is a House for Me. Penguin Group (USA).

Hutchins, P. 1990. Good-Night, Owl! Aladdin.

Lock, D. 2007. Animals at Home. DK Publishing, Inc.

Lyon, G. 1998. Counting on the Woods. DK Children.

Magellan, M. 1990. Home At Last. Humanics Children's House.

Milbourne, A. 2014. Peek Inside Animal Homes. EDC Publishing.

National Geographic Society. 1987. Animal Architects. National Geographic Society.

Peck, J. and V. Petrone. 2005. Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Robinson, T. 2000. Tobias, the Quig and the Rumplenut Tree. Winslow Press.

Salas, L. 2006. Do Turtles Sleep in Treetops?: A Book About Animal Homes. Capstone Press.

Schwartz, D. 1999. In a Tree. Gareth Stevens Publications.

Udry, J. 1987. A Tree Is Nice. HarperCollins Publishers.

Van Laan, N. 2000. A Tree for Me. Random House Children's Books.

Ward, J. 2005. Forest Bright, Forest Night. Dawn Publications.