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.