Celebrate International Mud Day - June 29

Get muddy and have fun with these Mudluscious ideas from KinderNature.org.

Magic Mud
Put a scoop of cornstarch in a bowl. Add just enough water so you or your tot can stir. Press down on it. What happens? Pick some up in your hand and hold your hand still. Now what happens? Skills developed: Observation skills, sense of touch, and language.

Paint with Mud

Use paint brushes, paper, and mud to paint pictures. Use different types of soil, using muffin tins for each type. Notice the different textures, colors and smells. Skills developed: Creative, language, sense of sight, and touch.

Sand Shakes

Fill a clear plastic jar with water and sand. Shake. Observe. What happens? Leave it sitting for a while and observe. What happened? Shake again. What happens? Skills developed: Thinking, language, observation skills, and gross motor.

Clean Mud

Tear up pieces of brown paper towels (or toilet paper) and put in a large plastic container. Add shavings of Ivory soap and water until desired consistency. Mix, squish, and squeeze. Make patties, pancakes, and pies! Skills developed: Creative, motor skills, sense of sight, and touch.

Explore the Fascinating World of Grasshoppers

Take children outside to a grassy area to look for and observe grasshoppers. Have children bring their own notebooks or field/nature journals to draw pictures or make notes in.  Remind children to be respectful of the grasshoppers. Survey which plants they grasshoppers are eating. Find out where they hide.

 

Create a terrarium together that will house several grasshoppers for a week. Use soil and grass (return to field study area to collect or collect while out observing grasshoppers).  Include places for the grasshoppers to climb and hide. Providing water is not necessary because grasshoppers do not drink water, they get enough water from the food they eat.  Be sure to provide fresh grass or leafy plants, as well as dry food such as grass seed or oatmeal, every day for the grasshoppers to eat. Let the children be active participants in setting up the terrarium. Tips for terrarium preparation and care are available on the Growing Up WILD website.

 

Once your terrarium is set up, return to your grasshopper field study location and carefully capture and collect four to six grasshoppers using insect nets and bug jars. Place the grasshoppers in the terrarium.

 

Over the course of a week give children time every day to observe and monitor the grasshoppers. Ask:  What do you want to learn about grasshoppers? How can you find out the answers to your questions? For younger children you may want to have a set observation for each day.  For example, Day One: observe the grasshopper’s bodies. What do you notice? Count the legs and antennae. How can you tell the grasshoppers have wings? Describe their eyes Day Two: observe the movement of the grasshoppers. Describe how the grasshoppers walk. How do they jump? Are they fast? Do they jump high/far?

 

At the end of the week when the study is over, return the grasshoppers to the location where you collected them.  Use the information you gathered as a class to create your own book about grasshoppers.

Trees For Kids Grant Available For Fall

Trees For Kids grant applications are now available for the fall 2016 grant cycle. The Trees For Kids grant program is designed to provide hands-on educational opportunities for Iowa youth by planting trees on school grounds and other public places. 

Iowa DNR forestry staff are currently setting up site visits with schools and communities interested in applying for the grant, which pays up to $5,000 in tree and mulch cost, and provides educational tree planting demonstrations to participating adults and youth.

This past spring, 20 schools and/or communities received more than $62,000 in Trees For Kids grants to plant more than 900 trees around the state.  Over the life of these trees, they will save more than 310,000 kilowatt hours of electricity by shading buildings and more than 68,000 therms, by slowing winds and reducing building heat loss.   

During their lifespan, the 900 trees planted this spring will help reduce flooding by intercepting more than 39.8 million gallons of storm water, and will reduce more than 5.3 million 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. 

To download the grant application, go to:  http://www.iowadnr.gov/Environment/Forestry/UrbanForestry.aspx

For more information, contact Laura Wagner, Iowa Department of Natural Resources Forestry Bureau, at 515-725-8456.