Getting kids outside during the winter

Cold temperatures and snowy school yards make it more of a challenge to get kids outside. Getting outside during the winter months can be well worth it though! Below are some fun ways to get children outside in the snow connecting with nature!

Themed winter nature walk ideas:

• Pretend to be different animals walking through the snow
•  Build animals out of snow 
• Shape walk
• Sound walk
• Paint the snow with spray bottles and food coloring

Animals in winter discussion/thinking ideas:

How do animals live outside in the winter? How do they walk? What do they eat? How do they find water/what do they drink? Where do they sleep? How do they stay warm? (Follow up with a study based on children’s answers/interest).

Outside Activity Links

Outdoor winter snow kitchen

http://www.sunhatsandwellieboots.com/2013/01/snow-kitchen-outdoor-play.html

Snow Day: colored snow

http://www.teachpreschool.org/2012/02/snow-scientists-at-play/

Colored Ice “rocks” (would be a fun way to explore color wheel)

http://hurrayic.blogspot.com/2008/02/colored-glass-tutorial-for-kids.html

Make snow critters

http://www.babble.com/home/9-fun-snow-activities-for-the-whole-family/

Build a Snowman for the birds

http://www.birdsandblooms.com/blog/build-a-snowman-for-the-birds/

Craft Ideas

Snowman Snow Measurer

http://blog.playdrhutch.com/2013/01/30/diy-snowman-snow-measurer/

Snack

Tortilla Snowflakes

http://nurturestore.co.uk/tortilla-snowflakes

Books

Bancroft, H. 1997. Animals in Winter. HarperCollins Children's Books.

Barasch, L. 1993. A Winter Walk. Ticknor & Fields.

Berger, M. 1995. What Do Animals Do in Winter?: How Animals Survive the Cold. Ideals Publications.

Brett, J. 1996. The Mitten. Penguin Group.

Butler, M.C. 2006. One Winter's Day. Good Books.

Cole, J. 1973. Plants in Winter. Harpercollins.

Denslow, S.P. 2005. In the Snow. HarperCollins Children's Books.

Dixon, A. 2002. Winter Is. Alaska Northwest Books.

Evans, L. 2002. Winter: An Alphabet Acrostic. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Finnegan, M.P. 2002. Winter: Signs of the Season around North America. Capstone Press.

George, J.C. 2001. Winter Moon. HarperCollins Publishers.

Gerber, C., and L. Evans. 2009. Winter Trees. Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.

Glaser, L. 2002. It's Winter. Millbrook Press.

Good, E.W. 1994. White Wonderful Winter! Good Books.

Lawlor, E.P. 1998. Discover Nature in Winter: Things to Know and Things to Do. Stackpole Books.

McDonnell, J. 1993. Winter: Tracks in the Snow. Scholastic Library Publishing.

Moore, E. 2005. The Magic School Bus Sleeps for the Winter. Scholastic, Inc.

National Geographic Society. 1997. Animals In Winter. National Geographic Children's Books.

Pascoe, E. 2000. How and why Animals Prepare for Winter. Creative Teaching Press, Incorporated.

Sams, C.R. 2000. Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy. Sams, Carl, R. II, Photography.

Sayre, A.P. 1998. Home at Last: A Song of Migration. Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated.

Seuling, B. 2002. Winter Lullaby. Harcourt Children's Books.

Stewart, M., and C. R. Bergum. 2009. Under the Snow. Peachtree Publishers, Ltd.

Wildsmith, B. 1991. Animal Seasons. Oxford University Press.

Valentines for the Birds

Valentine suet cakes

You will need:

·         Suet

·         Bird seed

·         Heart shaped cookie cutters

·         Large paper clips

·         Cookie sheet

·         Wax paper

·         Freezer

Directions:

Mix suet with bird seed. Squish it into cookie cutters. Remove the cookie cutters. Unroll paper clips once (so you have a “hook”) and push circle end into suet cake. Place on waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Place in freezer. Once they are frozen hang them outside for the birds!

Optional: Add peanut butter, unsalted nuts, dried fruits, or dried corn to your suet cakes.

Suet is a high-calorie, high-energy food that is especially valuable to birds during winter. When it is cold outside birds needs to consume more calories to maintain their increased metabolic rate, suet fits that bill well!

Valentines for the Birds at McFarland Park in Ames

Are you looking for a fun, family outdoor activity for Valentine’s Day? Join IDNR AmeriCorps members as they make Valentines for the birds at McFarland Park in Ames February 15^th! They will be making suet cakes, and observing bird species for the 17^th Annual Backyard Bird Count. Activities are from 1pm to 4pm. There will be snacks and beverages. For more information or questions contact Megan at 515-520-0528.

It’s a Windy Day!

What is wind?

Wind is air in motion. Wind is produced by the uneven heating of the Earth’s surface by the sun. As the sun warms the Earth’s surface the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the Earth receive direct rays of sun and others do not. Warm air weighs less than cold air and rises; cold air moves in and replaces the warm air. This movement of cold and warm air creates wind.

Wind Study

Ask children about their experiences with wind. Have they felt the wind? Seen the wind blow? What do they think causes wind?

Using a fan, or their own breath, experiment with blowing objects like the wind. Have a variety of objects, from light-weight feathers to heavy pebbles, ask the children which objects they think the wind can blow? Make a chart with their predictions. Blow the experimental objects. Record your findings on the chart. Were their predictions accurate? Why or why not?

Study the Wind Outside

Make a chart and keep track of the wind daily. Is it windy today? Which direction is the wind blowing? How strong is the wind blowing? Have a scale for deciding this, either check the actual speed with a local weather service or create your own scale based on watching a windsock outside. Take a walk in the wind on different days to feel the different wind. Talk about the benefits (cool breeze in summer, wind energy, sailboats, seed and pollen dispersal for plants) of wind and the damage wind can cause. Have they ever been in a sailboat? Do they enjoy the breeze in the summer? Have they ever flown a kite?

Wind Craft

PBSparents: DIY Windsock

http://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-for-kids/windsock-craft/

Wind Rhyme

The Playful Wind

The wind came out to play one day. (Cup hands and pretend to blow like the wind)

He swept the clouds out of his way. (Make a sweeping motion with hands)

He blew the leaves and away they flew. (Make fluttering motions with fingers)

The trees bent low and their branches did too! (Lift arms up high and lower them)

The wind blew the great big ships at sea. (Repeat sweeping motion)

The wind blew the kite away from me. (Cup hand over eyes and tilt head as if watching kite go)

Book List

Bauer, M. D., and J. Wallace. 2003. Wind. Simon Spotlight.

Cobb, V., and J. Gorton. 2003. I Face the Wind. HarperCollins Publishers.

Dorros, A. 1990. Feel the Wind. HarperCollins Publishers.

Frost, H. 2004. Weather: Wind. Coughlan Publishing.

Hutchins, P. 1993. The Wind Blew. Aladdin.

Kamkwamba, W., B. Mealer, and E. Zunon. 2012. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Penguin Group (USA).

Markle, S., and J. Holub. 1998. Windy Weather Science. Scholastic.

Bird Beak Buffet

All birds have beaks that they use for grasping and eating their food.  Bird beaks are all shapes and sizes which enable them to eat certain kinds of foods.  Seed and nut eaters usually have short, thick beaks for cracking open seeds.  Nectar feeders have long slender beaks for reaching into flowers.  Other birds have beaks that are suited for meat eating, filtering, spooning, chiseling, or pinching.  Bird beaks are an example of an adaptation.  Adaptations are a special feature or behavior that allow an animal to survive in its environment.

For this activity gather a set of eating utensils (spoon, fork, chopsticks and toothpicks) for each child as well as a variety of shapes of cooked pasta (be sure to have round ones, as well as long thin ones), and sunflower or pumpkin seeds.  Begin by asking children what kinds of food they like to eat and how they eat these foods.  Why do they eat some foods with a fork and others with a spoon or even their hands?  Ask children what animals use to eat their food.  Have they ever seen a bird eat?  What does a bird use to eat its food?  Allow the children to use the different utensils to try and eat the various kinds of pasta and seeds.  Which utensils worked best for which food?  Have the children sort the foods by the utensil that worked to eat that food.

Next use various “tools” to imitate bird’s beaks, such a cup for a pelican’s pouch, a turkey baster for a hummingbird’s long slender beak, tongs for the long, thin beaks of shorebirds, and tweezers for the strong, pointed beaks of woodpeckers.  Allow each child to try out the different bird beaks at various stations that contain different bird “foods” such as bowl of water with plastic fish for the pelican, a tall vase of water for the hummingbird, plastic worms in sand or soil for the shorebirds, and rice tucked into the bark of a log for the woodpeckers. After each child has had a chance to explore the different stations ask them: Which bird beak worked best for each food?  Why?  What kind of food might each bird eat?  Why do they think so?  Can looking at a bird’s beak help us guess what it eats? 

For this and other great ideas use Growing Up WILD’s “Bird Beak Buffet” and the included supplemental materials.

Looking for an extension of this activity?  February 14-17 is the annual Great Backyard Bird Count and everyone can participate!  Visit their website at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc for more information.  Bird feeders are a wonderful place to observe and count birds.  If you are lucky enough to have a bird feeder outside your classroom window observing and counting birds there would be a wonderful way for children to participate in the GBBC.  If not, you can create bird feeders as a class using clean, used milk cartons or jugs or even pinecones.  The feeders can be hung outside where they are easily observable from the classroom.

Feeding and Observing Birds:

http://www.pbs.org/parents/catinthehat/activity_feeding_observing_birds.html

Milk carton bird feeder:

http://www.greeneducationfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=667:activity-milk-carton-bird-feeder&catid=137:greenthumbactivities&Itemid=434

Feeding wild birds:

http://www.osweb.com/kidzkorner/feeder.htm

Book List

Arnosky, J. 1997. Bird Watcher. Random House Children's Books.

Arnosky, J. 1993. Crinkleroot's 25 Birds Every Child Should Know. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Arnosky, J. 1992. Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Birds. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Bailey, D. 1992. Birds: How to Watch and Understand the Fascinating World of Birds. DK Publishing, Inc.

Bushnell, J. 1996. Sky Dancer. HarperCollins Publishers.

Collard, S.B. 2002. Beaks! Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.

Garelick, M. 1995. What Makes a Bird a Bird? Mondo Publishing.

Herkert, B. 2001. Birds in Your Backyard. Dawn Publications.

Latimer, J. et al. 1999. Backyard Birds (Peterson Field Guides for Young Naturalists). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Oppenheim, J.F. and B. Reid. 1987. Have You Seen Birds?. Scholastic, Inc.

Pascoe, E., et al. 2000. How and Why Birds Use Their Bills (How and Why Series). Creative Teching Press, Inc.

Rabe, T. and A. Ruiz. 1998. Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library). Random House Children's Books.

Rockwell, A.F. 1992. Our Yard Is Full of Birds. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Sill, C.P. 1997. About Birds: A Guide for Children. Peachtree Publishers.

Weidensaul, S. and T. Taylor. 1998. Birds (Audubon Society First Field Guide Series). Scholastic, Inc.

Yolen, J. 1999. Bird Watch: A Book of Poetry. Putnam Juvenile.  

Zim, H.S. 1989. Birds. St. Martin's Press.

Classroom Animals
Animals can be a wonderful resource to enhance learning and understanding in the classroom. Many children today have limited exposure to wildlife and animals. Having an animal in the classroom allows children to observe and study an animal first hand. It allows for the observation of animal life cycles, and behaviors. Classroom animals also teach students responsibility as they care for the needs of the animal. It teaches students to treat animals with respect, understand their needs and meet those needs.

Classroom animals must be chosen with care. Considerations:

-Safety of your students is first and foremost, chose an animal that is appropriate for the age-level of your students.

-Consider the needs of the animal and whether or not you and your class will be able to provide what the animal needs.

-Keep in mind the logistics of keeping a classroom animal. Is it an animal that can be left at school during weekends? What is the plan for holidays? Who is going to provide vet care if the need arises?

-Is there a permit required to obtain and/or keep your chosen animal? What are the regulations of your school district? (For example, in Iowa, you may collect and keep tadpoles and frogs if you have a valid fishing license. Research your state laws and regulations before you obtain any animal.)

Fish, frogs, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and small mammals are common classroom pets. Also consider ant farms, worm farms, and insects. Consider having an “observation” tank or aquarium that can house various animals through the year on a revolving basis. For example, use it to observe grasshoppers for a week in the fall, spiders during the winter, and tadpoles in the spring.

Links

Pets in the Classroom (offers grants to help pay for pet supplies for classroom pets)

http://www.petsintheclassroom.org/

Pet Smart: Teacher’s Guide to Classroom Pets

http://promotions.petsmart.com/landing/teachers-guide/

Snow

The white snow and whistling winds of winter have officially set in and it is the perfect time of year to play with and observe snow!

If possible, take students outside on a winter walk to observe the snow, let them touch it, smell it, listen as they crunch it, walk on it etc. Allow them to share their own observations. For example ask:  What does the snow feel like? Is it cold? Warm? What does it smell like? What does it sound like when you walk on it?  What do you think would happen to the snow if we brought it inside? Why?

When you are done exploring and playing outside bring a container of snow inside to observe as it melts. Ask the children why they think it melted. Is there anything they could have done to keep the snow from melting inside? Listen to and record their ideas and then do the classroom experiment below.

Insulation experiment:

Ask children what they wear when they go outside in the winter? Why do they wear these? Do the extra layers keep them warm? Would layers keep the snow/ice cubes cold? Explain that the layers they wear work as insulation to keep them warm. Insulation traps air and keeps the temperature the same or slows down the change of the temperature.

You are going to do an experiment to see if you can wrap snowballs or ice cubes in insulation to prevent them from melting in your classroom.  Ask the children what they think would prevent the ice/snowballs from melting (or use previously discussed ideas from above). Keep a list of their suggestions. Discuss as a class the ideas that you want to try. Pick the ones that you are going to try and gather the supplies that you need. Some suggestions for insulation for the ice/snowballs might be newspaper/paper, hats/mittens, aluminum foil, tissue etc…let the children lead the experiment.

Once you have decided on the insulation that you are going to use, gather snowballs from outside or use previously frozen ice cubes and place each one in a separate container. Wrap each snowball in its chosen insulator and place in its own container. Be sure to leave on ice cube/snowball without insulation to act as your “control” to see how fast the ice cubes/snowballs would otherwise melt inside.  Make predictions about what you think is going to happen to the ice cubes/snowballs.

Over the course of the day observe your ice cubes/snow balls and record what is happening. Take pictures so you can create a display board of your experiment to display in your classroom. As you observe the ice cubes/snowballs ask the kids to make observations about what is happening. Is it what they thought was going to happen? Why or why not? Why do they think it turned out the way it did?  What else do we use insulation for? Record your classroom results and observations.

In addition, bring snow into the classroom and place it in one of your centers in a water table and allow the children to play with it as it melts. Observe how it gets sticky before it melts. When was it the easiest to build with? Why? What can you do with frozen? Melted?

Book List

Bancroft, H. 1997. Animals in Winter. HarperCollins Children's Books.

Barasch, L. 1993. A Winter Walk. Ticknor & Fields.

Berger, M. 1995. What Do Animals Do in Winter?: How Animals Survive the Cold. Ideals Publications.

Brett, J. 1996. The Mitten. Penguin Group.

Buehner, C. 2002. Snowmen at Night. Dial.

Butler, M.C. 2006. One Winter's Day. Good Books.

Cartwright, A. 1990. The Winter Hedgehog. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Cole, J. 1973. Plants in Winter. Harpercollins.

Conrad, H. 2001. Lights of Winter: Winter Celebrations Around the World. Lightport Books. 

Denslow, S.P. 2005. In the Snow. HarperCollins Children's Books.

Dixon, A. 2002. Winter Is. Alaska Northwest Books.

Evans, L. 2002. Winter: An Alphabet Acrostic. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Fallon, J. 2005. Snowball Fight. Dutton Juvenile.

Finnegan, M.P. 2002. Winter: Signs of the Season around North America. Capstone Press.

Fleming, D. 2001. Time to Sleep. Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated.

Florian, D. 1999. Winter Eyes. Greenwillow Books.

Freedman, R. 1981. When Winter Comes. Penguin Young Readers Group.

Gershator, P. 2001. When It Starts to Snow. Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated.

Glaser, L. 2002. It's Winter. Millbrook Press.

Good, E.W. 1994. White Wonderful Winter! Good Books.

Hader, B. 2005. The Big Snow. Simon & Schuster Children's.

Hirschi, R. 1996. Winter. Penguin Group Incorporated.

Hiscock, B. 1995. When Will It Snow? Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Jones, J.B. 2001. Who Lives in the Snow? Rinehart P.

Kirk, D. 2004. Snow Dude. Hyperion.

Kroll, L. 2003. Winter, Awake! SteinerBooks, Incorporated.

Lawlor, E.P. 1998. Discover Nature in Winter: Things to Know and Things to Do. Stackpole Books.

McDonnell, J. 1993. Winter: Tracks in the Snow. Scholastic Library Publishing.

Minor, W. 1996. Red Fox Running. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Moncure, J.B. 2000. In Winter. Child's World, Incorporated.

Moore, E. 2005. The Magic School Bus Sleeps for the Winter. Scholastic, Inc.

Moutran, J.S. 1987. Story of Punxsutawney Phil, "the Fearless Forecaster". Literary Publications.

Murray, M.D. 2003. Don't Wake Up The Bear. Marshall Cavendish Inc.

National Geographic Society. 1997. Animals In Winter. National Geographic Children's Books.

Partridge, E. 1992. Moon Glowing. Penguin Young Readers Group.

Pascoe, E. 2000. How and why Animals Prepare for Winter. Creative Teaching Press, Incorporated.

Pfeffer,W. 2003. The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice. Dutton Juvenile.

Prelutsky, J. 1984. It's Snowing! It's Snowing! Greenwillow Books.

Sabuda, R. 2005. Winter's Tale: An Original Pop-up Journey. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Sams, C.R. 2000. Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy. Sams, Carl, R. II, Photography.

Schnur, S. 2002. Winter: An Alphabet Acrostic. Clarion Books; Library Binding edition.

Seuling, B. 2002. Winter Lullaby. Harcourt Children's Books.

Stewart, P. 1999. Little Bit of Winter. HarperCollins Children's Books.

Stojic, M. 2002. Snow. Crown Books for Young Readers.

Stringer, L. 2006. Winter Is the Warmest Season. Harcourt Children's Books.

Thayer, T. 2001. Winter. Lerner Publishing Group.

Thomson, R. 1989. Winter. Scholastic Library Publishing.

Vestergaard, H. 2004. Hello, Snow! Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Wellington, M. 2000. Bunny's First Snowflake. Penguin Group Incorporated.

Wildsmith, B. 1991. Animal Seasons. Oxford University Press.

Yolen, J. and J. Stemple. 2005. Snow, Snow: Winter Poems for Children. Boyd Mills Press.

Tracks!

Wild animals are all around us, even in the winter. Most wild animals hide from us and so can be difficult to observe.  Luckily, wild animals often leave clues about themselves behind that we can find.  One of the biggest clues wildlife leaves behind are footprints or tracks.  By finding and observing animal tracks you can learn a lot about the animals that left them, such as, what kind of animal it was, where they were going, how many there were and what they were doing.  A whole wildlife story can be told by looking at footprints!  Winter is a wonderful time for looking for animal tracks because snow captures footprints well.

Take children on a walk around the schoolyard, backyard or local park to look for animal tracks.  If you are fortunate enough to have a bird feeder nearby that is a wonderful spot to find bird tracks.  Also look for squirrel tracks next to trees and deer tracks at the edge of wooded areas.  Encourage the children to share their observations.  Ask: What kind of animal do they think the tracks you found are from? What do they think the animal was doing?  Where was it going? Why?  As a class make up stories about what the animal was doing and where it was going.  When you get back to the classroom record your collective story and have the children draw pictures to illustrate it.  Collect the bits of story and save it as a new classroom book!  (Don't forget to have the children observe their own tracks in the snow too!)

Then when you get back to the classroom make tracks of your own!  You will need animal tracks stamps or stencils, butcher paper, paint, water and towels.  Lay out butcher paper and let each child remove their shoes and socks, dip their feet in paint and walk across the butcher paper.  Also, allow each child to use stamps or stencils to make tracks on the butcher paper.  Ask the children what they observe?  Were everyone’s tracks the same?  Why or why not? 

For snack time make “track crackers” with spread (cream cheese, hummus or something spreadable), crackers and veggies, chow mein noodles and dried fruit.  Arrange bits of carrots, noodles and/or raisins to make tracks on your crackers!

For more fun ideas use Project WILD’s Growing Up WILD “Tracks!”

Book List

Arnosky, J. 1998. Animal Tracker. Random House Value Publishing, Inc.

Arnosky, J. 1979. Crinkleroot's Book of Animal Tracks and Wildlife Signs. Penguin Group (USA).

Arnosky, J. 1995. I See Animals Hiding. Scholastic.

Arnosky, J. 1994. Crinkleroot's Twenty-Five Mammals Every Child Should Know. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Arnosky, J. 2008. Wild Tracks!  A Guide to Nature's Footprints. Sterling Publishing.

Boring, M. and L. Garrow. 1996. Rabbits, Squirrels, and Chimpmunks (Take-Along Guide). T&N Children's Publishing.

Dingwall, L. 1994. Deer (Getting to Know Nature's Children Series). Grolier Academic Reference.

Dorros, A. 1991. Animal Tracks. Scholastic, Inc

George, L. B. 1999. In the Snow: Who's Been Here?. HarperCollins Publishers.

Giogas, V. 2007. In My Backyard. Sylvan Dell Publishing.

Herkert, B. 2001. Birds in Your Backyard. Dawn Publications.

MacLulich, C. 1996. Animal Feet. Scholastic, Inc.

Nail, J.D. and H. Skudder. 1994. Whose Tracks Are These? A Clue Book for Familiar Forest Animals. Rinehart Publishing.

Ricci, C. and S. Hall. 2003. Follow Those Feet! (Dora the Explorer Ready-to-Read, Level 1). Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.

Robertson, K. 1986. Signs along the River: Learning to Read the Natural Landscape. Rinehart.

Rockwell, A. 1992.  Our Yard is Full of Birds. Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishers.

Ruurs, M. 2007. In My Backyard. Tundra.

Sams, C.R. and J. Stoick. 2000. Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy. Carl R. Sams II Photography.

Selsam, M. E. and M.D. Hill. 1999. Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints. HarperCollins Publishers.

Selsam, M.E. and J. Hunt. 1991. Keep Looking! Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Sill, C. 1997. About Birds: A Guide for Children. Peachtree Publishers.

Wiesmuller, D. 2003. In the Blink of an Eye. Walker & Company.

Wolff, A. 2006. Stella and Roy Go Camping. Yosemite Association.

Yee, W.H. 2007. Tracks in the Snow. Square Fish.