Celebrate a Summer of Green!

10 Ways for Kids to Connect with Nature this Summer

1. Visit a park or garden and collect photos, drawings, words and other reminders of your visit and put them in a nature journal.

2. Take a nature hike and learn the six parts of most plants and their functions. Start a plant book and, after your hike, learn more about the plants you studied on the Internet.

3. Start a "learning garden" in your backyard or in a neighborhood plot and keep a photographic diary of how it grows.

4. Volunteer at a local Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup™ event (www.kab.org).

5. During a nature walk, make a list of nature words, then explore how they are spelled in other languages (www.kidsgardening.org).

6. Walk around your neighborhood using your senses of sight, hearing, smell and touch and record what you find in a nature journal. Include those sounds you can’t hear such as a spider weaving its web or dew on the grass.

7. Go to your gardening center and plant a flowerpot that you have painted for Mother’s Day (May 13) and Father’s
Day (June 17).

8. Plant a tree in your backyard and monitor its growth through pictures. Have someone take your picture every birthday next to the tree to dramatize how you and the tree grow.

9. Buy and plant a packet of wildflower seeds that will thrive in your region and, as they grow, identify what they are and record how they develop and what bees and insects visit them.

10. Visit your county fair and the building where fruits, vegetables
and flowers are judged. Take along something from your garden and compare it to the fair entries.

Source: The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company

Other possible examples:

· Build and cultivate an outdoor compost pile with dead plants, food leftovers, grass clippings and the like and then record how the pile eventually produces rich soil complete with earthworms.

· Create a habitat for a type of wildlife such as a butterfly or hummingbird found in your area and determine what you will need to entice it to take up residence and stay in your habitat.

· Collect leaves from various kinds of trees. Create stamps by painting the back of the leaf and then make crafts by stamping the leaves on smooth surfaces such as notebooks, stationary, garden pots or t-shirts.

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