The school year may look quite different this year, but kids can still have fun learning about our environment this fall! Here are some neat ideas to engage your little ones:
Virtual Regional Park Tours & Ranger Videos for Kids
Learn about the natural resources, wildlife, and history of the East Bay Regional Parks. Take virtual reality tours of selected parks. Watch cool videos of storytelling and singing by park naturalists. Learn about bats and lizards! Start exploring here.
Backyard Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are almost always a crowd-pleaser. Sit down with your family and list things you think you will find outdoors. Write out the items on pieces of paper and provide pens, markers, or stickers to everyone so they can mark what they’ve found. Now, go out and try to find them!
Turn it into a game of bingo! Whoever gets bingo (or finishes their scavenger hunt first) gets a prize. Here are some suggested scavenger hunt items:
- something red
- something bigger than your hand
- something that is not made by nature
- something that makes a sound
- two rocks that look alike
- a flying insect
- tall grass
- a mushroom
- animal footprints
Soda Bottle Compost
This is a great way for kids to see composting in action. The clear 2-liter bottle makes it easy to watch the composting process as it happens, and we love finding new ways to use materials we already have around the house to use with science projects for kids. Click here to learn how to make one!
Recycled Crafts
No need to go to leave the house to get crafty! Items that we would normally recycle or throw away, could be the perfect starting point for a creative art project! Toilet paper tubes, milk cartons, soup cans, popsicle sticks, and more can be transformed with a little imagination. Check out this list of 54 Recycle Craft ideas, or 20 Ways to Have Fun with a Cardboard Box.
Nature Walk & Litter Pick-Up
Bring a bag and litter-picker and/or gloves on your next family walk, and pick up litter that you see that is safe to handle. Make a list of the types of trash that you find - older kids can make pie charts or bar graphs to show the most common types of litter (food wrappers, drink bottles / cups, masks, etc.), or draw posters to encourage the community to properly throw away or recycle items. You could even use the Litterati app to collect and share litter data!
Sources & More Ideas:
https://www.outdoors.org/articles/amc-outdoors/10-backyard-nature-activities-for-kids
https://www.busymommymedia.com/science-for-kids-soda-bottle-compost/
https://www.familyeducation.com/fun/nature-activities/10-hands-nature-activities-kids
https://lalymom.com/cardboard-crafts-for-kids-20-ways-to-have-fun-with-a-cardboard-box/
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