Resources and Inspirations- A great book

Picture Science, Using Digital Photography to Teach Young Children, by Carla Neuman-Hinds. Redleaf Press. 2007

This is a wonderful book to help you get started introducing children to nature science. It includes dozens of photographs and sample lesson plans, many with a focus on plants. It is divided into four sections: photography for collecting and analyzing data, photography for demonstrating conclusions, photography for making the process of inquiry visible, and photography for creating documentation. One great idea is a photo-scavenger hunt. Take close-up photographs of nature around the school and mount them on cardboard. Have the children match one card at a time to the actual objects out in the yard. There are ideas for creating charts, sequencing, sorting and matching activities, puzzles and making books. It is very concrete and will inspire you to invent your own activities. You do not have to be a scientist or a photographer to implement the great ideas in your classroom.

Butterflies: A Great Place to Start

Almost everyone is attracted to butterflies, so they are a great window into the world of nature. I actually wanted to a Lepidpterist (a person who studies butterflies and moths) when I was 12 years old, until I found out that you had to kill them to study them! No thank you!
Many early childhood teachers include a cursory treatment of butterflies as a unit, but there is so much more. Here are some tips and resources for enhancing and enriching your butterfly studies:
1. Find out what kind of butterflies live in your area. For instance, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts where I live, there are over 70 species of butterflies! Contact your local nature museum, county extension, of get a butterfly field guide and look at the range maps to see if they might be in your area. You can also go out on your own before you talk with the children and look for them, too. Butterflies are often seen in wild meadows and fields, along the borders of woodlands and forests, as well as in gardens, especially butterfly gardens.

2. Borrow or buy a copy of The Family Butterfly Book, by Rick Mikula. There are literally hundreds of books about butterflies, but this one is itened to be used with children and is very comprehensive and includes detailed information on butterfly gardens, raising butterflies, and lists the most common butterflies as well.

3. Find out more about the butterflies in your area. Did you know that each species of butterfly has it's own caterpillar food plant (No, they do NOT eat grass!) and favorite nectaring plants as adults? You can attract specific butterflies from your area to your school yard by planting both types of plants. Did you know that butterflies sip nectar through a long "straw" that they keep curled up until they need it? Patient, careful observation can reveal this and more, which is why studying butterflies have all of the benefits of engaging children in nature.

You can google butterflies for web sites and images. They are there by the thousands, testiment to the human facination with butterflies.

Back to Nature

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he or she needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in."

Rachel Carson

Inspired by Richard Louv's stirring book, Last Child in the Woods, hundreds of teachers around the world are searching for ways to become that adult in the lives of the children in their classrooms. But most teachers have little nature experience themselves, and struggle to know where to being. Louv gives us a hint: "The main thing is to discover or own sense of joy, excitement, and mystery." In the next few months, I am going to offer some thoughts on this subject:

Nature 101:Resources, Strategies and Inspirations for Teaching Children about Local Habitats

I will be exploring a variety of nature topics, books, websites, and ideas to help you implement intentional, authentic nature science experiences in your classroom.