Archive: teaching kids about nature

Ant and Worm Activities for Kids

Mom Trusted put together a few fun ideas for critter-crazy children. These will help them expand their scientific knowledge and have a great time. Here are some bug activities for kids. Some are educational and others are even tasty:

Invest in an ant farm. Your kids will have fun for hours watching the ants dig mazes.

Eat dirt for dessert! Make some chocolate pudding, following the instructions on the box, and pour it into small, plastic cups. Then crumble chocolate cookies on top of the pudding. Stick a few gummy worms in each cup. You can even add green coconut shavings (dyed using a few drops of food coloring) for grass if you want to get extra fancy.

Make a worm hotel. All you need is a big glass or plastic jar and some worms. Fill the jar with dirt, stick a few worms in and watch them wiggle through it. Note: the worms will be happiest if you alternate dirt and sand every few inches. Make sure to return them to their natural habitat after a few days.

Make compost in your own backyard. Gather veggie kitchen scrapes, some leaves or cut grass and place in a large pale with a lid. When it starts to decompose into dirt, add a few worms to help the process along.

Feed the ants and watch how much they can carry. Be sure to do this activity far away from your home! Grab some lunch leftovers and take them out to a field with a few ant hills. Drop the food in large chunks and watch as tiny ants come to take away pieces many times their size.

Sources:

-“Bugs and insect activities for kids” Pinterest

-“Creepy crawly activities for kids who love bugs” education.com

-Photo courtesy of antpkr/freedigitalphotos.net

Teaching Kids About Flowers and Plants

In the final days of spring, it’s the perfect time to start teaching kids about flowers and plants. Here are a few tips that Mom Trusted put together to make the learning process easier and more fun:

Grow a flower

Decorate a simple pot with paint. Try stamping colorful handprints all over it. Then, plant easy to grow flowers in it. Try daisies, since they’re such a hearty flower.

Sprout a bean

Have your kids help you place a bean in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag. Then, place in light and wait for them to sprout.

Plant a vegetable garden

Plant seeds to a veggie garden. Try out tomatoes, potatoes, peas, beans and carrots. Watch as they grow and munch on them when they’re ready! Nothing tastes better than homegrown veggies.

Sort seeds

Sort different flower and plant seeds. Use simple ones like pumpkin, sunflower and tulip bulbs.

Visit a florist

Take a fieldtrip to a local florist. Look at all the different kinds of plants and flowers and buy a bouquet so that you can give each little one a flower to hang onto.

Smell the roses

Blindfold your kids and have them take turns smelling different types of flowers. Older children can also turn it into a guessing game and try to name the flowers they’re smelling.

Sources:

-“How to teach your child about flowers” Yahoo! Voices

-“Interactive plant biology: a kid’s guide to the life cycle of a flower” Pro Flowers

-“Teaching children with flowers” BorBer

-Photo courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/freedigitalphotos.net