Let's create continuous conversations about climate change education: Spreading the Sediment of Science!

Spring Activity Guide

Provided by: The Nature Conservancy

Activity - Outdoors

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Synopsis

This handout includes five activities for students to do outside in the spring.
Students can make prints with flowers, play a game with sticks and a stream, jump around and make observations in the rain, experience the mud in bare feet, and use a brown bag to create with nature.

Related Teaching Resources

Subjects: Visual and Performing Arts

Authors: Nature Lab by The Nature Conservancy

Region: Global

Languages: English

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Teaching Materials

Positives

These are simple activities that require minimal materials.
Students will love the sensory experiences and will feel closer to the natural world around them.

Prerequisites

Before doing the activities, especially ones that have students playing in the water, teachers should send notes to parents so students are dressed appropriately.
Additionally, teachers should have things like extra clothes, towels, and rain gear on hand so students without these items can participate.

Differentiation & Implementation

To make literacy connections, teachers can borrow the book The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne from the library to read aloud and highlight the reference to the game Poohsticks, following the reading with a trip outside to play the game.
When explaining activities that require students to collect materials in nature, teachers should discuss and show students how to collect natural items while doing the least amount of damage to the environment around them.
After students have completed a few of these activities, teachers can tie them into a discussion appreciating nature. Teachers can then talk about how people do things that unintentionally harm nature and ask students to come up with alternatives and solutions. The human activities discussed can depend on grade level or science curriculum but can include littering, burning fossil fuels, wasting water or energy, not following the rules in public lands, planting or bringing in invasive species, and others.
Teachers can send this list home with students over the weekend or spring break, asking them to complete one activity before they return. Teachers should avoid asking students to do a specific activity from the list in case students don't have access to certain things.

Scientist Notes

Teaching Tips

Standards

Resource Type and Format

About the Partner Provider

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. The Nature Conservancy has grown to become one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world.