Nature Activities for Kids

10 Ways to Learn About Animals

September 29, 2014 By Terri Thompson

Animals, animals, animals. There is never any shortage of animals in our house.

Between our two pets, piles of animal toys, and even bigger piles of animal books, my girls know more interesting facts about animals than most people I know. I know they’re not alone. So many kids connect with animals and want to learn more about them.

Animals can peak their interest in reading. They can teach them compassion and conservation. They can teach them science. A world without animals is no world at all.

So, let’s learn all we can with these fun 10 ways to learn about animals.

Kids are so fascinated by animals and it's such an easy subject to get them interested in. Here are 10 fun ways to learn about animals that your kids will sure to love.

In honor of World Animals Day 2014 (October 4), I’ve joined together with a group of kid bloggers for the Children Loving Animals Blog Hop with 10 of our favorite ways to learn about animals.

I’ve illustrated this post with several animal pictures I took over our summer vacation. We were able to observe many animals in their native habitat while on a vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

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Fun Ways to Learn About Animals

Subscribe to an animal magazine

My kids have a subscription to Ranger Rick Jr. and in the past we’ve also received National Geographic Little Kids. Both also have versions for older kids.

I love these magazines because they are stuffed full of animal facts and beautiful pictures. It’s easy to pick one up and read for a few minutes.

Of course, the best part about a magazine is that you get a surprise in the mail once a month!

Observe them in the wild.

You don’t have to go on an African safari to observe animals in the wild (although that would be amazing).You just need to think small.

We had the opportunity to see amazing animals in the wild while visiting Custer State Park and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota this summer. When visiting a state park or a national park, stop by the visitors center to find out the types of animals you can see and the best spots to find them.

If you don’t live near a state or national park, you can also visit a local nature center. Birds, deer, squirrels, and other small animals native to the area are often found at a nature center. We love to check out the turtles who hang out at our favorite nature center.

For great tips on observing nature with young children, you can visit my post here.

Go on a virtual trip.

If you can’t go on a real trip to observe animals, go on a virtual trip instead.

You can do this by watching an animal documentary. We love Disneynature: Chimpanzee and March of the Penguins. Or, you can view some videos on YouTube. (As always, you will want to preview any video on YouTube before showing it to your kids.)

Watch a webcam.

There are so many amazing webcams where you can watch animals in their native habits, zoo, or wildlife sanctuaries.

You can visit the giant pandas at the National Zoo. Check out an eagle’s nest with the Decorah Eaglecam. (Note, it does stop for the season during the beginning of September, but check back again next summer for live streaming.)

Take care of a pet.

If you have a family pet, invite your kids to play an active part in their care.

My girls are in charge of feeding our dog and our cat as well as letting the dog outside. They come along when we take the animals to visit the veterinarian. My girls have learned so much about caring for animals through our pets.

If you don’t have a pet of your own, you can offer to walk a neighbor’s dog or pet sit for a friend to get a taste of what it’s like to take care of an animal.

Get acquainted with the nonfiction section of the library.

You’ll find all of the animal books grouped together in one section of the library. We visit there often and have brought home so many amazing animal books. Our knowledge has grown and grown with each book we read.

Ask your librarian the next time you visit the library or go exploring and find it on your own. (It’s usually a large section!)

Visit a county fair.

Have you been to a county fair? I’ll admit it’s not always my favorite place to go, but it is a treasure-trove of animal learning.

Go through the animal barns and see the different farm animals. Chat with their owners if they’re around. They love to tell you all about their animals. Plus, your kids will absolutely love the fact that many of the animals were raised by kids their own age. Mind-blowing.

Talk to an expert.

A zoo keeper, park ranger, or veterinarian is a wonderful source of animal information.

We learned so much from the park rangers on our vacation and the girls had the opportunity to feel bison horns and examine animal skulls thanks to the friendly rangers. You’ll usually find that they welcome questions and love curious kids.

Let your kids ask those questions they are wondering about. It’s so much fun and education to meet an expert.

Volunteer at a humane society.

Ask at your local humane society (or other animal shelter) and see if they need volunteers. You and your kids will get the chance to experience animals while serving the community. It’s a win-win all around.

Donate to an animal charity.

Do some research and donate to an animal charity. And, while you’re donating, research the animals they are protecting. Learn why they need your help. It may be a local animal shelter or a large international organization.

Teach your kids about why it’s important to help animals and show them just what they can do to help.

What are your favorite ways to learn about animals?

I’m thrilled to be participating once again a blog hop celebrating World Animal Day. Animals are such an important part of our life and I hope yours too.

10 Ways to Play With Snow

January 10, 2014 By Terri Thompson

I hope you enjoyed all the snow fun we’ve had here at Creative Family Fun this week.

The weather has been so cold here that we’ve had to do most of our snow play indoors. But if it’s warm enough, get outside!

Here are 10 more ways to have fun in the snow from some of the best Kid Activity Bloggers.

If you don’t have any snow to play with, the last few items can all be done indoors!

Make snow faces on your trees with The Chocolate Muffin Tree

Take some of your play kitchen toys outside and do a little snow cooking with My Nearest and Dearest

Do some eye-dropper snow painting with How Wee Learn

Explore snow flakes and look at them up close with The Chocolate Muffin Tree

Make potato heads in the snow with The Happy Hooligans

Blow a frozen bubble with What Do We Do All Day?

Create with ice jewels in the snow with Fireflies and Mud Pies

Make a snow storm in a bag with JDaniel4’s Mom

Experiment with fizzy melting snowmen with Inspiration Laboratories

Create a simple snow sensory & small world play set-up with Creative Family Fun

What are your favorite ways to play with snow?

Explore Nature: Leaf Collections

September 27, 2012 By Terri Thompson

Collections are fun, aren’t they?

My girls love to collect items from nature. We have rocks, pine cones, feathers, acorns, and many more nature treasures scattered throughout our house.

We recently took a day to collect leaves and learned how to use a leaf to help identify a tree.

I made simple books using several sheets of construction paper folded in half. I folded all the papers together, then used a stapler on the middle crease.

While the girls were decorating their covers using fall-themed stickers, we talked about leaves.

I showed them the difference between simple and compound leaves and we learned that this is an important thing to pay attention to when trying to identify trees.

Once our books were sufficiently pretty, we went in search of leaves.

I took the girls to a nearby park that I knew had a variety of different trees. We ran around finding all sorts of different leaves.

The girls started paying attention to the leaf shapes and would take off running anytime they spotted a tree different from one we had already seen.

When we felt we had enough leaves, we came home to finish our books.

We used clear packing tape to attach our leaves to our books. We covered our leaves completely in the hopes that the tape would help preserve our leaves for awhile.

Then it was time to try and identify our leaves.

We looked at the shape and color.

For instance, we noticed that the maple leaves in the picture below were green on the top and white on the bottom. This very important clue helped us identify it as a silver maple leaf.

We put our observation skills to the test and were able to identify all of our trees. We used a field guide specific to Minnesota to help us identify our leaves. But, my favorite field guide to use with young children is the National Audubon Society First Field Guide Trees (National Audubon Society First Field Guides).

We had a great day collecting and in the process learned about observation, classification, and types of leaves. Not bad for a project that was a lot of fun!

What do your kids like to collect?

Kid’s Co-op: Exploring Nature

September 21, 2012 By Terri Thompson

It’s Kid’s Co-op time! Link up your favorite kid-related posts and then check out all the fun that has been linked up from other bloggers.

Last week there were so many fun ideas linked up to the Co-op. Outdoor fun, indoor fun, cooking fun, and lots, lots more. This week I’d like to highlight a few posts to help you get out and explore nature.

KC Edventures shares 17 fun fall activities to get you outside.

Cute and Peculiar added nature finds to the sandbox for some fall fun.

Tea for Monkeys took their play to the beach for some exploration and sorting.

Now it’s time for you to share all the fun you’ve been having! Please join up and share your favorite post. (And, we’d love you forever if you’d link back to us!) Your link will show up on all of the hosts’ blogs. It’s time to link up, visit some new blogs, and have a lot of fun!

In Search of Turtles {World Animal Day 2012}

September 14, 2012 By Terri Thompson

We’re very fortunate to have a fabulous nature center located close to home. It boasts miles of trails, ponds, wildlife, a hands-on exhibit for kids, and even a fantastic nature playground consisting of logs, stumps and a small shed full of shovels for the kids to use. We still haven’t seen the entire place yet!

Earlier this spring, we went hiking and found their turtle pond. We had a wonderful time observing all the turtles resting on logs all around the pond.

All summer we talked about going back, but never did. Finally one day in late summer, I planned a morning to hike to the turtle pond.

We came prepared. We brought along a picnic breakfast, water, camera, binoculars, turtle guidebook, colored pencils, and notebooks. We were ready to be naturalists.

We wanted to observe, record, and figure out what kind of turtles lived in the pond.

What we hadn’t counted on was the effect that our dry, hot summer had on the pond and the wildlife that lived there. Instead of a pretty wooded pond with turtles resting on the logs, we found a pond that was about half the size it normally is and covered in green.

Needless to say, we didn’t see a turtle.

Our learning took a curve that day as we discovered first-hand how the environment impacts animal habitats.

We understood that we couldn’t control the weather, but we talked about ways that we could help. We could keep areas clean by picking up trash and never littering.

We also talked about leaving areas alone so that animals still had all the food and materials they needed to live and thrive. Turtles are particularly vulnerable and we were grateful for our nature center and it’s turtle habitat.

Were all the turtles gone? No, they were most likely underwater. The turtles were still around, but their pond just wasn’t as nice of a place as it was this spring.

On our way out that day, we stopped by another pond to see what we could see and well… we didn’t see water.

But, we could tell that wildlife was still abundant in that area. In fact, it looked like they were having quite the party the night before as evidenced by all the tracks we saw in the mud. If you look carefully in the above picture, you’ll see some of the many raccoon tracks we saw.

What do animals teach my children? They teach them compassion for others big and small. They teach them respect for their environment. And, they foster a love of learning that I hope will become a lifetime habit.

What do animals teach your children?

Nature Activities for Kids