Yay! It’s Spring and everything is busy! Birds, flowers, and especially children are expending their energy and enjoying the warmer temperatures. What is a homeschool mom to do in keeping studies going when it is so nice outside? What about taking your school outside? There are many wonderful ways you can incorporate school and the magnificent outdoors.

• Find a tulip and study all of its parts. The tulip has large petals, pistil and stamen. If you can pick the flower and cut open the ovary your children can discover what is inside. Click on the labeling image and copy it to create your own worksheet.

• Look at the clouds! Grab an old blanket, take it outside and lie down so you can get a great view of the clouds. Spring has a wide variety of amazing cloud formations. If you happen to pick a day that has cumulous clouds (big, puffy), children love trying to find clouds that look like images of something. (ice cream, bunnies, etc.) You can also predict the weather because certain clouds (cumulous type) mean rain and others mean fair weather (cirrus).

How about trying to identify the clouds? With the above picture, you can print out your own cloud identification viewfinder. All you need is the printout, a large popsicle stick, and some glue! CLICK HERE for the printout.

• Collect worms!  Get a glass jar, add dirt and some worms and study how they react to different temperatures. You can put them in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes and then take them out to see what happens. Have your children predict what will happen and make a hypothesis. Notice that the worms are more sluggish and also where they have gone in the dirt. They will have migrated to further down in the soil. Why? Have your children try and explain why they have done this. If you are really interested in doing a more in depth study, here is a worm jar activity, worksheets, and more activities to do, just click on the image.

• Draw! Grab a clipboard, some paper, pencils, an eraser and head outdoors. For your little ones, drawing general pictures of what they see is terrific, but if you would like to do a nature study, have your older students draw with more detail. Start with a stationary object such as a dandelion (That’s one thing they are good for! lol), and have your student draw as much detail as possible. Bring a magnifying glass with you to see the anthers. If you have a flower identification book that would be perfect to take along. After your outdoor adventurer has finished, write the common name of the flower and its scientific name as well. Date it and keep it in a safe place so you can go out another day.

Enjoy your day!

~Lisa