Outdoors In offers life science curriculum-based nature programs for pre-schools, elementary schools and homeschoolers. We also offer adult and corporate nature presentations and fun programs for day camps, after school, birthday parties and community groups. These exciting programs are very interactive and sensory and will leave your group with new-found knowledge of the animals and the environment of the Calgary area in Alberta.
Bat & Moth
Canadian bats only eat insects so no vampire or fruit-eating bats here. Make a circle or mark your playing area. Children have to stay in this play area for safety. Explain about the game in which bats use their ears to hunt the insects not their eyes (echolocation) so in this game, we will have a bat with a blindfold and the moth with the bell. The bat must touch the moth to catch it.
Wolf Pack Smell Game
Explain that they are going to be wolves and find their mate. Wolves have a great sense of smell, much better than humans. In this game give each child a container with a cotton ball soaked in an essential oil smell and tell them to keep it upright as the cotton ball may fall out. Have only two different smells. Try to match up the smells to make pairs. Everyone can howl like a wolf.
Popsicle Stick Animal Survival
Give each family member five different colours… only 5. Have the kids guess what everything needs to survive. Which is Food Shelter Water Space. You will call a colour for each requirement. If they have that colour they are still alive. Must have all 4 colours at the end to survive. Play 2-3 times.
Blind Sketching
In this activity, one person has the picture of an animal and does not let the other person know what animal it is. The other person must it draw this animal ONLY by the explanation from the other person. Do not show the picture until after the explanation. Then switch roles with a new animal picture for the other person. Have them research a little bit of info about that animal. Try to draw our Native wild animals.
Crazy Sketching
Everyone starts to draw an animal or plant and then after a time limit, pass the drawing to someone else…and so on until you get all the drawings back to the start person. It doesn’t have to be real looking just have fun with it.
Exploration Outside
Just explore and look for things. Find something that is round, square, prickly, straight, heart-shaped, smooth, rough, looks like a caterpillar etc. Look for signs of spring…leaves budding, insects, ants, spiders. Look under logs, rocks but make sure they replace the log or rock.
Food Web
Shows how all things are connected and need each other. Who eats who. Who needs what. Start with the sun, water, CO2 which plants need, then start to connect people with plant cards, herbivores, carnivores and/or omnivores. In the end, you should have a spider web showing all the connections. Not just one thing connected to another but look for all connections as some things need more than one thing to survive. Pinterest has tons of ideas for experiments including nature experiments.
I hope this helps fight the boredom of Covid 19. Have fun!
