That’s why you see so many fun bug crafts, like our recycled butterfly craft.  

Why not fuel your child’s natural curiosity?  

Get the kids together to make this DIY Butterfly Feeder and observe the butterflies that visit.

This year we raised butterflies for the first time. 

My 8 and 9 year-old watched carefully as our caterpillars grew.  They wrote down the dates as the caterpillars turned into chrysalises and they tried to guess when the first butterfly would appear.

The day they started to emerge we set the timer on my phone to go off every 10 minutes, and we were lucky enough to actually see one as it entered into the world as a beautiful Painted Lady Butterfly.

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DIY Butterfly Feeder

To make the release of our winged friends a little easier on the kids, we decided to make the simple butterfly feeder craft from our new favorite book:  100 Backyard Activities That Are the Dirtiest, Coolest, Creepy-Crawliest Ever.

The book is full of gorgeous photographs and easy to follow directions that will keep the kids exploring nature in their own backyard all summer long.

Materials Needed:

• Plastic Lid
• Yarn
• Pony Beads
• Hole Punch
• Very Ripe Fruit

Use the hole punch to make 3-4 holes in your plastic lid.  Try to space the holes equally apart so your feeder hangs straight.  

If your hole punch won’t work on plastic you can carefully use the tip of a sharp knife to make the hole. (This step is best done by a parent if a knife must be used.)

Cut your yarn into pieces that are approximately 18 inches (45 cm) long.  Tie each piece of yarn to the holes in the lid.

Have your child string 8-10) pony beads onto each piece of yarn.  Then tie the tops of the yarn together.

Hang up your feeder and add several pieces of ripe fruit. 

Find a place you can sit and observe your feeder for butterflies. 

Your child may also enjoy doing this simple ant observation.

We hung our DIY butterfly feeder in the flower bed, where we can see it from the front window.  

The kids plan to record the butterflies that visit our feeder in their science journals.  Maybe they’ll even catch a glimpse of our Painted Ladies.

Looking for more nature study ideas?

• Simple Worm Observation for Kids
• Go on a Bug Hunt!
• Tadpole Nature Study

The post Simple DIY Butterfly Feeder first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

This summer we’ve kept up our learning adventures with a few simple backyard nature studies.  This nature study is easy to set up and lets your scientists get hands-on with a simple worm observation.

We started our worm observation by building our very own, very simple wormery.  You can do this with any clear, plastic container.  We chose to use some clear plastic cups we had left from a birthday party; I’ve also seen people cut 2 liter plastic soda pop bottles.  The choice is yours.

The first step to creating your wormery is to fill your container with a mixture of soils.  We lifted a few rocks we usually find worms under and used some of the dirt there, layering it with a bit of sand.  I decided to let my kids do it completely themselves as part of the learning process, so you can’t really see the layers as nicely in the picture.  But the worms did’t really seem to mind.

To encourage the worms to build their tunnels towards the edge of the cup, where we could better see them, we put a piece of cardboard tube in the center of the cup, shoveling the dirt between the cardboard tube and the cup.

Then we put some damp leaves and grass on top and stuck our clear plastic cup inside a slightly larger solid-colored cup.  If you are using a pop bottle or something else to make your wormery, you can use black construction paper to cover the outside of the container.  The idea is to make it nice and dark and cozy to encourage your worms to dig those tunnels!

Finally, you need a few wiggly inhabitants.

Finding worms is usually easiest after a good rain.  Try looking under a few large rocks, in the flower bed, or even in the driveway if the rain has been pretty recent.  Hunting for worms is part of the fun!

Once you have several (the more you have, the better chance to see those tunnels), place them in the wormery between the cardboard tube and clear plastic cup.  Sprinkle the top of the soil with a bit of water, make sure you have the sides of the clear cup covered, and set it somewhere cool for a day or two.

It can be hard waiting when you’re little.  A few good books on earthworms is perfect to fill the time while you wait.  A few of our favorite books about earthworms that are good for preschool-aged and older are: Garden Wigglers: Earthworms in Your Backyard,   An Earthworm’s Life ,   and Wiggling Worms at Work.

After a couple days, it’s time to uncover the clear container and check out those tunnels!

We talked about what the worms had done.

I asked them to think about how worms help plants grow.  Kids love showing off what they know!  They couldn’t wait to remind me that we learned earthworms can help soften the soil.  And those tunnels?  They help air and water get to the plant roots easier.

Of course, you can’t have a worm observation without handling at least one worm!    This is definitely a favorite part for my kids.

We dumped our wormery out into a plastic container to check out the worms.

Did you know, if you hold an earthworm up in the sunlight you can see through them and check out what they’ve been eating?    (Our little worm wasn’t thrilled about getting his picture taken this way so he was a bit wiggly and turned out blurry, but I love how you can see that dark trail running through his intestine.)   The kids had a great time checking out the worms this way, and we were able to talk about some basic anatomy of the worms as well.

Worm observation is a super simple nature study that is perfect for spring or summer.  

Nature Study Series: 

• Simple Ant Observation
• Observing Tadpoles/Frogs
• Exploring Natural Clay
• Going on a Bug Hunt!

The post Nature Study: Worm Observation first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

For this week’s summer nature study, we’re going on a bug hunt!

What’s great about this is that you don’t have to go far to go on a bug hunt.  A simple trip around the backyard will provide you with a variety of creepy crawlies to check out and explore, as long as you slow down and really look.

My daughter was thrilled to find these “rainbow beetles” shortly after we started our nature walk.  A quick peek in one of our bug books verified that they are really Japanese Beetles.

My little scientist enjoyed watching these colorful bugs for quite a while.

Our next find was actually right on our back porch.

I loved watching my 6 year-old turn to the picture index in the back of his beetle identification book to locate its name.  I have to say it was a new one to me, but he remembered seeing its picture there before.  Kids have amazing memories!

When going on a bug hunt, don’t forget to keep an eye out for evidence that bugs are around!  You might find chewed up leaves on a plant, a mound of dirt from an ant hill, or even an exoskeleton!

This cicada exoskeleton led to a whole discussion of how many insects molt and change over time as they grow.  We even had to stop exploring for just a bit to find some pictures online of a cicada molting. That’s the great part of a nature study — there are always more questions that come up and you get to discover those answers together.  Sometimes those questions lead to a mini unit for us in homeschool.

Finally, we found several of these brown beetles during our bug hunt; they are my son’s favorites.

After using our magnifying glasses to get a closer look, counting their legs (6) and reviewing their body parts, he decided he had to keep a couple overnight as “pets.”

My kids are always keeping bugs as pets for short periods of time.  They used to get my good storage containers out to do so, which always made me so happy.  (Note the sarcasm in that statement.)  I have finally come up with a solution:  I poked holes in lids of several old, clear, plastic Ziplock containers.  I wrote “bugs” on the sides with permanent marker and stuck them in the lower kitchen drawer next to the good containers.  Now they grab these to use for bug homes instead.

Looking for a different alternative?  Amazon has tons of bug houses for your nature explorer to use, some even come with their own magnifying glasses.

Other items that you may want to take on your bug hunt:

Liked this post?  You’ll also like:

• Do an Ant Observation
• DIY Butterfly Feeder

The post Nature Study: Going on a Bug Hunt! first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Are you ready to get messy?

This week our Nature Study Series had us exploring natural clay!

To find our clay, we headed for the local creek.

The kids soon found the hard, grey rock-like lumps we were seeking.

While they were interested in the fact that they could break the “rocks,” they really were looking forward to building with the clay.

Once we brought our clay home, we got out trays and containers of water to help soften it up.

I let each of my scientists decided how they would work the clay.

After getting its surface wet, and finding how slippery the clay became, my son decided to wash off his hands and head to the sandbox.

My daughter on the other hand, really got into it!

She left her clay in the water, breaking it up and squishing it as it softened until it was pudding consistency.

She loved it!

She spent a good hour squishing the clay between her fingers, drawing pictures in it on the tray, and pouring it into different containers.

And, since we were outside, cleanup was a breeze!

Want to take it a step further?

We talked about the fact that clay is made of super fine particles, much smaller than potting soil or regular “dirt.”

Before getting the clay wet, have your scientists predict what will happen when water is added.  Observe how the clay changes once it is wet.  (Does it change color?  Texture?)

Discuss how natural clay has been used in the past.  Then use your clay to build something!  We plan on letting ours dry out a bit and making a small pinch pot.

***

Like this post?

Check out the rest of our posts in this summer’s Nature Study Series!

Having trouble finding natural creek clay?

This one is similar:

The post Nature Study: Exploring Natural Clay first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

The second week found us with magnifying glasses and buckets, headed to the pond to hunt for tadpoles.

We are lucky enough to have a pond, which is full of tiny tadpoles each spring.  Want to hunt tadpoles?  Check out a local pond (maybe one at a park?), lake, or creek near you.

Usually we just enjoy watching the tadpoles there at the pond, collecting bucketfuls of the wiggling creatures and using magnifying glasses to check out tiny legs.

This year, however, we came across a huge bullfrog tadpole and decided to bring it home for a few days to observe more closely.

After getting our tadpole set up in his temporary home, we got out a ruler to see how big he was.  Measuring a wiggly tadpole isn’t easy!  We discovered our tadpole is a little longer than three inches.

Then we got out colored pencils and carefully sketched the tadpole in our school journals.  Do you see all those black spots?  I loved watching the kids carefully duplicate those dots on their drawings.

If you choose to bring home a tadpole, here are some helpful tips:

• Choose a clear container to put your tadpoles in so you can see them from all angles.
• Bring home enough of the pond or creek water for your tadpoles to swim in.  Tap water should not be used since it contains chemicals that may harm the amphibian.
• Tadpoles will eat boiled lettuce leaves.  Just boil the leaves for 8-10 minutes and let cool before adding them to the container.  We discovered our bullfrog tadpole really likes boiled spinach leaves from the garden.
• You can use a turkey baster to clean the waste out of the tank every couple days.  (Just be careful not to suck up an tiny tadpoles!)
• As tadpoles develop front legs they also start to develop lungs.  They will need a rock or something else to climb up on when that happens.
• Keep in mind that it takes tadpoles a while to change into frogs, anywhere from 2 months to almost 2 years for a bullfrog tadpole.  If you decide you don’t want to keep the tadpole that long, try to release it in the same place you found it.  Ours will be swimming back in the pond soon; two years is a long time to take care of a tadpole!

Not sure you want to bring home the tadpoles?

Bring the magnifying glasses and observe them in their natural habitat!

You can find tadpoles and frogs in all sizes and shapes!

My daughter was thrilled to find this tiny frog.  If you look closely, you can see his tail is still there.

(She also found a tiny snail.  You never know what you may find!)

Materials that may be helpful:

This is our favorite magnifying glass (very durable) and the plastic aquarium is perfect for even the youngest scientist.

***

Be sure to check out last week’s ant observation.

You may also like this DIY Butterfly Feeder.

The post Nature Study: Tadpoles first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

You know how those last couple weeks of school the kids just seem to catch spring fever?

Well, this homeschooling momma caught it, too!

So we decided to switch things up a bit and explore the great outdoors.  We’ve been having so much fun that we plan to continue it through the summer, and we will be sharing what we do in our new Nature Study series.

This week:  get ready to go on an ant observation.

And if your kids love insects, try making a DIY Butterfly Feeder, too. 

Our observation actually started with a fallen Goldfish cracker.

It didn’t take long before an ant found it.  And when it left, another ant came, and another, and another…

I asked the kids what they thought ants would prefer, something slightly salty and crunchy like the cracker, or something sweet.

We were all leaning towards something sweet.  (I mean, who doesn’t like a little bit of sugar, right?)

While they were watching the ants, I popped into the kitchen and got a tiny piece of leftover cake so we could test our hypothesis.

After setting out the cake, we took a little break from watching ants.  We returned about 15 minutes later to see what was happening.

We were surprised that there were way more ants on the cracker than on the cake!

The kids were also surprised by how strong ants are!

A quick Google check let us know that ants can carry objects 50 times their own body weight!

Of course no ant observation would be complete without getting out the magnifying glasses!

Closely observing the ants led us to a further discussion on what makes an insect.  Under the magnifying glasses it was easy to see all the things that make an ant an insect.  We counted 6 legs.  We observed all three of the body parts:  head, abdomen, and thorax.   And we were also able to see their antennae.  So fun!

After watching the ants a little longer, we decided to try one more type of food.  This time we poured a small amount of Kool-Aid (flavored sugar water) into a lid.  We wanted to see if the ants would like this more than the cake.

It took a while, but pretty soon our sugar water was pretty busy!

Now it’s your turn!

Grab your materials and get outside to watch some ants!  (By the way, here’s our favorite magnifying glass, perfect for little hands!

Want to take your ant observation a little further?

Have your kids figure out how much they’d be able to carry if they were an ant!  (If your child is too young to multiply, you can use a calculator together to determine what 50 times their body weight is.)

Create your very own egg carton ants.

See if you can follow the ants back to their home.  Want to really explore ants?  You could dig up the ground at the entrance to their nest and see what happens.  (Remember, ants do bite!  But watching as they swarm to defend their home is pretty exciting to kids.)

Or, flip over some big rocks and see if you can spot part of an ant colony that way.  We were excited to find an ant nursery when we tried this!  (Okay, the kids were excited… Me?  I am not crazy about ants.  But I did it for the kids and the learning involved.)

And, of course, there are tons of great ant books just waiting to be explored!  We really liked National Geographic Readers: Ants.

The post Nature Study: Ant Observation first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.