PreK-2
"Beneath My Feet"
Observe and Explore
Digging in the Dirt
Ask a parent where you can dig in your backyard. Use a spoon to slowly dig and search for tiny animals living beneath the soil.
Count their legs.
Draw/write the most interesting discovery you made.
Soil Colors
Look for different colors of soil in your backyard. Use a notebook to answer the following questions and draw or write your responses:
How many different colors did you find?
Where do you find the different colors?
Why do you think the dirt is different colors in different places?
Forts
Look around for a good spot to build a fort.
Make a list of reasons why it would be a good spot for a fort.
Draw a picture of what your fort would look like and what materials you would use.
Share this plan with an adult - who will approve your plan.
Investigate and discover
DIY Worm Farm
Once you find worms in your backyard, make a worm farm.
In your journal:
Draw or write the five steps of how to make a worm farm.
Draw/write your predictions of what the farm will look like in 24 hours.
Worm Race Track
Set up your worm race track by drawing one large circle and a small circle in the middle (you can do this in your driveway using sidewalk chalk). Place the worms you found in the middle circle. The worm that exits the large circle first wins. Notice how they use their tiny bristles to move their segments.
Fort Building
Build a fort using the plan that you created in the activity above. Notice what materials work best while you are building. Which materials work best for a door? What materials will keep out the rain and sun?
In your journal:
Draw/write a list of the materials you ended up using to build your fort.
Draw/write instructions of how you built your fort.
Compare and Contrast Thinking Bubble Map
Use the compare and contrast thinking bubble map to compare yourself to a living thing you found (ex: worm, roly poly, ant, etc). Write the things you have in common in the middle circles and your differences in the outside circles. A parent can help you draw the map below in a journal to get you started. (If a child is too young to write, a parent could write the child’s ideas on the bubble map and the child could draw pictures to go along with their ideas.)
Click here for the Compare and Contrast Double Bubble Thinking Map
Read all about it
Click on the pictures below to have the books read to your child!
Yucky Worms
by Vivian French
A young boy and his Grandma are working in the garden. When Gran digs up a worm she tells the young boy of the magic and wonder of worms.
Diary of a Worm
by Doreen Cronin
Get the inside scoop on a worm's daily life! This fiction book tells the daily adventures of a worm as he goes to school, meets his friends, and lives with his parents.
Wiggling Worms at Work
by Wendy Pfeffer
Worms are hard workers! Learn more about the awesome work worms do to help our world.
Fort Building Time
by Megan Wagner Lloyd
During each season of the year (winter, spring, summer, and fall) there are so many different types of forts to be made. Let your imagination soar as you watch the children in this book make new, creative types of forts all year long.
Dinner Discussion
What did you notice outside today that was interesting?
How do you do a worm race? Tell me about it…
If you were a worm for a day, what would you do?
Tell me about your fort!
Tell me about an idea that didn’t work well while you built your fort. How could you fix it?
Share with the world
Use #ODCbackyardcrusade to share your learning from this week on social media
Email a photo to bob@outdoordiscovery.org so we can share it with our community.
Ideas of What to Share:
Share a picture of you inside of your fort
Share a picture of your worm race in action!
Share a picture of your worm farm.
Beyond The Crusade
Go check your bird feeder you put out last week. Does it need refilling? Are more birds coming to it?
Take a walk around your neighborhood. Get some fresh air with your family!
Have children create a map of their backyard. Include on the map where your fort is located and where you found worms this week.