Other Subjects

Pick a spot. Any spot, as long as it's outside! Set up your field journal, put on your scientist brain, get your senses ready, and get set to make some detailed notes in your field journal.

1. You will need:

• Something to write with (a pencil)

• Something to write on (a notebook)

• A spot where you can see something living or dead in nature to observe

2. Your job:

• Draw and write about what you see.

• Add lots of details!

• Write down some questions and see if you can find any answers. Books, computers, and adults around you are great places to go to ask your questions!

You're going to be an astronomer! The night time sky is always changing. Because of that, this is a good activity to do over a few nights. 

1. You will need: 

• A blanket

• Warm clothes

• A spot outside where you can lie on your back and look at the stars

2. Your job:

• Over a few nights (at least 3) go outside, lie on your blanket, and look up at the stars.

• Notice stars that are brighter, or that are bigger than the others.

• Notice if you can see the stars clearly or if they are blocked by clouds.

• Notice if you can see any shapes or pictures by connecting the stars.

• If you like you can find a book or use a computer to find constellations that you can search for!

One of Ms. Rashleigh's favourite things is watching plants grow from seeds. There are lots of great books about how this happens, including Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal. Here's how it works:

1. First you will need: 

• a container

• soil

• a seed

• water 

2. Put the soil into your container.

3. Make a small hole in the middle of your soil. Use your fingertip to make it.

4. Place your seed at the bottom of the hole. Make sure there is soil underneath and all around the seed.

5. Cover your seed with soil and gently pat the soil to make it firm.

6. Water your seed until the soil is damp everywhere.

7. Put your container in a sunny place and water it every day. Watch it grow!  

Earth Day is a day when we remind ourselves about the importance of taking care of the planet that we call home. Here are some special things you can do for Earth Day:

1. Have a recycling relay:

   • Gather up the recycling from your house in one big pile.

   • Put out bins for each type of recycling somewhere away from the pile (plastic, metal, glass, paper).

   • Get your family together and make a race! Who can sort the pile fastest?

2. Learn something new about our planet:

   • Read a book about Earth, or watch a video! 

3. Get outside and enjoy nature:

   • Go for a walk through a local forest, or have a picnic in your neighbourhood. Notice the beauty of nature all around you.

4. Use Earth-friendly ways to get around:

   • Walking, biking, running, skateboarding: these are just a few of the ways to get around that help to keep our planet well.

5. Plant a tree or another plant:

   • Trees and other plants use Photosynthesis to help our Earth by absorbing Carbon dioxide and producing Oxygen. This helps us to have clean, healthy air to breathe!

A chemist is someone who studies chemistry: the things that our world is made of and how they mix together.

Here how to be a chemist:

1. Think about some things that you have in your house that could be mixed together:

• baking ingredients

• water/ice/liquids

• things you find outside

• dry and wet things

2.  Get a bowl and spoon or stir stick, and collect some ingredients that you can mix.

3. Start mixing, and notice what happens:

• Do some ingredients sink or float?

• Does your mixture get hot or cold?

• Does anything change colour?

• Does your mixture get harder? softer?

4. You're a chemist!

If you'd like some other ideas for chemistry experiments to try, find some here.

In our world, bugs are everywhere! They may seem creepy and crawly, but they do a lot of good things for us and our planet.

Be an entomologist for a day! Entomologists are people who study bugs. Here's how:

1. Get a magnifying glass out. Don't have one? Print a pretend one here. Cut it out.

2. Head outside!

3. Look for bugs with your magnifying glass. 

4. Notice details about them!

• How many legs do they have? 

• Are they vertebrates or invertebrates?

• What colours are they?

• How many eyes do they have?

• Do they make noise?

• What are they doing? 

5.  Draw or think about what you see! 

Ethnographers are people who study people. They ask questions like what do you do in a day? What kinds of things do you do with your family? What kinds of things do you like to do? What kinds of things do people in your community do?

Today you get to be an ethnographer!

1. Find a spot in your house where you can watch your family, or perhaps a window where you can look out into your neighbourhood.

2. Bring something to write with, and something to write on.

3. Get comfortable and watch for a while.

4. Make notes about what you see and hear. These could be words or pictures. 

• Do you see any patterns? 

• What are people doing? 

• What are they saying? 

• How are they spending their time?

5. After you spend some time making your notes, take a break. Maybe try the same activity at a different time of day!

Have you ever thought about where Canada's flag came from? Why it's red and white? Why it has a maple leaf on it? 

This is your chance to find out! 

1. First make a KWL by writing down some things that you: K: already know and W: would like to know about our flag.

2. Next watch this video to see what you can learn about our flag:

Our Canadian Flag Video

3. Last fill in the L: what you learned.

Our flag comes from a rich history!

Pioneers were some of the first European people who came to Canada from places like England, France, Ireland, and Scotland. They learned how to live in a new way, and overcame many challenges. Let's learn about pioneers!

1. You will need a pencil, some paper, and a computer. 

2. At the top of your paper, write the title: Pioneers.

3. Then write these three questions across the top of your page:

• What did they do?

• What did they wear?

• Where did they live?

4. Now we're going to try to answer those questions. Watch this video, and make notes in words and pictures when you see something about things to do, clothes, or houses.

A symbol is something that respresents things like an idea, object, or person.

Family crests are a way that people have shown themselves or their family using symbols.

Here's how to make a crest for yourself or your family:

1.  Draw a giant 'U' shape on a piece of paper. Then draw a line across the top to connect the two ends of your 'U'.

This should look sort of like a shield.

2. Write your name or your family's last name across the middle of the shield shape in nice big, thick letters.

3. Now, think of some things that you could draw for symbols of yourself or your family. These should be things that are important to you.

4. Draw them inside the shield shape. Try to fill every section!

5. Now colour it in, and you have made yourself a family or personal crest!

A map is a tool that cartographers use to represent an area of land. It is a picture that uses symbols to show a place.

Be a cartographer and make a map! Here's how:

1. First you'll need paper. The bigger the paper, the better your map can be! You also need a pencil.

2. Now you need a place to show on your map. This could be your room, house, yard, your neighbourhood, or any other place that you know well.

3. Make a list of things that you want to show on your map.

4. Make a symbol to show each thing on your list in a simple way.

5. Pretend you're in an airplane flying over your chosen place.

6. Draw a picture of all of the things on your list, with symbols showing where they would be if you were flying over your place.

7. Colour and label your map, and give it a title! If you really want to get creative, you could add a legend. Learn more here.

Mixed media means using lots of different materials and tools to make art. 

Today you get to try making art with mixed media!

1. First you will need to gather your materials. You might want things like:

• Paper

• Glue

• Paint

• Pastels

• Crayons

• Markers

• Scissors

2. Then, make a plan! What shape or picture do you want to create? Or do you want to make an abstract (something that is made up)?

3. Now get started! Use a little bit of all of your materials. Change your plan as you go, and see what you end up with!

4. When you're finished, clean up your space, and let your work dry.

5. Post your finished art somewhere and listen to what people say about it. What will you do the same next time? What will you change? 

You probably think you already know everything there is to know about colours. Even if you know a lot, there's always more to learn! 

Today you can make a colour wheel, and see if you can learn something new about colours and how they mix.

1. You will need paints, pastels, crayons, pencil crayons, or markers. Just pick one type of tool to try!

2. You will also need paper.

3. Start by printing or drawing the template by this idea.

4. Now use yellow, blue, and red (the primary colours) where their names are.

5. Next mix yellow and blue to make green, blue and red to make purple, and yellow and red to make orange on their colour names. These are secondary colours.

6. Last add colour to the outside ring by mixing the colours named on each section. For example, to make purple-red you can mix purple (made from red and blue) with more red.

You have made a colour wheel! If you want to get really creative, you could try mixing some colours that are not on our colour wheel to see what you end up with!

Let's draw a Spring chicken together! Here's how:

1. First draw a triangle in the very middle of your page (the beak).

2. Next add the lower part of the beak by adding a little "v" underneath.

3. Add the detail of the inside of the mouth by colouring it in.

4. Add a little half-moon for the chick's nose, and two black dots for eyes on each side of the beak.

5. Now draw a circle or oval for the head. This should go all the way around the eyes with the beak sticking out.

6. Now draw a "c" shape for the chick's body, and draw a line to attach the other side of the head to the tail.

7. Next add tail feathers, head feathers, and eyebrows.

8. Draw the wing, with a wavy line at the tip for feathers. You can add a second wavy line to show layers.

9. Add two legs with knobbly knees, and feet with 3 toes on the front and 1 toe on the back.

10. Add another wing waving at your viewer! Do the same steps as #8.

11. Add some spikey blades of grass. It's good to do these in threes because they look good to our eyes. You could do more grass than I did if you like.

12. Draw 3, 5, or 7 swirls in the sky above the chick. These will be the flowers.

13. Make spikey flower petals around all of the swirls to make flowers. If you like softer flowers you could do wavey petals instead of spikey ones.

14. Then draw two lines coming down from each flower to the ground to show the stem.

15. The last step of the drawing is to add a horizon line. This is a line about 1/3 of the way up the page, behind the chick. It stops the chick from looking like it's floating. You're done!

Pastels are fun to work with. Today, the suggestion is to draw the Earth in pastel, then create a neat effect with watery paint resist. Here's how to do it:

1. Gather your materials:

• paper

• pastels

• paint

• a permanent marker

• water

• a paint brush

2. Use a permanent marker to draw the Earth in the middle of your paper.

3. Use pastels to colour the land green, and the water blue. Use fully-meeting colour!

4. Then use purple, dark blue, or black pastel to go over the outlines of your Earth where there was marker.

5. Now use the largest paint brush you have. Get it really wet, with watery blue paint.

6. Paint over your whole page, including where the pastel Earth is.

7. When your painting is dry, you might want to go over the black, dark blue, or purple outlines of your Earth with more pastel, just to make it pop.

This painting project is nice and simple, but it also looks great!

1. Prepare your materials.

• Thick paper

• Permanent marker

• A paint set

• A cup of water

2. Draw an outline of the picture you want to paint using permanent black marker.

3. Wet your brush, and mix it into your paint.

4. Fill your drawing with colour! The brighter the better.

Always make sure that your brush stays wet so that your colour will be bright.

There are a lot of things that can be done with a paper bag. Among the ideas are those like making puppets or decorating a bag to deliver a sweet treat in. Today let's make a creature out of a paper bag!

1. Gather the following:

• a paper bag

• tissue paper

• an elastic band

• scissors

• glue

• coloured paper

• a marker

2. Use a marker to draw:

• eyes

• ears

• a nose/mouth

3. Cut out each shape that you drew.

4. Glue the shapes onto your paper bag. 

**You may also want to glue down the flap near the bottom of the bag.

5. Fill your paper bag with loosely crumpled tissue paper.

6. Use an elastic to bunch and close the bottom of your bag.

7. Voila! C'est fini!