Nature Study at Arrowhead

Dawn has been leading K-5th grade students in a nature study rotation as part of SAU6 and Claremont Parks n Rec summer learning program. The children spend the morning at Maple Avenue Elementary continuing their school work and are bused to the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center in the afternoon for art, nature study, sports, and swimming. About 175 students have attended each week. They are practicing observations skills as they study flowers, bugs, rocks, water, and forest critters.

Want to learn with them? Try one of these activities:

Grass Forest - Use a magnifying lens to take a closer look at the miniature world in your lawn. Slowing down, getting low, and zooming in is the key to observing this amazing habitat.

Pollinator Power - Find a flower and watch who visits. Do this many times with different color flowers or different types of flowers. You might even notice what kind of pollinator (bee, ant, fly, butterfly, beetle) visits each one and record it in a table. Do you see any patterns emerging?

Make a Bouquet - Take a half sheet of cardstock paper or the back of a cereal box. Draw and color in a vase on it. Poke a few holes in the paper above the vase. Go outside and pick a few flowers and stick their stems into the holes in your paper vase.

Rock Collection - Go on a walk and pick up 6-12 rocks that are different from one another and can fit in the palm of your hand. Wash the rocks in soapy water with an old toothbrush. Let them dry. Use an egg carton or half egg carton to store and organize your rocks. Share them with others.

Wetland Exploration - Take a small net and a container that holds water to a wet spot nearby. Scoop up water from the bottom to the top along the edges or along the stalks of wetland plants to find critters. Fill the container halfway with water and put any living thing that you find in it. Observe what the critters look like and how they move. Then, carefully put them back.