Get your kids outside! There's nothing like exploring the great outdoors to foster a sense of wonder and appreciation for nature. Take a magnifying glass to scrutinize things you find. Take a pair of binoculars to get an up-close view of birds and squirrels. Take the time to stop and watch animals and birds as they gather food and fly or scamper along. Gather items (leaves, twigs, dirt, seeds, acorns) and use them to create art when you get home. Use your senses and remind your child to use his/hers: Look! Listen! Feel! Smell! Have your child keep a nature journal, writing down or drawing pictures of the experiences from their outdoor adventures. Encourage them to look up facts about the animals and plants they encountered. 

Take a trip to the library with your child and take out some books about frogs. Learn together why frogs are so important to our environment. If your child is middle-school aged, watch the Planet Bonehead "Frogs: A Sticky Situation" episode. When night falls, walk outside with your child and have him/her listen closely. Can you hear any frogs?

Frogs and toads need water to breed and to live in. See if your child understands how to keep water near your home clean. Talk about how saving water in your house keeps more water in the ponds, lakes, and streams for frogs and other creatures to share. Frogs and toads consume hundreds of insects a day--they are nature's very own insect repellent. What a buggy world it would be without frogs and toads!

Amphibianark.org is an organization that is working to save the world's frogs and toad from extinction. Collect some loose change with your child and his/her friends. Help them write a letter to amphibianark.org and send a small donation to help with their good work! Your children can decorate the letter they send with frog pictures.

Help your child live in the moment. Spend some time lying in the grass watching the clouds move. We spend so much time on-the-go or "plugged-in", we often don't take time to appreciate the amazing world around us. Encourage kids to slow down and feel their connection to planet Earth. 

A great nature activity for classes or groups!

Give each child a bucket or bag and then have them gather materials from nature. Create a grid on the ground assigning each child their own square, and have the child assemble their items in their square. Together, the children's items form a "nature quilt." This can be a jumping off point for discussion. What items did the kids find? Would they have found different items had the season been different? Would the items have been different if they were gathered in a different locale (i.e. at the beach, in a forest, etc.)? A photograph can be taken of the quilt if so desired.

Encourage your kids to write a "Dear Earth" letter. This writing activity gets children to focus their attention on all that the planet provides and allows them to explore their feelings about our one and only planet Earth. 

I wish to speak for...activity.

Ask kids to become the voice for those that cannot speak: a polar bear, the ocean, an oak tree, the air. Have your child choose a natural entity to "speak for" and then use his/her imagination and empathy to go inside that being and discover what it wants to say. Have them write a poem that begins with "I wish to speak for..."

The activity can be taken a step further with kids creating drawings or masks or puppets of the entities they choose. For classes or groups, the poems can be shared aloud or used for a play to present to parents. The images and words can be compiled into a large group mural.