Spring Time, A time of life and death

Spring is here! Flowers bloom, the sun warms the earth, and a sense of adventure fills the air. This is the perfect time to get your kids outdoors and experience the wonders of nature. From planting seeds and watching them grow to exploring local parks and forests, there are countless activities that will spark your children's curiosity and create lasting memories. So, embrace the season, get active, and let the springtime fun begin!

Activity! Log Visit

Although it might not seem like much, taking time to look at a dead log, turning over a stone, looking where the ants are going... Remind yourself that though your life moves at a particular pace, childhood moves at its own speed. When your child asks to stop and play or look at a particular things, try saying 'yes.' If you are in a hurry, set a timer and try to give five or more minutes to the adventure.

Activity! Spring 4 Senses Scavenger Hunt (by CBC)

Activity! Bucky boats for this activity you need a moving stream or river. Each player picks some bark and floats it down stream to see which one will finish first!

Activity! Nature Bracelets

(From 101 Things For Kids To Do Outside)

Using masking tape, duct tape, two-sided tape, or parcel tape (cut to the a little bigger than the child's wrist), let child pick up things (petal and leaves) and tape to the bracelet - try to pick things that are pretty but not attached to plants, although a flower or two should be ok.

Activity! Press Flowers

To press flowers, you just need some flowers to press, paper between the flowers and the books, a books to stack on top.

Activity! Flower Printing?

(From Gumnutmagic)

Take your plants and flowers, place them on paper. On the bottom and top place thicker paper - cardboard or cardstock. Warp the whole thing with string so the leaves and paper are pressed together. Place all of that in a big pot. Add boiling water, simmering for an hour. Let cool and then open it up to see what happened! You can do this with fabric too, but without something added chemical to keep the art on the fabric, it will wash out. Watch it happen

Activity! Kid Play As you learn about goats, watch how playful the baby goats are (aka kids). Get kids to play like 'kids' -

• Roll down the hill
• Balance on a fallen tree
• Climb onto small objects, like tree trunks

Activity! Jump Circles

Draw some circles with lines going down the middle in various ways (see picture).

Have child make some too.

Then jump from one to another.

Activity! Learn to Somersault

Activity! Paper Lotus

Choose your favorite colors and draw a simple flower shapes, like circles with wavy edges or multiple rounded petals. Once cut out, the fun part begins! Fold each petal inwards towards the center, creating folds that act like pathways for water. The tighter the folds, the slower the bloom. Now comes the magic! Fill a bowl or cup with water and gently place your flower on the surface. You can play a game of trying to place a small object or coin in the flower after it blooms, without it sinking.

Activity! Green Memory Game

On one of your many walks, collect bits and bobs from the ground. On a rainy afternoon, place your collection on the ground, ask your child to look at it for a count of 10. Ask child to turn their back and remove one thing. Try to get the child to describe the thing that has been removed. Play until loss of interest.

Activity! Half-Flower-Prints

Find some weeds and flowers in the wild. Only pick one or two of each kind. Bring them home and cut them in half, like in the picture. After looking at the insides, you can use them to print on a page by using a paintbrush to put the paint on, or dip the half flowers in the paint, or if you have a roller, roll the paint on. Try all three ways!

Activity! Mail A Hug!

• Lay a large piece of paper on the floor and have child lay with hands outstretched
• Trace child's head and arms
• Let child color in and draw their face
• Fold arms in and put in envelope (write a message on the back)
• Mail to a grandparent or other family member or friends

Activity! Picnic

• Give child a container or two that they can pack themselves.
• Have them cut bread, spread condiments and add some veggies to make sandwiches
• Let child chunk cut some fruit (like melon, watermelon or papaya) and put in container
• Let child squeeze lemons, add sugar, ice and water to a portable container.
• Let child choose a spot to picnic and enjoy!

Activity! Salt Water Painting Don't throw the salt water out! Grab your water colors, brushes and paper! Use the salt water and see if the painting has a different character than regular water - consider painting outside!

Activity! Hard-boil vs Fresh Hard boil at least four eggs and have one fresh (not cooked). Ask the child to guess which is which (without breaking the eggs). Then teach them the spin technique - spin the eggs and then touch them lightly. If it stops, it is hard-boiled!

Activity! Dye Eggs The adult pours hot water into 4 different bowls.

• Let the child put a teaspoon of vinegar in each.
• In one bowl of hot water let child put onion peels.
• In one bowl of hot water let child put beetroot peels
• In one bowl of hot water let child put turmeric root
• In one bowl of hot water let child put red cabbage leaves (with baking soda)
• Let child put egg into each bowl, using a spoon.
• The longer it stays there the deeper the color.

Activity! Homemade Chalk If you dyed eggs - SAVE those SHELLS!

• Separate the shells by the colors you want each chalk stick to be.
• Rinse the shells so there is no egg left on it (for child safety - boil the shells for 5 minutes, then let cool before giving them to kids)
• Grind the shells to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle (if you don't have one, try a sturdy bowl made from unbreakable plastic or wood and a small, lightweight rolling pin).
• Combine 2 tsp hot water, 1 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp eggshell powder (mixture should be clumpy).
• If the color is not exactly what you thought, consider adding a 1 tsp dye - try natural dyes like turmeric, paprika, beet root, matcha, butterfly pea tea (made, not the leaves).
• Knead the mixture until smooth. If needed add really small amount of water.
• Roll out shapes or make sticks (like traditional chalk).
• Allow to completely dry for a few days before using.

Activity! Bat and Moth

(from Play the Forest School Way)

A kind of tag game. In an open field, if only one child, you be the moth and the child the bat. Child wears blind fold and claps (echolocation) and the moth claps back. Bat tries to catch moth. If you have more players, they are the trees and when captured they call out 'tree' and the hunt continue.

Activity! Butterfly-Catcher Game

(from Play the Forest School Way)

Tie a fabric swing (if you don't have one, tie two sheets together). Child is a caterpillar crawling on the grass. Climbs into the swing (and goes into the pupae stage). Other children or caregiver watches from the side, waiting for the butterfly to come out of the cocoon as a butterfly, they are the butterfly catcher and try to catch the butterfly. See example.

Activity! Balancing Butterflies

(from Trash to Toys)

• You have to print or draw the butterfly on a stock paper or construction paper.
• Cut it out or let child cut it out
• Let child tape a stick or pin in the center
• Let child place the paperclips on each wing
• Then try to balance on finger, glass edge, wand, windowsill etc.
• Try different animals!! Gliders, birds, insects, dragonflies, creatures without wings....

Activity! Butterfly Yoga

Baddja Konasana - Balancing Butterfly Pose - To perform it, begin standing tall with feet hip-width apart. Engage your core and keep your back straight as you lower your hips down towards the floor, mimicking sitting in a chair. Ideally, flatten your feet entirely, but a folded blanket or yoga block under your heels can provide support if needed. Separate your knees wider than your hips to comfortably accommodate your lower body and prevent them from caving inwards. Hinge at your hips and lean your torso slightly forward, allowing it to fit between your thighs. Your arms - hold your palms together at your heart center (Anjali Mudra) or extend them out to the sides with palms facing forward. If you are balanced comfortably, try arms up, palms touching above head. Maintain a long, straight spine by engaging your core and avoid hunching your back. Breathe deeply and slowly, inhaling to lengthen your spine and exhaling to relax deeper into the pose. Hold for 30 seconds. To come out, slowly press through your feet and straighten your legs.

Activity! Ant Trail

(from Play the Forest School Way)

Plan a trail to walk. The children are ants, walking single file. The first one walks until they find something interesting - make sure to explain what might be dangerous, or poisonous. Ask them to pick up only natural things (from the floor). The first ant passes it back, then goes to the back and holds on to the thing they picked up. The new ant at the front

Activity! Trail Game

Using chalk create a trail on the sidewalk or your car park. Make sure it is not an active car park and child knows safety rules. One continuous line that waves and weaves. Tell child this is a pheromone trail left by an ant for you, another ant. You follow it to get to the end. If you have a spray bottle with water or a bucket and brush, ask child to spray or brush the line away, after play.

Activity! Nature Trail Signs

Learn to make simple nature trail signs. Walk a trail, where child goes five or six minutes ahead and leaves signs for you to follow. Best done in pairs. *If you don't feel comfortable doing it on a trail, have child do it on a playground and hide - and you find them using the markings.

Activity! Start a Seed Collection Try to find 5 of each kind! Five that fly away from the parent plant, five the come in fruits, five that find on your walk, five that latch on to clothes or fur, and so on.

Activity! Make a Tumblewing

Tumble weeds are incredible plants that detach from the roots and dry out. This allows them to get carried away by the wind to scatter and reproduce when they find water. Create a similar glider that works on the same tumbling principle Tumblewing Challenge from Purdue University a downloadable resource.

Activity! Bookmarks

• Use your pressed flowers to make some bookmarks, covering with clear tape or
• Cut in half flower prints or
• Use some of the seeds from your collection to stamp patterns on to bookmarks

Activity! Roses and Violets With two or more children, lay a long rope. When you call 'Roses' hop over the rope, 'Violet' hop to the other. If you say 'Violet' twice, children stay put. Change the sequence and rapidity.

Where does this sugar come from? Like magic, plants capture the sun's energy through their leaves. Then, they mix that energy with water and air to create sugar. It's a special process called photosynthesis, just like a tiny kitchen inside the plant!

Learn more about the sugars in your fruits and vegetables by making:

Activity! Sugar Syrup

• Choose your sugar base {sweet potato, beets, sweet fruits}.
• Method 1: Roast and dehydrate - roast sweet potatoes or beets until tender. Puree, dehydrate on low until a concentrated thick syrup remains.
• Method 2: Cut into small pieces, simmer, stirring so it doesn't burn. Strain, then continue simmering on low heat until thickens.

Store your homemade syrups in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They should last for several weeks to a month. After you make it - add a tablespoon or two to a smooth! Try different combinations: Sweet potato and Strawberries or Beets and Bananas! Add it to salad dressings, oatmeals, bread recipes! Try it where you can! Send us your best recipes!! #sugarsyruprecipes

Activity! Make Jam!

• Go to a pick it yourself farm and collect as many berries as you can carry! Wash well.
• For every 2 cups of berries, add one cup of sugar. Combine and leave for 15 minutes (the sugar draws out the juice from the berries)
• Bring mixture to a boil, stir occasionally.
• Add packet of pectin (1.75 oz) and 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• (You don't have to use pectin, but then you need double the sugar, so 2 cups of berries now need 4 cups of sugar)
• If you prefer smooth, strain
• 2 sterilized half pint jars