Quick & Easy Habitat Education Activities - Washington Native Plant ...

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Foam Core ClipboardsFoam core clipboards are easy to make,affordable, lightweight, water resistant and easy tostore. This style is designed for the 1/2 page worksheetstypical for Q&E activities. Larger foam coreclipboards are more likely to break.Foam core board30”20”Excess material2”6”Cut with a utility knife using a straight- edge as aguide. Each foam core board makes 10 clipboards.Rubber bands can hold paper in place. Clear plasticcan be stapled to one edge to protect paper from rain.9”9”Plastic Baggies and ContainersStore props in plastic baggies, viewingcontainers, storage containers and bins.Kit MaterialsMaterials which can be used repeatedly and stored for future use arelisted. Each activity sheet provides a list of any required ‘Kit Materials’.‘Support Materials Descriptions’ gives details about these materials,along with their suggested sources.Some kit materials such as ‘foam core clipboards’ or jewelerloupe magnifiers are used in several activities. Other kit materialssuch as bagged and labeled natural objects for Nature Detectivesactivity, or seed samples for Seed Dispersal Sort activity may bepreserved for repeat implementation of the same activity. Some kitmaterials such as ‘Game Cards’ in the Maple Seed Mixup activity maybe created from document masters that are printed, cut, laminated andassembled into sets which are best housed in ‘kits’ .‘Kits’ can be made for individual activities, for a series of activities,or for the entire set of Q&E activities. They may be stored inplastic bins or cardboard boxes and clearly labeled for ease of access.Schools may store them in their school library, or in their educationstorage rooms. Stewardship community groups can make and storekits for use while hosting stewardship activities for youth at projects.Making kits provides ideal projects for parent and communityvolunteers, education specialists and parks staff, and the small budgetrequired lends itself to funding by grants, donations and fundraising.Teacher SuppliedSpecified on the “Activity Sheet”, this category indicates suppliesthat are usually readily available in the classroom (such as paper andpencils) or from the habitat area (such as fresh berries or leaves) and thatrequire frequent replenishment. In some cases, further details are providedin the ‘How-to-do Activity’ documents. Parent helpers or classroomassistants can help with gathering and organizing these materials.Using the Outdoors As a ClassroomSchool grounds and nearby parks or natural areas provide an excellent“classroom”. Forethought and a few preparations can makeeducation outdoors an exceptional learning experience. It is best tointroduce students to the natural world during pleasant weather tofoster a favorable initial outdoors experience. Flexibility is one of thegreat advantages to using school grounds or nearby natural areas; youmay conduct impromptu visits on an exceptionally nice day, or delaya planned activity because of inclement weather.Laminating printmaterials ensureslonger use. Laminatedprint materials may behole punched for storagein a binder, and/ormay be bound using fi lerings for fi eld use.Assembling Print Materials in SetsMagnifi ers are useful in manyactivities, and enjoyable forstudents. Jeweler’s loupes aresold affordably as ‘PrivateEyes’ for student use.
Planning and providing a few simple pieces of equipment can helpassure that visits to habitat areas are a positive experience regardless ofthe weather. Even with proper notice, most students are not prepared foroutdoor activities, so it is important to provide some basic gear. Theseare some suggestions:• Encourage students to bring inexpensive raingear to use on outdoorclassroom days or to store in class. Many classroom teachers assemblea classroom set of raingear and keep it on hand at all times. Low costponchos can be purchased with grant or other one-time funds and sharedwith other classes. For the sake of time and storage it is best to have allone color and type of poncho. A class set of ponchos can be stored in asingle, large plastic bin, or hung on the back of a door. We know of oneschool that keeps a classroom set on the back door of the principal’s office,along with a portable library of field guides stored nearby.• Small plastic bags held in place around the ankle with rubberbands make fast and simple mud protection for shoes. For classesinvolved in serious stewardship activities consider having students bringin an old pair of shoes to be stored at school during the school yearrather than expecting students to remember (or choose!) to wear appropriateshoes.• Foam pads, carpet squares, even plastic bags can provide a barrierfor seating or kneeling for observation and journaling activities. Someteachers make a one-time purchase of garden kneeling pads that can beused for many years, and shared between classes.• A portable file box can store a class set of pencils, magnifiers,spare paper, foam core clipboards, rubber bands, kleenex, bandaids andother small items for use in the field. Having this ‘ready to go’ helpsexpedite an impromptu visit to your habitat area.• Be aware of students who may have allergies to plant pollens orbee stings and plan accordingly. If mosquitoes are present, plan to visitwhen there are slight winds, or during the middle of the day. Thoughthere are now effective herbal repellents on the market, school policiesusually limit or prohibit use of any medications.• Familiarize yourself and your students with stinging nettle plants(See 1-5b Image: ‘Stinging Nettle’ for good identification information).For very young students you may want to mark areas containing nettle.PonchosAffordable, functionaland easily storedEmergency RaingearLarge plastic trash bags canbe easily adapted to make anemergency poncho by cuttingout head and arm holes, onlylacking a bit in style.Decidedly less fashionable butcertainly functional are plasticshopping bag ‘mud shoes’ toprotect those inevitable “$100shoes that my mother will killme (you) if dirt gets on them”scenarios. And they are justugly enough that perhaps nexttime they will wear appropriateshoes.Portable File BoxStinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is a commonnative plant of Pacific Northwest forests withgreat habitat value for wildlife, especially thelarvae of many of our native butterflies. It diesback each fall, re-emerges in late winter, andgrows to 6’ tall by summer’s end.It is a highly nutritious edible plant, favoredby humans and wildlife, and has thereforedeveloped an elaborate defense system in theform of fine prickles, which cover its stalk andunderside of leaf. These prickles contain formicacid which is injected into the skin uponthe slightest contact.The sting from nettle is usually a shortlived,but intense, sensation of stinging andburning. The formic acid can be washedaway with water (soap may aggravate), orsomewhat neutralized by the crushed leavesof sword fern, plantain, dock or alder leaves.Using these plant remedies also affords adistraction from the discomfort, and provides atopic of discussion for other students.Once encountered, most people quicklylearn to identify stinging nettle while outdoors.This plastic fi le box is rainproof and holds a class setof foam core clipboards, pencils and fi eld guides.
Page 1 and 2: Starflower FoundationQuick & EasyHa
Page 3 and 4: Quick and Easy Habitat Education Ac
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Page 9: Materials Required for theQuick & E
Page 13 and 14: • Proximity to classroom for shor
Page 15 and 16: Seattle Public ParksThere are score
Page 17 and 18: ‘Mystery Nature Objects’ for pl
Page 19 and 20: Images: ‘Plant and Animal Interac
Page 21 and 22: Seeds of All Kinds Poster Overlay
Page 23 and 24: ‘How-to-do Activity: Wildlife Sig
Page 25 and 26: ‘Starflower Native Plant ID’ ca

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