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Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity

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As we’ve been working our way through the NaturExplorers : Beautiful Birds unit study, we’ve been learning so much about types of birds, what they eat, how they fly, and even where they go when they migrate. In our area, we tend to see the same few species of birds, but I still wanted the kids to be interested in observing them.

NaturExplorers  suggested graphing the different kinds of birds we observe in our neighborhood and one of the printable notebooking pages shows kids how to keep up with bird colors by using tally marks. My kids, though, needed a little practice with bar graphing.

So we decided to do a bird color bar graphing activity to keep them watching out for the feathered friends who frequent our family home!

Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity

To do this bird color bar graphing activity, you’ll need the following supplies:

  • Graphing paper
  • Colored pencils
  • Clipboard (optional)

You don’t have to use a clipboard, but I found that having it helped the kids keep up with their graphing much better. Especially when they’re outside and they decide to have an impromptu dirt digging session, which happened on more than one occasion.

Bird Bar Graphing Supplies

We used colored pencils for the bird colors we see the most often. We see lots of cardinals and blue jays, so we included red and blue. But we also see lots of brown thrashers and crows, which meant including brown and black as well.

Making a Bar Graph of Bird Sightings

To make the graphing simpler, we started the bars by just coloring the first outer square edges. That way, we’d make even bar shapes going up.

If you don’t keep a bar graph neat from the beginning, the bars will look crooked and make the graph almost impossible to read. (Ask me how I know.)

Graphing Local Bird Colors

We saw a good number of cardinals, but we saw even more blue jays. I love them both.

Making a Bar Graph of Bird Colors

But we saw more crows than any other kind of bird! That was pretty neat.

Graphing Bird Colors with Kids

We suspected that it was because we usually saw individual cardinals and blue jays (and even brown thrashers). But crows were always in big groups. It’s common to see 15 of them at once sitting on a telephone line.

More Hands-on Math Nature Study

We’ll see if the crows stay on top over the next few weeks or if they’re upset by one of the other bird species.

The kids absolutely loved doing this activity. And they were getting some math practice without even knowing it. That’s always a win in my book.

Share these other hands-on nature study activities when you’re learning about birds with the kids!

Hugs and love ya,

Hands-On Mixed Media Flower Art Fun Nature Study

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You’ll love this fun mixed media flower art project.

Every spring, my youngest son and I go to the local nursery and pick out a few, inexpensive, flowering plants. He brings them home and plants them in “his pot.”

It’s a springtime routine we have enjoyed together since he was a toddler.

He likes to get his hands in the dirt. I love the look of flowers on my patio. It’s a win-win.

Picking out a few inexpensive flowering plants, adding in some gardening activities and art, and you’ll have a fun hands-on mixed media flower art fun nature study! Check out how easy it is to do this fun hands-on nature activity!

This year, I decided to take this gardening activity and use to it to fuel a quick nature study as well.

Hands-On Mixed Media Spring Nature Study

What you’ll need for this activity:

  • Flowering plants (either purchased or in your own yard)
  • Something to draw and color with (we used chalk pastels because they are very forgiving, but color pencils, crayons and even markers will work too)
  • A large piece of white construction paper (make sure it’s pretty heavy)
  • Clear glue

Nature Study At Home

The day after my son planted his special spring pot, we completed a basic geology lesson about soil.

I began by asking him what components he thought made up soil. He was easily able to answer broken down pieces of rock, but we decided to do  some more research.

Soil is defined by Dictionary.com as the loose top layer of the Earth’s surface, consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with decayed organic matter (humus), and capable of retaining water, providing nutrients for plants, and supporting a wide range of biotic communities.

We learned that different soils exist in different locations around the globe, based on their environment and weather. This came as a bit of surprise to my son, so we spent some time discussing a the clay soil we saw on our last family trip, verses the rocky silt that exists in our backyard.

Then, we decided it was time to move on to the fun, hands-on part of our learning.

Mixed Media Nature Study

In the past, we have collected items from the beach and from our hikes in the forest, and then used them to create mixed media art as a record of our experience.

Instead of using shells or pine needles, for this activity, we used the soil, leaves and flower petals available in our own flower pot.

Spring Mixed Media Nature Study

He started by drawing his potted flowers with chalk pastels. (Because he dislikes the feeling of chalk on his fingers, he always wears latex gloves, but it works.)

Spring Mixed Media Art Project

After blurring the chalk lines, we then took some of the leaves and flower petals from our plants (only a few to keep the pot looking pretty!).

You’ll love these nature living books curriculum!

Our Journey Westward
Mixed Media Nature Art

We then glued the leaves and petals to the picture in various locations.

More Ways to Learn about Nature in Your Homeschool

After allowing the glue to dry, he grabbed a handful of our soil and we observed the various bits of rocks and sticks that blended together to create our top layer.

Easy Mixed Media Spring Art

We then spread glue around the bottom of the picture and rubbed the soil into it to create an additional area of interest in his art.

Mixed Media Spring Nature Study

That’s it! The result was a beautiful representation of our hands-on, spring time activity.

Making a Spring Mixed Media Project

I really love this idea for anyone not able to get out into more obvious natural environments like a hike through the woods or a tide pool at the beach.

Nature study can happen anywhere, with the help of a few pants, some soil and an interested learner!

Picking out a few inexpensive flowering plants, adding in some gardening activities and art, and you’ll have a fun hands-on mixed media flower art fun nature study! Check out how easy it is to do this fun hands-on nature activity!

Written by Shawna at Not the Former Things.

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

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One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school for more fun tips

Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery.

The Pythagorean Theorem is that theorem you probably remember from your own middle school and high school years: a² + b² = c². Today we’re going to teach our kids the theorem with a hands-on activity!

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem. One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery. Click here to do this EASY hands-on activity!

But first let’s take a look at what a mathematical theorem is.

Hands-On Math: The Pythagorean Theorem

A mathematical theorem is a statement that can be shown to be true by accepted mathematical operations.

This means you can’t just make up a proof and say it works. You have to use logic, reasoning, and accepted mathematical operations to show the theorem is true. Today we’ll be using squares and areas to show the Pythagorean Theorem is true.

So what exactly is the Pythagorean Theorem?

Pythagorean Theorem: The square of a square drawn on the hypotenuse of a right triangle equals the sum of the areas of the squares drawn on the other two sides.

Put another way: a² + b² = c².

In other words. If you have a right angle and measure each side, the square of side a plus the square of side b is equal to the square of the long slope we call the hypotenuse.

What You Need for This Activity:

  • Graph Paper
  • Ruler
  • Scissors
  • Pen

Directions
According to the Pythagorean Theorem, if I draw a right triangle, the square of the two sides added together will equal the square of the hypotenuse. Let’s see if this actually works!

Step 1: Pull out your graph paper and draw a right triangle on it. I’m going to use sides with the length of 3 boxes and 4 boxes.

Pythagorean Theorem for Kids

Step 2: Measure the hypotenuse.

Easy Pythagorean Theorem Lesson

Step 3: Remember square of a number is the area of a square with that length of side. So I’m now going to draw and cut out my squares. One square will have sides the length of 2 squares on the graph paper. One square will have sides the length of 3 squares, while the third will have the length I measured!

To make the next step more clear I’m going to highlight the squares in different colors. The small one will be yellow. The medium will be green. And the large one will be blue.

Simple Pythagorean Theorem Activity

Step 4: Let’s see if the area of the two small triangles will equal the area of the large triangle! We’re going to do this by laying the medium square on top of the large square.

Pythagorean Theorem Lesson for Kids

Now you have a choice. If you count the squares left over on the large triangle, you’ll notice there are 9 squares. And what’s 3²? 9! Or you can do what I did and cut the square to fit the left over area.

Pythagorean Theorem Hands On Activity

As you can see, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides. The Pythagorean Theorem works!


Now let’s run through all 4 steps again with different numbers. This time I’m going to use sides with lengths of 6 and 8.

Step 1: Again we create the right triangle.

Teaching the Pythagorean Theorem to Kids

Step 2: Now measure the hypotenuse.

Measuring Triangles with Kids

Step 3: Create the squares.

Easy Way to Teach the Pythagorean Theorem to Kids

Step 4: Do the squares of the sides equal the square of the hypotenuse? The highlighter caused the sides of my squares to curl, so I used a touch of tape to force the squares to lie flat. Even so, as you can see the answer is yes!

Showing Kids the Pythagorean Theorem
Teaching the Pythagorean Theorem for Homeschoolers

Try the activity yourself using varying lengths for the sides.

No matter what the length of the sides of your right triangle, you’ll discover the squares always equal the square of the hypotenuse or a² + b² = c².

You’ve shown the Pythagorean Theorem works!

Hands-On Middle School Math: The Pythagorean Theorem. One important mathematical concept kids run into sometime in middle school or high school is the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was born around 569 BCE is credited with the discovery. Click here to do this EASY hands-on activity!

Written by Sara at Classically Homeschooling.

So what lengths did you use for your right triangles?

Teach math with these other fun homeschool activities!

Hands-On Science: Handprint and Fingerprint Activity

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

What better way to celebrate the uniqueness of our skin than to learn more about our unique fingerprints and palm prints? Fingerprint science and palm print science is easy.

(The truth is, this activity can easily be completed as a fun scientific study, completely independent of the human body. It stands alone as its own little mini-unit.)

As part of our study of the human body, we began a unit on organ systems this month. My son was shocked to learn that the body’s largest organ is our skin!

After spending some time learning basic facts about our skin, I decided it was time for a little extra, hands-on fun.

Hands-On Science: Handprint and Fingerprint Activity. What better way to celebrate the uniqueness of our skin than to learn more about our unique fingerprints and palm prints? CLICK HERE to grab the free printable and do this fun hands-on activity!

Hands-On Science: Fingerprint and Palm Print Study

What you’ll need for this activity:

Fingerprint Collection and Observation

Because my son was excited to get started with the messy part, we began with the fingerprint collection and observation portion of the activity.

Here’s how we got one of his thumbprints to observe:

Scribble back and forth with a pencil on the index card or cardstock. You should do this until there is a thick layer of pencil on the sheet.

Learning about Fingerprints

Have your child firmly place his thumb onto the pencil markings, being careful not to move once his thumb is on the card.

The Basement Workshop Store

Once your child has carefully lifted his thumb off the penciled area, take a piece of tape and stick it to the “dirty” area of your child’s thumb.

Making Fingerprints with Kids

Carefully lift off the tape and stick it to the appropriate area on the Fingerprint Study Notebooking Page.

Examining Fingerprints with Kids

Once the tape is affixed to the white backdrop of the page, your child will easily be able to observe and discuss her findings.

Interesting Facts We Learned About Fingerprints

  • Fingerprints stay the same over our lifetime, no matter how much our fingers grow.
  • The only way to change a fingerprint is through surgery, injury or diseases of the skin.
  • No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in many billions of human and automated computer comparisons.
  • Even with the discovery of DNA, fingerprints remain the primary source of criminal identification around the world.
  • The first noted examples of fingerprints being used for identification are from Ancient Rome. Fingerprints were used in business transactions, the way we use signatures today.

Palm Print Tracing and Observation

Depending on your child’s stamina, this portion of the activity can be done the same day as the fingerprint study, or completed later in the week.

Hands-On Handprint Science Activity

Trace your child’s hand in the labeled section of the Palm Print Study Notebooking Page.

Have your child observe and record (draw) the lines they see on their actual palm, on the traced version.

Fingerprint Science Activity

Observe, discuss and record your findings.

Interesting Facts We Learned About Palm Prints

  • Palm prints were used in Ancient China as part of crime scene investigation as early as 200 BC.
  • Palm prints are as unique as fingerprints when the entire palm is able to be studied and analyzed.
  • Moms love having their baby’s handprints from when they are born. (My son included this one!)
Hands-On Science: Handprint and Fingerprint Activity. What better way to celebrate the uniqueness of our skin than to learn more about our unique fingerprints and palm prints? CLICK HERE to grab the free printable and do this fun hands-on activity!

Overall, this activity produced a ton of conversation between my son and I, both about the science of skin and the forensic science behind crime scene investigations. This activity can be scaled back for younger learners, but as is, it worked perfectly for my 12-year old.

Looking for more fun science activities? Try these hands-on lessons!

 

Kids Easy Crafts and Activities that Celebrate Snow

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Warm weather is almost here, but winter may still have a few blasts of Arctic air left in her. So, if all the snow has got your kids griping about having nothing to do, I have just what you need to get them excited and celebrate snow!

KIDS SNOW ACTIVITIES

This is by no means an exhaustive list of snow-filled fun, but it’ll turn them into huge fans of this time of year. And you just might have a good time, too!

Kids Easy Crafts and Activities that Celebrate Snow
  1. Snowball Wars

You could get the neighbor kids involved in this one and establish teams, or have each of your kids fend for themselves. Set up boundaries and build a snow fort for home bases for each team/child. Give them some time to stock pile a few good snowballs, and establish any necessary ground rules (i.e. no hitting above the shoulders). This can be played like “capture the flag” where each team hides a flag and the goal is to steal the opposing team’s flag and bring it back to home base. If a child is hit with a snowball, he’s sent to an established “jail” until a teammate can come set him free by tagging him.

Winter NaturExplorers 1080x1080 (Instagram)

If you don’t have enough players for teams, simply have a great time throwing snowballs at each other! Be sure to establish a safe word in case the play gets a little too rough. You can also set a timer so all the players have a chance to catch their breath, restock on ammunition, and gear up for the next battle!

  1. Fort Building

You can find snow brick makers at just about any store that carries toys. Another option would be to use a small bucket. These things make building a snow fort super simple, and a whole lot of fun! The kids can build up walls or even use their problem-solving skills and create an igloo. You can turn it into a competition based on who makes the largest fort, who makes it the quickest, and who’s is most creative. Once all of the forts are completed, they’d be perfect to use for the snowball wars!


Another way to build a fort is to use a huge pile of snow left by snow plows. Using a shovel, dig a hole from one side of the pile through to the other. Depending on how much snow is piled up, the kids could even create various tunnels and endless fun.

  1. Sledding

This may be an obvious one, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s worth making it happen. Sledding is a blast for all ages! There are all sorts of different types of sleds to choose from. You could go all out and get some pretty fancy sleds that allow for extra speed and are easier to maneuver. They are a lot of fun, but your kids will likely have just as much fun on something as simple as a cheap saucer – a round sled that looks much like a trash can lid. There’s just about anything you can imagine in between the fancy and the plain, so pick what will work best for your family and head to the nearest hill.

Even if you don’t have a quality hill outside your back door, a quick google search will lead you to a nearby hill. You’ll likely be able to find a tubing hill or a tobogganing hill which means you won’t have to bring your own equipment. It also means you could go sledding several times throughout the winter and it’ll feel like an entirely new experience every time!

  1. Hiking

Hiking through a winter wonderland is a completely different experience than any other time of the year, even if it’s a trail you’ve traversed many times before. The snow changes up the scenery in a unique way, making it both beautiful and peacefully quiet. Without all of the greenery, you and your kids will be able to see deep into the woods, and spot things, like sleeping bee hives or deer nests, that would otherwise be hidden.

As you trudge through the snow, keep an eye out for fresh animals tracks. The snow is a perfect canvas for displaying the trails of all sorts of creatures. Your kids will also enjoy noting the different plants and wildlife that grow and thrive in the frigid temps.

KIDS SNOW  CRAFTS

  1. Symmetrical Snow Globe

This super simple craft allows for both the not-so-talented artist and the gifted artist to shine. Fold a plain piece of paper in half. Cut out the shape of half a snow globe from the side without the seam. Open the paper and draw half of a scene (notice a trend?) on just one side, using the fold line as the center line. Next, draw the exact same scene on the other side of the globe but making it the mirror image of the original side. You now have a perfectly symmetrical snow globe. Laminate it, if you’d like, to hang in a window.

The beauty of this craft is the scene your child draws can be as simple or as intricate as they desire to make it. The gifted artist can enjoy his gift, while the struggling artist can still be successful and produce an exceptional piece of art.

You ARE an Artist Curriculum Bundle
  1. Snow Ice Cream

Why not put that snow to good use and turn it into a delicious treat? All it takes is three ingredients: snow, vanilla, and condensed milk. It couldn’t be easier! And you could whip it up inside the warm house or right out in the snow.

Send the kids out with a large bowl or bucket to fill with a good ten cups of snow. Take roughly half of the collected snow to work with first, adding about a teaspoon of vanilla and half of a can of condensed milk. Using a wooden spoon, mix the ingredients into the snow until well blended, then add more snow and more condensed milk until it reaches the desired consistency and taste. Store leftovers in a storage container in the freezer.

And if you want to do the cheat version, look at my Hands-on History: Make Maple Snow Candy – Pioneer Activity.

Kids Easy Crafts and Activities that Celebrate Snow
  1. Tin Can Snowman

You could recycle your empty condensed milk cans for this one, but any three empty cans will do. If you can get your hands on 3 varying sizes, your kids will be able to make a snowman a little more true to size. With this craft, though, it isn’t as important because the cans won’t be right on top of each other. This tin can snowman is also going to be a wind chime!

Our Journey Westward

Paint each can in white and add some sparkles or snowflake confetti while the paint is still wet. Glue on eyes, a nose, and buttons using pom poms or felt. Glue on a ribbon for a scarf. Using a hammer and a nail, poke a hole in the top of each can and use twine or yarn to string through each hole, tying a washer at the hole to hold the cans up and keep them separate. Add in additional washers throughout the yarn to clink against the cans in the wind.

Kids Easy Crafts and Activities that Celebrate Snow. If all the snow has got your kids griping about having nothing to do, I have just what you need to get them excited and celebrate snow! Click here to see these kids easy crafts and activities that celebrate snow.

You’ll also love these other ideas:

There is all sorts of fun to be had in the snowy winter! Enjoy!

Hugs and love ya,