Fun Friday activities are quick-and-simple ways to explore nature in your own backyard.
THE IDEA
Create our own backyard field guide.
After reading an article last week about how to make a field guide to your yard, I thought it might be fun to give it a try. The goal of this first outing wasn’t much: Choose a format for our guide (pictures, words, sketches, etc.) and get started with one item.
OUR NOTES FROM THE FIELD
This one started off simply enough. I showed the big explorer a couple of field guides I bought recently for our summer adventures and asked him to help me figure out how we might make one for our backyard.
We headed outside with guidebooks in hand and looked through them both.
One had just pictures and names to help you identify things, the other longer descriptions and color photos. He decided he wanted to draw pictures of the things for our guide.
Next, we sat down and talked about the things in our backyard that we might want to include in our field guide: trees, flowers, birds, wildlife and whatever else we thought might belong. I asked him which item in our yard we should add first.
The lemon tree it was.
The big explorer took it from here with little to know prompting after that. He sat down to draw a picture of the tree, then a picture of a lemon. He labeled the parts of the lemon and what color each part of the lemon was. He added in some details about how it looked, smelled and felt.
Before we were finished, I asked him to take a closer look at the lemon tree itself. To find out how the bark felt and to see if he could see any sign of insect or animal life in the tree. Here is the second page of his first backyard field guide entry. (The first included the date, the name of the item observed and the weather during our observation.)
We’ll be adding an item here and there throughout the summer, I’m sure of it.
TAKE-HOME TIPS
I’ve always thought field guides were best left to the experts. But who better to be the expert of your backyard than you? To keep this potentially complex project simple:
- Keep it age appropriate. The big explorer is 5 ½ years old, so our field guide is a great place for him to practice his newfound reading, writing, classifying and drawing skills. If I were to make one with the little explorer (who is 2), it might just consist of pictures with the names of the items written in large letters beneath each.
- Be flexible. If your child wants to sketch one day, then take a photo another, go with it. It’s not important that the field guide is in one cohesive format. What matters is that your little one enjoys exploring and learning about your backyard nature.
MORE IDEAS FOR OUTDOOR FUN
Things around here have been a little too hectic this week for my taste. I’m looking forward to the weekend and the chance to slow down and enjoy some time outside. Here are a few creative ways to enjoy outdoor time with your kids this weekend:
- Make letters in the dirt with your little explorer
- Collect, skip or paint stones
- Turn the wind into music with your own set of wind chimes
- Usher in summer with some serious water play fun
@Colleen: Thanks! 🙂
Love, love, love this idea!
@Crystal: If I were to try this with my 2 yo, I would probably take photos, print them out and put them on index cards. Then label each with the common name (i.e. "lemon tree") and keep them together with a binder ring. You could get fancy & laminate them! Good luck!
This is what I love about your blog, every time I sit down to catch up with your posts I get so many fabulous new ideas to try with Shane someday down the road! I had to bookmark this page, because I'd love to do this with him when he's a bit older. I'm trying to see if there's a way I could do this at his level for now — maybe a mini photo album, with labeled photographs?
Thank you for trying—and sharing your field guide. Sounds like your explorers had a good time. There are so many ways to approach this project and I always appreciate learning about how others go about it. Would love to reprint your blog at our website. Please let me know if I may.<br />Jane Kirkland<br />Take A Walk Books
@Carolina: If you try this, I'd love to hear how it goes.<br /><br />@Dawn: Fionna's guide sounds wonderful! One thing I love about this is that it's an activity that can grow & change as the kids do. <br /><br />@Anne: Thank you so much for stopping by! Jane's books are an inspiration for us & when I saw this activity posted on NWF, I knew we had to try it. Glad you
Wow — it's amazing to see this activity in action! I'm going to share this with the article's author, Jane Kirkland. This is a wonderful post!<br /><br />Anne Keisman<br />National Wildlife Federation
Great start to the guide. Wonderful detail on his part!<br />We have a three ring binder we keep adding to… It is such a wonderful way to explore and learn.<br />Fionna has even started to add the lifecycles of the things we see… moths, frogs, etc… So neat!
I really like this idea, just in time for my bored-to-death, summer vacation kid.
@Cat: I'd love to compare your Aussie backyard field guide with our very urban, U.S. one. Look forward to your post.<br /><br />@Lora: The big explorer has really taken to the idea of classifying & sorting things in nature. This project might not work for all kids his age, but can certainly be adapted as needed. Hope you guys have fun!
You have a real Sid the Science Kid! Way to get a kid to sit down and focus on something in your own backyard. Great idea! Will try to incorporate this with my little ones too.
I thought making a field guide to your backyard was a cool idea when you tweeted the link. Looks like you've made a great start. I was pondering starting our own today, when we had an encounter with a goanna and that has got us off and rolling. I am going to scan the page and blog about it soon.