At Natural Pod, we’re advocates for outdoor learning whenever possible – learning that is experiential, embodied, and connects a child to their senses with respect to their surroundings. It’s the opposite of learning about Nature in a classroom via a screen! To that end, and as part of our ongoing collaboration with New Society Publishers, we’re excited to share summer activities for learners of all ages via an excerpt from The Big Book of Nature Activities: Summer – The Crescendo.
Below you’ll find 3 low- or no-cost activities that we chose from the book. We hope they inspire you and your learners to get outside and play together. If you like these activities, we’ll be sharing more again soon – you can also find a link to buy the book at the bottom of this article.
The Big Book of Nature Activities: Summer – The Crescendo
The preparations of spring bear fruit in summer. Eggs become fledged birds, flowers become ripe berries, and tadpoles transform into small frogs and toads. Summer is a treat for all of our senses. Roadside flowers provide a parade of ever-changing color. The warm air is full of the smell of blossoms and, in late summer, insects replace birds as the source of most song. Our palates, too, are well served with all manner of cultivated and wild berries.
But despite weather that is often hot and sultry, signs of fall arrive early. By mid-summer, shorebirds are already heading south and a few splashes of color change are apparent in the leaves. As Henry David Thoreau observed, “How early in the year it begins to be late.”
Three Low- or No-Cost Activities for Fun Outdoor Learning and Play
1. The World of Echolocation
Early summer is a time of baby mammals such as deer, raccoons, and red foxes. One of the most fascinating summer mammals is the bat, which uses sound to navigate and hunt in the dark. This fun and active game helps students understand how they do it.
Activity: Bat and Moth Game
- You’ll learn: How one species can affect the evolution of another.
- You’ll need: Large playing area, blindfolds, 12 or more participants.
- Background: Evolution isn’t just a response to environmental conditions. Sometimes species evolve in response to each other. A good example of this is coevolution. Coevolution occurs when two species are closely associated. When one species develops an evolutionary advantage, it often triggers a change in the other. This change, in turn, may initiate another evolutionary change in the first species, and so on. For example, bats evolved to use echolocation (pulses of sound) to detect and catch their prey. Moths, in turn, have evolved to detect the echolocation calls of hunting bats. When moths detect bats, some species begin evasive flight maneuvers; they dip, weave, dive and even barrel roll. Some moths reply with their own ultrasonic clicks to confuse the bat’s echolocation.
- What to do: Have everyone make a large circle, so that when your arms are extended, you form a continuous barrier with no gaps. This forms the wall of a cave and the habitat of the little brown bat, a species common throughout North America. Select one bat and one moth. Blindfold each. To show that the bat is using echolocation, have the bat say in a loud clear voice, Bat! To show that the sonar produced by the bat is bouncing off the moth, have the moth clearly say Moth! each time the bat utters Bat! Like in the game Marco Polo, the bat is trying to find and catch (tag) the moth. As you play, point out the following:
- What is the difference between slow bursts of sound and much quicker bursts of sound? Bats send out at least 20 sonar per second, with a top speed of 200 per second. The more clicks, the more information. Have the bat use a slower, then a faster rate of clicks. What happened?
- Now have the moth use clicks whenever it likes and not just in response to the bat’s call. This mimics the sonar that some moth species are able to use to confuse the bat. Did it work?
- If you can, obtain a bat detector. This device changes the sonar clicks, normally beyond the range of human hearing, to sound that we can hear. The frequency of the sound will also be a clue as to what bat species is hunting. (Adapted from Project Wild)
2. Amphibious Antics
Reptiles are a common sight all summer, and early June nights resound with the calls of numerous species of frogs and toads. By late July or early August, the frog chorus comes to a close as young frogs emerge from their ponds.
Activity: The Great Green Gobbler
- You’ll learn: How bullfrogs hunt for their food.
- You’ll need: Open field, hula hoops.
- Background: They may look like they are slow and bumbling, but bullfrogs are incredible hunters. They’ve been known to catch birds, spiders, mice, bats, dragonflies and even their own kind. A bullfrog is a still hunter, which means it waits for prey to show up. When it detects prey moving near its territory, it rotates its body so that its mouth is oriented towards the prey. If necessary, it may make a few approach leaps. A bullfrog’s back legs are very powerful, like tightly wound springs. Once the frog is close enough, it extends its back legs and launches itself into the air, eyes closed and mouth wide open. Timing is everything. If the aim is true, a bullfrog will unfurl its massive mucus-covered tongue and fling it outward—often covering up its prey like a blanket. It then retracts its tongue as its jaws clamp down. If the prey is large enough, the bullfrog uses its forearms to stuff any remaining bits into its massive mouth.
- Materials: Half of the group will be bullfrogs and the other half dragonflies. Have the bullfrogs set up their territory using hula hoops. Make sure frogs are at least three big steps away from each other. Bullfrogs crouch in their hula hoops, back legs folded and bent, front legs in between back legs. Here they wait patiently for dinner. Dragonflies are busy catching their own prey in and among the bullfrogs. They dart forward; they hover, zigging and zagging—flying backward, zooming forward. The quicker dragonflies are, the less likely they’ll be caught. On a given signal, the dragonflies flit among the frogs, trying to catch insects. Meanwhile bullfrogs try their best to catch a dragonfly. It is all about timing the leap. Can they tag a dragonfly with one of their hands extended, representing the unfurled tongue of a bullfrog? It is more challenging than you might think. Try it! (See color section, figure 45.)
DARWIN: Believe it or not, in 2014, researchers from Rutgers University found a new species of frog right in the middle of one of the most highly populated parts of the U.S.! The Atlantic coast leopard frog, Rana kauffeldi, lives in wetlands from Connecticut to North Carolina. By examining the genes and mating calls of leopard frogs from various parts of the Northeast, the scientists were able to prove that this frog is, in fact, a new species. Citizen scientists provided crucial information about where the frogs are living and what they look and sound like, such as their distinct chuck call. This shows how important it is to get out and study the plants and animals in your own backyard, because you never know what new information you might discover—maybe even a brand new species!
3. The Insect Chorus
In late summer, the insect world explodes wide open. The calls of insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, and cicadas dominate the soundscape, taking over for the birds.
Activity: Cricket Thermometer
- You’ll learn: How to tell the temperature using the sound of the snowy tree cricket.
- You’ll need: A watch or phone that shows seconds.
- Background: Nature has thermometers, too. Snowy tree crickets are known for their rhythmic, precisely timed chirrups. In fact, you can calculate the approximate air temperature based on how fast the cricket is calling; the warmer the temperature, the faster he calls. Snowy tree crickets look a bit like grasshoppers but have long antennae and slender, pale green bodies. Learn the song by listening to a recording (see Activity 27 in The Big Book of Nature Activities).
- What to do: While it’s still warm, head out to the woods or a park with trees and listen for snowy tree crickets calling. To calculate the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, count the chirps over a 14-second period and then add 40; for example, if a cricket sang 15 times in 14 seconds, the temperature would be 55°F; 40+15=55. (In Celsius, count the number of chirps over 8 seconds and add 5.)
DARWIN: Evolution is happening right before our eyes on the islands of Hawaii. Some crickets living on these islands have lost their ability to make music. This arose because of a mutation in a wing gene. The silent male crickets have “mutant” wings that are more like those of female crickets. This allows them to avoid parasitoid flies that recently in- vaded Hawaii from North America and are attracted to male cricket song. Quiet crickets avoid those deadly flies but still manage to mate by placing themselves near males that still do sing and intercepting the females when they show up!
Keep an Eye out for Part 2!
These are just a few of the activities and insightful bits of information found in The Big Book of Nature Activities. We’ll be sharing more from this excerpt in a future article, but you can get a copy of the book for your classroom here.
If you use any of these ideas in your classroom, please tag @naturalpod and @new_society_publishers on social! We’d love to see what you get up to.
Here’s what the authors Jacob Rodenburg and Drew Monkman have to say about their book:
“The average child can identify over 300 corporate logos, but only 10 native plants or animals. This is a comprehensive guide for parents and educators to help youth develop a deeper appreciation of the natural world. This amazing compendium is packed with seasonal games, crafts, skills, stories and observations to make outdoor learning fun!”
