Outdoor Investigations

Ages 3 to 6: Build vocabulary and phonics skills by identifying letters of the alphabet and connecting the letters to beginning sounds in words

Ages 2 to 6: Practice counting, one-to-one correspondence, and identifying quantities while building fine motor skills

Ages 2 to 5: Develop the art of observation by noticing things right outside your window

Ages 2 to 5: Ask questions about the natural world and seek answers through investigation

Ages 2 to 6: Identify, label, and describe the different parts of a backyard ecosystem

Ages 2 to 6+: Observe a backyard habitat and learn about the diversity of organisms that live right outside your window

Ages 2 to 6+: Make a backyard nature journal to document scientific observations

Ages 2 to 6+: Search for items in your own backyard

Ages 2 to 6+: Hunt for various shades of green in nature

Ages 3 to 6: Match each backyard organism to its symbiotic partner

Ages 3 to 6: Use a graphic organizer, called a Venn Diagram, to compare the commonalities and differences between the basic needs of a plant and those of a bird

Ages 3 to 6+: Learn about the different kinds of food that backyard animals eat and determine whether the animal is a carnivore, an herbivore or an omnivore

Ages 3 to 6+: Discover the characteristics that distinguish living things from non-living things

Ages 5 to 6+: Learn about the importance of the sun and identify different ways that it impacts life on Earth

Ages 2 to 6+: Add color to these backyard-themed printables

Ages 3 to 6+: Create a food chain to illustrate how energy is transferred between organisms

Ages 4 to 6+: Learn how energy is transferred within an ecosystem by creating a food web