Nature ABC Walk and Case Files for Nature Detectives

ABC Walk

After reading the book we are going on a Bear Hunt, Spiderman decided - it's a beautiful day outside, and we are going on an ABC Hunt! 
Why not? We love going on walks. Short ones, long ones, on feet, bikes, or scooters. Alphabet hunt sounds even better! Batman was given the task of recording observations. We decided to start with our backyard.
Don't forget your camera or phone, and nature bags to bring home the samples.

• A - apples, ants, acorns (asphalt - discounted by Batman as it is man made)

A for Apples!

Honeysuckle with Bees

• B- bug, bee, bark, buds, birds, butterfly
• C - caterpillar, crow, cloud, cat, car, creek
• D - dandelion, dog
• E - earth, eggs (from a bird's nest), eagle
• F - flower, fern, fly, feather
• G - grass, green leaves, gravel,
• H - hummingbird, honeysuckle
• I -  inchworm, iguana (if we had spotted one)
• J - jasmine
• K - kite, katydid (I don't think we spotted one, Batman did say that they are active at night, as he seemed to know something about it, I let it slide!)

L for Lizard

• L - leaves, lemon, lady bug, lizard



O for Orange Leaves

• M - mud, maple, mulch, moss

• N - nest
• O - orange leaves, owl (if we had gone out at night)
• P - pumpkins (decorations for fall), purple flower, (poop - from dogs, lol!), pine cones, palm trees, parachute seed, plants

R for Rose

• R - rose, rabbit

S for Snail

• S - stones, stump, seeds, squirrel, sun, snails, spiders, sand
• T - tree, twigs, trails made by above mentioned snails
• V - vine



W for web

• W - wind, water, weeds, worms, web
• Y - yellow flowers

The kids hypothesized that if we had gone for a nature walk near the lake, we would have seen dragonflies, frogs, fishes, turtles, ducks, tadpoles etc. All true!

Spiderman's thought - we should have taken a nature walk in the zoo, mom, then it would be real easy to come up with something for all the letters!

Here is a great extension to the ABC Nature Hunt:Make an ABC Nature book

Nature walks are great opportunities to engage all your senses. Here are some extensions.

 

Sound Walk

Extend your nature walk to a sound walk.What kinds of sounds do you hear? You can leave it open ended, asking them to record/draw 5 sounds for example.
Or you can have a checklist - 

1. Do you hear the wind?
2. Rustling of leaves?
3. Birds chirping?
4. Cars swooshing by? 
5. TV blaring?
6. Dogs barking?
7. Cats meowing?
8. Leaves crunching?
9. Baby crying?

Sensory Walk 

Feel the bark of the tree. How does it feel. Now feel the petals. Run through grass, wiggle your toes in the sand box, dip your feet in the creek, feel the sun on your back, and the wind in your hair...

Nature Detectives

We had so much fun, and Spiderman and Batman had so many questions to ask and observations to make, we decided to organize things a bit more for our next nature walk.
Presenting ...

Case Files for Nature Detectives

1. Space to record your ABC Nature Hunt from A to S - write or draw!
2. Sound Hunt
3. Two pages for Texture Hunt
4. Smell Hunt
5. Color Hunt
6. Color graph (see if their predictions match up with the graph)
7. Leaf rubbing page
8. Sorting - Plants or Animals
9. Venn Diagram - Living, Non-living, and Once-Living
10. A page to record the weather.

Download it for free, and have fun detecting and learning.
Please Note: This version is for personal use only. Teachers, please see my TpT Store.
 
The wonderful clip-art is from My Cute Graphics.