The weather remains balmy for this Thursday's activity so we are heading outdoors for a Seed Hunt! In the northern part of the US, September and October are ideal times to do a seed hunt and it can be done in a city park, suburban backyard or a large plot of land in the country. If, however, you don't have access to a natural space or the weather or time of year is prohibitive. you could use your kitchen as the hunt location - spices, fruits and vegetables and even house plants could provide you with the seeds. Remember to emphasize (and re-emphasize!) that the seeds should not be eaten as some may be poisonous.
Materials Needed:
To get into the spirit of this activity, the more thoroughly you can "outfit" your little naturalist, the better. If they think they look like a "real" naturalist, they are more likely to take the activity seriously. (It's kind of like dressing up, but better.) Below is what we packed in the girls' nature bags,
including:
- binoculars
- magnifying glass
- pencil
- sample bags (small and large) with paper id slips in them
- ID books
- camera
This is by no means an all-inclusive list and you could certainly add or subtract items. At a minimum, you should have a pencil, sample bags and some way to ID the plants. I happen to have several different tree, plant and shrub guides, including a couple of the Peterson series. The standard ones are a little too dense for smaller children, but the First Guides one seems a bit more accessible to me. I recently saw the Fandesk Family Guide to Trees and I'm intrigued by it - maybe a stocking stuffer for the Holidays? If you are a technology fan, or just don't want to shell out the money on paper guides, there is a great (free!) on-line tree ID guide by the Arbor Day Foundation. They also have an iPhone app. The Audubon Society has a series of apps (including tree, wildflower, bird and mammals) that are wonderful, but more expensive; I think you can get all 4 for $20 and I've seen coupons out there. (If you are curious, the nature bags are sewn from the "Naturalist's Scavenger Hunt Bag" pattern in the book, Growing Up Sew Liberated by the talented Meg McElwee, of the Sew Liberated blog.)
