Outdoor >Not< Challenge: Resources for Summer Learning

We have been participating in 5OrangePotatoes' Outdoor Challenge....except for us, it's not much of a challenge. We are naturally outdoorsy people and spend our days outside. As a Project WILD, Project WET, and Project Learning Tree instructor, I can tell you that you can create an entire nature-based, or environmental education, curriculum from these three resources.

Project Wild

Project WET

Project Learning Tree 

Add these nature activities from the National Wildlife Foundation to your list this summer:

1. SockWalk
2. Sizing Up Eggs
3. Cricket Capers
4. Dressed in White
5. Experiments on Ice
6. Flap Happy
7. Layer It On
8. Melting Snow
9. Night Sky
10. Rain Gauge
11. Sizing Up Eggs
12. Sunshiney Fun
13. Animal Tracks
14. Creatures by the Foot
15. Signs of Winter
16. Snooping Snowflakes
17. Tree-mendous Mysteries 
18. Bubble Fun
19. Case of the Disapearing Sand Castle
20. Color Me green
21. Hiding in the Grass
22. Leafing Through Leaves
23. So Many Seeds 
24. Speeding Springtime
25. Wildlife After Dark
26. Bring on the Butterflies
27. Sock Walk
28. Sprout a Sponge Garden
29. Pond Serenade  
30. Shadows 
31. Take Aim

And here are the Snail Family's Outside Golden Rules:

1. No whining!
2. If you "pack it in, you pack it out."
3. You can only pick flowers and plants in your own backyard.
4. Watch your step!

The kids with their Grandpa. 

Spittle Bug spittle mass 

Wool Sower Gall on Oak 

We wondered how this was made. We were on an uninhabited island. 

Made by a gall wasp

We explore an island in the middle of a lake.

While in the middle of Lake Nottely, my phone thought "I was a little far from Lake Nottely".

We love to rent bikes when we go on vacation.

Yeah, that was fun for Momma Snail to clean up. 

Driving a go-cart takes serious concentration.

 I am in love with wild purple thistle. 

Snakeberry is not a "wild strawberry". It's poisionous. 

Which lead us to....