Seasons South and North

Seasons South and North is One Year Old

  

Today is the blog's first birthday. To celebrate, I have made a blank nature observation chart as a gift to all of my readers.   To print it, either double click on the image above and print, or  Download Nature Observations Chart for children .

To Use the Chart

• It is in black and white for children to colour. 

• There are twelve squares, on which the children can draw or write what they observe

• They can do this in a number of ways:

-using one square per month of the year

-using the top squares for what they observe in their own hemisphere and the square below for

 what is happening in the opposite hemisphere

-printing one chart for each week or month and drawing many observations

I may put up a version that I have coloured myself later, but I thought the children might like to do their own.

©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Slowing Down in Winter

 
 

In the northern hemisphere, it is late autumn moving into early winter. Winter is a time of rest, of quiet, for some animals, of hibernation. 

Would our children know that? They live, for the most part, in cities, protected from the extremes of weather. We have power to keep us warm when it is cold, to keep it light when it is dark. Families race to skiing holidays or beach holidays at all times of the year. Children watch television and play electronic games at all hours. Yet our bodies follow still the rhythms of nature. We are more tired and grumpy when we have to move about in the cold and the dark; we become ill more easily when we are tired and cold. In many ways, we are living at odds with our physical world. Helping children to understand seasonal changes and how they affect us may help them to relax and accept certain changes in themselves, as well as those around them.

The Bear's Life

The bear is the star example of a creature whose life follows closely the seasonal changes. By following the bear's life through the year, children can learn about the seasons as well as nature.

Craft Aspect - Back to the Felt Board

Using this fine silhouette from Karen's Whimsy, with thanks, cut out a large felt bear:

 

 

Consider if you want it to be brown or black, as relates to what once roamed where you now live. Then, cut out from grey or brown, a large cave into which the bear can fit. You may wish to do another bear, curled in sleep.

Teaching - Repetition

When I was a schoolgirl of about eight or nine years, I had a teacher named Mrs. Doctorman who, every single morning, made us stand beside our desks and sing brightly:

Good morning to you! 

Good morning to you!

We're all in our places

With sunshiny faces

And this is the way

To start a new day.

Because we were young, we accepted it. In later years, I thought it was tacky beyond belief. In truth, it worked. She smiled, we smiled, and everyone got down to their tasks. The Bear's Life can be just such a morning repetition, focusing on what the weather is and what the bear would be doing. Encourage the children to pretend to eat lots and lots and LOTS of berries when the bear would be storing energy for the winter sleep, to stretch and pat their places when the bear would be settling down in the cave, to put their heads down and snore when the bear is hibernating. Do not do all of this in a morning, but in phases over many mornings. 

Extend the Teaching

If possible, visit a zoo's bear enclosure many times during the year to see how their behaviour changes. 

Read bear stories about real bears' lives, not those with bears acting like people. We have put some suggestions in a list in the column to the right: A Few Good Books About Bears.

This activity should go the year round, for only then will children, especially city children, gain a deep understanding of nature's changes.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Eco Schools

Now is a good time to start preparing for next term's nature activities and lessons. There is quite a lot in existence to be of help to teachers and librarians. One of the most useful is the Eco-Schools programme. 

Eco-Schools is an international programme --  in countries throughout Europe, South and North America, Asia and Africa --  to help children become involved in helping their schools to address environmental issues. This is particularly valuable as it gives children the sense that something can be done, thus alleviating their sense of helplessness. The work done is truly important, for it aims to make each school operate in a more ecological manner.

The website explains their activities :

"The Eco-Schools programme involves seven steps that any school can adopt. Based on the elements of an environmental management programme, the process involves a wide range of stakeholders, but it is the pupils who play the most important role.

"The seven steps include the establishment of an Eco-Schools Committee to organize and direct the activities of the school. Once a Committee is established an Environmental Review is done and an Action Plan established to set achievable targets and deadlines for improving the school’s environmental performance. To ensure that progress is made and that achievements are celebrated, Monitoring and Evaluation are done. This also ensures that environmental care and education is an ongoing process. Certain themes are studied in the classroom through Curriculum Work, and the whole school should be involved in practical initiatives. The step of Informing and Involving brings the local community and Local Agenda 21 into the process. Schools are encouraged to make outside contacts and ties to enhance their learning experience and to inform the wider public about their activities. And each school develops its own Eco-code, outlining the school’s values and objectives and what the students are striving toward.

After a period of participation, an evaluation of the success of these initiatives and the methodology is undertaken, and the whole Eco-Schools programme for each school is assessed. Successful schools are awarded with the Eco-Schools Green Flag."

I have looked at a number of the different sites in different countries. Some, such as those in France and the UK, offer quite a lot of free materials to download, newsletters, and case studies. Others are still in the developmental stage. Go through a few and use what they have to get your school registered as a part of the scheme or at least to use the materials to start being greener.

Eco-Schools Websites

www.eco-schools.org

The main website for the international organisation. Here, under Countries, you can find links to the individual, nation's eco-schools sites, some of which follow.

www.ecoschoolsscotland.org

Having joined with others, they have produced a number of good materials that can be downloaded.

www.eco-schools.org.uk

The newsletter here is excellent, so do sign up.

www.eco-ecole.org

This is the French eco-schools site. It has a number of very good downloads, if you can read French. There are activities and lessons that are quite creative.

www.lotc.org.uk

This is NOT an eco-schools site, but that of Learning Outside the Classroom. It has many pages of very good ideas for activities outside of the classroom, not all of them pertaining to nature.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools

                                        

We are very, very pleased and honoured to be working with The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools in educating children about rainforests and how to preserve and restore them. The PRP has a wonderful site, full of ideas for activities and lessons, as well as, of course, competitions. There are excellent images of rainforest animals and audio clips of the sounds that they make. In a very positive way, every aspect of the site encourages conservation ideals. The PRP has also linked with eco-schools, an internationally admired programme to encourage green goals in schools. 

"The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross"

takes place in the Atlantic Rainforest, where August is cold and grey, and where January is hot, where spring comes in September and autumn in April. It is a charming story that, month by month, shows the native trees, flowers, birds, butterflies and insects as a child discovers them. The grandmother of the story -- with delicacy and understanding and through simple play and activities -- teaches a love of nature and a way to preserve it.

The book can serve "as a supporting resource for any of The Prince's Rainforests Project lesson ideas". 

Please do visit the The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools  and sign up your school. Also, you may wish to visit the main site of the project and sign up as an individual. 

To purchase a copy of "The Big Field", please read the various options on the panel on the left of this page. Thank you.

What Teachers and Librarians Say about "The Big Field"

"The artwork looks fantastic...It's a lovely book."

                      A.W., school librarian, Yorkshire

"A wonderful resource."

    www.parentsintouch.co.uk.

"...charming. I can see it will work really well in my library classes with the Prep School children as they can enjoy the story and do research projects on all the interesting things in the book!"

    L.M., school librarian, Suffolk

"Great concept for a book...many useful applications for the classroom."

    Deb Troehler, special education teacher

"beautifully illustrated...a wonderful way of introducing....geography, multicultural studies, science and nature."  

                    www.homeschooling-ideas.com

"...our reception teachers...were really keen on your book and plan to use it in a variety of ways."   

                    M.P.,   school librarian, Taunton

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Mangrove Trees

After the recent post on tropical cyclones, it seems appropriate to write about mangrove trees. These are a number of amazing  species that can live in slightly salty water, sending out roots through the air in order to get enough oxygen. In the jungly mass of roots, many creatures make their homes hidden from predators: crabs, sea snails, clams, young fish such as mangrove snappers and barracuda, various alga,  and shrimp. On the trees themselves live dozens of insect species: ants, spiders, mites, centipedes, bark lice, crickets, moth caterpillars, and many, many more. In some places monkeys eat the leaves. Birds and people eat the fruits. Herons and egrets build their nests in the root masses.

Where tropical cyclones or hurricanes occur, mangroves help to protect those on land by blunting the force of the storms. Planting more mangroves in these areas is of great help and importance.

Turn Your Classroom into a Mangrove Root System

You will need:

• Lots of brown crepe paper
• Craft paper and crayons 
• Tape 

  Cut the still folded roll of crepe paper into bands of about 3 cm wide. With the children, unroll the bands and tape them to the ceiling. You are now in a mass of mangrove roots! Have each child draw a crab, or shrimp, or small fish to cut out and paste to one of the brown streamer/roots.

Create a Display of a Mangrove Ecosystem

A mangrove tree is an entire ecosystem on its own, serving many purposes and functions for many creatures and other plants. 

You will need 

• A large piece of brown paper
• Tape 
• Craft paper of many colours 

Download Mangrove silhouette

Use the silhouette as a guide to cut out of brown paper a LARGE mangrove tree to put up on the wall. Let each child choose a spider, heron, crab, etc. to draw and cut out.  Show the herons nesting in the roots and eating fish and crabs that also live there. Show the spiders, centipedes and lizards eating the ants, flies and lice. Show monkeys and birds eating the fruit and the seeds from the fruits floating away to start new trees. 

Mangrove Tree Observation

If you live near mangroves, go to observe them, looking closely at all that lives there. Perhaps there is one in a botanical garden near you.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Sharing for the Future - Transport

This post contains a lesson about sharing and transport, about pollution and petrol, energy and global warming, the future and now. Whatever one's political beliefs, it is clear that the world population is continuing to increase ever more rapidly, and that means more crowded spaces for us all. It also means more energy will be demanded, even if everyone reduces their use, because there will be more of us. It is entirely possible that when our children are grown, in twenty years' time, it will not be within the means of most people for everyone to own and pay all of the costs of a car. If we look at the evidence, whether of global warming or air pollution, it is clear that we all must try to reduce our use of energy, particularly petrol (or gas). 

As I wrote in previous posts (Logging In The Rainforests  and What Kind of People We Are) we need to be careful in how we teach children about what we are doing to the environment. It is cruel to frighten them and unjust to carry on with the destruction and tell them that it will be their mess to clean up. Leo Hickman, in The Guardian , discussing his new book, addresses the question of when and how to tell children that the world they will grow up to live in will be less than it is today. He voices the concerns that many of us feel.

On the principle of practicality and with a desire to be positive, I truly believe that we can teach children not merely that the future will be different, but how to cope with it. In the process, we may change our own ways and so, lead them forward by example. 

Surely, one of the most important skills for the future will be that of knowing how to share. We will have to stand in more queues, use more public transportation, be more tightly packed on public beaches. The etiquette of sharing will become crucial to an endurable life.  The practicality of sharing is all ready crucial to reducing pollution and global warming.

Sharing Transport

Download Sharing Transport 1-2

Use the  pages to explain energy use and transportation to the children. Then try these activities:

Invite friends to share transport to school

Encourage the children to find out who lives near and, if they all drive to school individually, why not ask their parents to consider sharing the transport?

Make an energy saving chart

Draw a large chart with all of the children's names down one column and the days of the week across the top. Each day, have the child paste up a picture of the form of transport they used and discuss whether they shared or not. If not, could they?

Talk About Speed

For many children (and adults!) transport is not so much about getting from one place to another as it is about the thrill of going fast. Discuss and compare with the children the sense of speed in a fast train vs. running fast, riding a bicycle fast, swinging high on a swing. The fun of the non-motorized activities is actually greater, with definitely more of a whoosh! feeling.

Compare Speed With Observation

Ask the children to pick out a stretch of road that they normally pass in the car or on the bus. Ask them to make a list of what they see, or to draw a big picture of all that they see. Now ask them to walk that same stretch of road and do the same, make a list or draw a picture of all that they see. Talk about how much they miss by not walking every day.

©2009, Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Frogs!

Frogs are on most continents of the world. They are important, they are endangered, and with the release of the Prince of Wales's new film about saving the rainforests -- with a frog as a mascot -- they are topical. 

By now, all over the northern hemisphere, where it is late spring, newly adult frogs are croaking the nights away. In the southern hemisphere, where it is autumn,  frogs are breeding, anticipating the rains which will provide swamps and puddles in which the emerging tadpoles will thrive. Next month, the amazing Purple Frog of India (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) which spends almost all year underground, will come out to mate during the monsoons.

Surely, one of the most fascinating metamorphoses in nature is that of the development of tadpoles into frogs. It is like watching the evolution of the species played out with each individual. Teaching it to children is much more fun than many other subjects, because it is so amazing, like science fiction, and because frogs can be so funny. They look like certain people. (Think of Toad in   The Wind In The Willows ! )

The three stages of the frog's development are: tadpole, (when they are vegetarians) froglet, adult frog (when they are carnivores).  Below are just a few of the many sites explaining the lives of frogs, with many pictures.

Frog Metamorphosis Dance

Combining the need for play with learning about frogs, we include here the age-old game of leap-frog. Astoundingly, many children today do not know how to play this game. Please read here if you need instructions:  How To Play Leap-frog .

This dance needs to be done outdoors. 

1) Ask the children to stand in lines at arms' distance. 

2) The tadpole stage - with arms held tightly against the sides, weave the upper body, making sucking noises (tadpoles at first hold on to something by sucking. Then, they eat algae.

3) The froglet stage - begin to move the arms, stop sucking, crouch down.

4) The adult frog stage - still crouched, line up, with a good distance between each child.

5) Play leap-frog!

Develop Imaginative Writing Skills

Without question, one of the greatest of all imaginative picture books is David Wiesner's  Tuesday   .

It is a wordless book. As a story writing lesson, ask the children to write their interpretation of  the pictures.

Frog-related websites:

The Prince's Rainforests Project

American Museum of Natural History on Frogs

Frogmatters - about the threatened extinction of all frogs

Australian Frogs

Save the Frogs, which also has a very good educational poster about frogs.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Low Down Looking

If lying on one's back and gazing at clouds is good for the artistic imagination in us all, lying on one's tummy and gazing at tiny life forms is good for our inner scientific observer. Further to developing children's observation skills, plan a session of "low down looking".  

To prepare the children for the concept of observation, ask the children if they have ever seen a spider. One assumes they will all shout "Yes!"  Now, ask them if they have ever watched a spider build its entire web. I could be wrong here, but I would guess not. The point is that they need to begin to be aware of the difference between seeing and observing.

Low Down Looking Activity 

All you will need are:

• a guide to local insects and wildflowers from the library
• paper and pencil for each child 

Go outdoors together and have everyone lie on their tummies, paper and pencils ready for sketching what they see. (Be careful not to have the children lay on unpleasant plants such as nettles or poison oak!) Remind the children that this is a time of observation, so they are not to trap or disturb what they see. Encourage each child to draw an insect or plant as accurately as possible, trying to get the right number of eyes and legs.

As each drawing is finished, help the children to find their plant or insect in the guide. Some children will be better at using the guides; some will be better at drawing. They can help one another in striving for accuracy.

            

Have you no green place on which to lie? Is your play area concrete? Look around. There are probably plants that have pushed their way through some cracks. Have the children observe there and be amazed at life's perseverance.

Cannot find your bug? Do as I do and go to the Bug Forum on the website of the Natural History Museum

and ask an expert. (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/insects-spiders/bug-forum/?q=gallery)

Repeat this activity in other locations, on class visits to city farms, orchards, zoos, etc. 

Send instructions home with the children asking their parents to do "low down looking" with their children and to send back to you the drawings the children do. 

At the end of the season, with the children, tally how many times each species was observed and make a display of the results : your local bug population.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

 

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Animals With Mask Markings

Following on from the previous post about birds with bandit masks, we thought we might look at animals with mask markings, such as the three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegata) from Central and South America, the black and white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) from Madagascar, and the North American raccoon (Procyon lotor) . 

       

Depending on where you are, you may have seen one of these animals in your garden or on a trip to the forest. At least, you and the children may have seen them at the local zoo. 

Masks on animals may have inspired the first primitive masks. If, in animals, they serve to frighten off predators, when humans donned them long ago, they were meant to give a certain power to the wearer. Now, but for occasional moments in theatre, they are just for fun.

                                    

Make masks

Really, there are so many good downloads for children's mask activities that we will not add another. Here are a few that we liked:

http://holidays.kaboose.com/craft-animalmask.html

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/animal_masks_to_print.htm

http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/learning/masks

http://www.countrysidefoundation.org.uk/resources/activities/activitiesindex.htm

http://www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/freemasks/index.htm

http://pbskids.org/africa/mask/index.html

Extend this subject

• Combine this mask activity with the bird masks and have one big mask day.

• In both cases, find on a map the continents (and island!) where these animals and birds are native. When the children have made and are wearing their masks, group them according to continent . Remind them of what the season is at the moment on that continent and have them demonstrate what they would be doing in that weather.

  
And have fun! 

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Masked Birds

Learning about animal characteristics can help children to learn to observe. As you progress with the outdoor  observation activities, it will be possible to teach children to see more, and to begin to make comparisons. Here we present one example.

Many animals and birds have colouring that looks to us like eye masks. The Blue Dacnis (Dacnis cayana) in South America, the Masked Laughingthrush (Garrulax perspicillatus) in Asia, and some of the nuthatches ( Sitta europaea and Sitta canadensis) in Europe and North America all are examples of birds with a black band across their eyes:

   

    

Biologists do not really know why that type of colouring evolved. The strongest theory is that it makes the eyes (and thus the bird) seem larger and that predators will be scared off. That makes sense for masks that look like huge circles around the eyes, but we are not so sure about the type of mask that looks like a bandit's. Such a marking does not make the eyes seem bigger; it makes them seem to disappear. Perhaps that scares predators too. 

In a class discussion, we asked children (aged 6-7) why they thought birds would have such a mask across their faces. Here are some of the responses:

• Maybe it is some kind of a crook
• So the bugs could not see it eat them 
• It looks cool 

I rather like the idea of charitable colouring preventing insects from knowing what ate them. Even more, I like the idea that the colouring is just "cool" and that birds, at least potential mates, think so too, as if these were a group of Zorro species. 

Make bird masks

All you need is a roll of black crepe paper. Cut a strip for each child. Let them cut eye holes, and tie the strip around their heads. Ask them to choose which of the four masked birds above they want to be, and to draw a picture of it. 

To help them decide, if you have classroom computers and the internet, go to the Internet Bird Collection  http://ibc.lynxeds.com/

and look at some videos of them. Remember to type the Latin name into the search box to get straight to the correct bird.

Discussion

Ask them why they think these birds have such a masking. Get them discussing and exchanging ideas. Do send in their ideas, please! 

Extend the observation

The next time you go outdoors, ask the children to look for other similarities in colouring in nature .

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Learning How To Observe

When we take children outdoors to gather things and then back inside to paint them; when we go outdoors to find things and bring them inside to build something with them, we are not teaching observation - the first and most essential skill of science and poetry. We are teaching technology or art. The former is applied science, the latter is the imitation of nature. None of these, neither science nor poetry, nor technology nor art will be a successful endeavor without a developed capacity for observation.

In understanding the human world and  its machines and machinations, we teach children to ask and find the answers to :

• Who?
• What? 
• Where? 
• When? 
• Why? 
• How?  

To understand nature and the physical world around us, we use our five senses:

•  Sight
• Hearing 
• Touch 
• Smell 
• Taste 

 In spite of all of our capacity to gather, store, and exchange information, it is an augmentation of knowledge, and no replacement for the knowledge we acquire first hand through our senses. If anything is disastrous about our children's modern existence of television, cinema, electronic games, the internet and all the rest of it, it is the failure to develop the use of their senses. Spatial concepts and the ability to calculate faster may be more developed, but the ability to recognize a variety of sounds, colours, flavours, odours, and textures -- the ability to participate in life -- is being lost.

Not only must we teach children to observe; we must teach them to observe honestly. Before a fact can be interpreted, it has to be observed with clarity. On seeing a tree in bloom with pink flowers, we must first see it for what it is, tall or short, healthy or sick, light pink or dark, with leaves or without, etc. before we can write a poem about it or paint it, or calculate its value as timber. If we do not observe, and clearly and honestly, our knowledge will be hollow and our decisions will be mistakes.

Our children have a right and a responsibility to know the world first hand. As more and more of them live lives indoors, they will not have days of free play outdoors in tall grasses or on a beach or in a wood. Increasing numbers of children will never have long hours outdoors of gazing, watching, seeing, idly staring, doing nothing at all but just looking at things such as clouds, bugs, birds, frogs, streams. They will not have the opportunity to learn naturally how to observe. We will have to teach them.

Learning To Observe Nature

This exercise will use four senses only. There will be no tasting!

You will need:

• a sheet of clear plastic, about 30cm  x 40cm, such as are often found in inexpensive picture frames
• an empty picture frame or a substitute cut from sturdy card

Taking these, go outdoors with the children. Find a quiet place to sit near some greenery. Lead the children as a group in the close observation of just one thing, such as a tree, shrub, bird, log, flower. Let them look at, touch, smell, listen to it. Ask questions based on the senses, e.g.:

• What do we see?
  
  •  What colour is it? 
  • Is it big or small? 
  • Is it fat or thin? 
  • What shape is it? 
  • How many branches or leaves or petals has it?  

•   What do we smell?
  
  •  Is it a sweet smell? 
  • A rancid smell? 
  • Is the smell strong or faint? 
  • Does it make your eyes water?  

• What do we hear? 
  
  •  A birdsong?  
  • Movement? 
  • Is it loud or soft? 
  • A tinkling? A rustling? A scratching? 

• What can we feel? 
  
  •  Is it rough or smooth? 
  • Soft or hard? 
  • Squishy? Gritty? 
  • Hot or cold? 
  • Wet or dry? 

As you go through this exercise, you will at the same time be greatly enlarging the children's vocabulary. Do this two or three times as a group, observing different things. Then, let each child try giving a full observation on his or her own. Encourage as much description and detail of true perceptions as possible. Encourage the use of the correct words for each perception. Lead the children away from comparison to other things they know. (e.g. "It smells like my dog" or "It looks like my toy.") Comparison and analogy come later. First, one must be able to observe.

To take the exercise further, hold up the plastic in front of something that has all ready been observed. This will have the effect of flattening the view of it as if it were a photograph. Ask the children how this separation from the object changes how they see, hear, smell, and feel it. Then, hold up the empty frame instead of the plastic. This has the effect of narrowing the focus and for some people helps them to observe better. Ask them again how the frame changes how they perceive the object.

Ideally, this should be done at least once a week. As the year progresses, the children's powers of observation will greatly improve, along with their vocabulary and their ability to concentrate. Besides that, it's fun.

N.B. For an example of wonderful powers of clear and honest observation, read a few passages of Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle. Though it is not about teaching, it is such a lesson in observation that I have put it in the list of books for teachers in the panel to the right.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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What Is A Weed? What Is A Flower?

In our gardens and yards, we teach our children that weeds are bad and flowers are good. By doing so we do them and nature a terrible disservice. There is a specific definition for flower : "that part of a plant comprising a group of reproductive organs and its envelopes".  There is no such scientific clarity for a weed: "a herbaceous plant not valued for use or beauty". A flower may or may not be pretty but it has a clear function for the plant. To call something a weed is basically to say that one does not like that plant. 

Most people tend to say that what grows naturally on their patch of ground are "weeds" and what they have planted themselves are "flowers". (How that encapsulates the essence of  humanity's battle against nature!) We nurture what they want and kill or pull up what they do not want.  Too often, what we tend to plant is something from another part of the world, something we have admired and want to have, even if our climate and soil are nothing like that plant's natural environment. Too often, the weeds we poison and pull up are food for the insects, birds, and creatures around us. Sometimes they can eat what we plant, but not often, and people do not like it when they do. Sometimes, they can move on to where native plants still exist, but we then have less of nature around us and fewer animals can survive on the reduced food source. Sometimes they are poisoned by what we import and they eat.  

In the northern hemisphere, if gardeners finally succeed in getting rid of every last stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), they will also get rid of the beautiful peacock butterfly (Inochis io), whose caterpillars eat nettles. 

   images of peacock butterfly and nettles from Wikipedia   

In South America, if every clump of  boring green with tiny, insignificant flowers is removed......

.........then the creature that needs it in order to survive will also be removed. Permanently.

Our habit of despising the home-grown and desiring the exotic in our gardens does ill to the environment in other ways as well. Native plants need little care, soil changes, or extra water, while exotic or foreign plants usually need extra water and fertilizers. This is when we live in a time of increasing water shortage and soil pollution and need to conserve water and keep the soil healthy.

We often read about the numerous plants in the rainforest that are being destroyed before they can have been fully identified and their properties discovered. Thus, despising what is local and native in favour of what is exotic, foreign, and maybe profitable, has meant that plants of potential medical value have been lost. The little blue flower (Stachytarpheta elatior) shown above is a perfect example. It is native to Brazil. Farmers consider it a serious nuisance because it grows easily and very densely and they kill it whenever they can. It is a food source for the Mourning Rose butterfly (Papilio anchisiades) shown above. It is also considered to be of medicinal value; its leaves are used to make a tea to treat hepatitis.

We teach children to cherish or at least appreciate nature while at the same time we destroy it. What is more, by destroying what is native, that which is their own environment, we devalue their world to them and teach them that only the exotic and cultivated is valuable. How can we then ask them to preserve nature? How to clarify this and give them a clearer message and understanding?

Start a Native/Non-Native or South/North Garden

Gardening and discovering how plants grow is all ready a part of the Early Years curriculum, but the activity can be greatly enhanced by using it to teach about the importance of native species. 

Preparation - You will be creating a garden that will have two distinct halves. Plan to plant some seeds of local native plants. Then, look for seeds or seedlings of exotic plants from the hemisphere opposite to yours.  To find seeds and seedlings, try mail-order seed companies as well as garden shops and markets. CAUTION - be sure to select only those plants of which no part is poisonous or an allergen. (See "101 Kid-Friendly Plants : Fun Plants and Family Garden Projects" in the list of gardening books in the panel to the right.)

Location - Are you fortunate enough to have space outdoors for a real garden? Wonderful! One way to make it much easier and more enjoyable for small children is to garden is to do so on raised beds of hay. With hay, it is possible to put earth on top and plant into that. The hay serves as a mulch to protect the seedlings from other plants swamping them. As it decomposes, it enriches the soil organically. No digging or tilling is required and raised beds are just the right height for little gardeners. Best of all, when the hay is delivered, it is great fun to jump on it and stamp it into place. WARNING - Some children may be allergic to hay and may have to miss out on the jumping part. 

If you do not have a plot for your class, two window boxes will do. Even two pots will do. Label one native and the other non-native. For the natives to thrive, they should be as close to the real environment as possible, so do not put them in a dark corner or on top of the heater or air conditioner!

Gardening - Plant your seeds. Care for them. Learn about your plants. Get someone from one of the local garden clubs who specializes in native species of plants to come and give a talk to the class. Observe your plants. What insects or birds or other animals use them for food or housing?  How much care do the native plants need? How much care do the non-natives need? How much water do they need? Which ones thrive? Do the local insects like any of the non-natives? They may well do. (Remember, one of Europe's most popular shrubs, the "butterfly bush", or buddleia, is native to Asia.) 

Discuss - If a plant becomes covered with mites or a fungus, find out more about it. The fungus lives off of the plant and leads to its death and decomposition. Is that its function in nature? Is there a parasite of the fungus? Or of the mites? Try to help the children see that nature is interconnectedness. Like that old song about the bones ("the knee bone's connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone's connected to the hip bone," and so on) the earth, the water, the sun, the plant, the things that feed off the plant and are in turn food for others, all are interconnected. 

By learning that interconnectedness, they will begin to learn to appreciate each part of nature in its own place. With that appreciation, they will be better equipped to live within and preserve nature.

© 2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Unless otherwise noted, all pictures courtesy of www. photobucket.com

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A South-North Seasons Table

A nature table is a lovely old tradition in education that has just about disappeared . It has become so rare that last year the British magazine, Country Living, ran a campaign to "bring back the nature table". When I was a child in California, we never had such a thing, nor did any of my friends in their schools around the country. Perhaps it is only British or European, but it is delightful.

Essentially, a nature table is a display of natural things children have found outdoors and brought into the classroom or home. The item is identified and the child writes a label for it and puts it on the table with the other contributions. Feathers, stones, seeds, bones, shells, flowers, anything natural qualifies, though there are rules against uprooting protected plants, stealing eggs from nests, etc. The table or shelf is ideally at a low enough level such that the children can view the items easily. The benefits to the children are important:

• They relate their learning to real nature and not merely photographs in a book
• They know that what they find will be admired and included in the class's display 
• They become both more observant and knowledgeable when they are outdoors 

In Ann Druitt's All Year Round : a Calendar of Celebration, (see in the list of recommended books of the side panel) the seasons table is enlivened with small soft figures placed among the  seeds and stones, creating a complete scene. The best book on the subject is Nature Corner by Leewen and Moeskops (also in the side panel.)

I propose here a variation on the theme that will require a bit of ingenuity on everyone's part : one that shows items from nature's display during the current seasons in both the southern and northern hemispheres. Just now, it is late summer in the south and late winter in the north, so that is how the table could begin. Here's how:

Location - select a table or shelf low enough for the children to see easily. It should not be in a remote corner, far from the class, but central, so that it can be easily seen and discussed.

Preparation - Cover the table with two simple cloths, half the table a colour associated with summer, such as bright green or yellow, the other half with a a colour associated with winter, such as grey or white for snow. You may wish to put a divider of some sort between the two different cloths, something to represent the ocean, perhaps. This could be a strip of blue paper cut out and decorated with fish, boats, shells, etc. or something more solid such as a block of wood painted blue with shells glued to it. Alternatively, you might use a bit of driftwood to signify mountains as a divider. If the location allows, a backcloth hanging above the table to represent the sky increases the interest. This could be half blue and half white or grey again. Children can stick up clouds, rain clouds, snow, etc. as the weather changes.

Using the South-North Seasons Table - Take the children or encourage them to go into the garden, to the park, etc. and teach them to observe. If you are in the southern hemisphere, now is a time of flowers, seeds, leaves, empty birds' nests, insect casings. If in the northern hemisphere, it is a time of bare branches, small buds, early bulbs, bark, perhaps sap beginning to run, mosses. Allow for the ugly: the dead bug, the bleached skull, as for some children this is much more interesting than the "pretty". Bring back what you can, find the correct name for it.  You can even begin to teach children the basics of scientific naming and how important it is. 

Do not just dump the items on the table and forget them. Relate them to lessons, find poems about them, encourage the children to make pictures of them - an experiment in still life drawing - and learn more about what they have found. Keep going out and finding more and adding to the table, changing the display as the season progresses.  

For the hemisphere that is not yours, try to visit a botanical garden near by, if you have one. If you are in the north, any florist will have a tropical plant or two. If you cannot buy the plant, you may be able to ask for some of the leaves it has dropped. Have the children draw butterflies and make paper birds of the other hemisphere to put on the table. If you have a zoo close by, take the children or encourage them to go and to see the animals and birds there from the opposite hemisphere.

Here are some good websites to help you find animals and plants from the two hemispheres:

For the northern hemisphere - www.birdsofbritain.co.uk

This will even give the calls of some birds.                                                          

For the southern hemisphere - www.arthurgrosset.com 

One of the very best sites for South American birds.

For both hemispheres - www.nhm.ac.uk

                                              This is the Natural History Museum's wonderful site.

www.butterflyschool.com

A site with lots of butterfly activities.

If you want to read the articles in Country Living about the nature table campaign, go to www.allaboutyou.com

 and type nature table in the search box.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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