1. Find a local creek or body of water to let out your fishing line, observe some marine critters, or even go for a swim. Water provides a range of activities that will lure your kids away from their electronics and promote a family activity.

2. Read about plants native to the region you’re seeing and try to identify 10 different species on your hike. This is an excellent way to engage your kids and foster a family conversation about nature.

3. Go camping! This classic outdoor activity proves to be even more exciting when you leave the tent at home. Treat your family to the stars when nighttime falls on National Get Outdoors Day!

4. If your family is less experienced in the outdoors, pack a picnic and just relax in a meadow, field or local park. It’s a great way to unwind together.

5. For weekend wilderness warriors, this is a great occasion to learn how to do something new and create shard memories with your kids! Celebrate National Get Outdoors Day by finding a guide to teach you how to fly fish, repel or even rock climb.

Find friends on facebook at Discover the Forest page

It’s packed full of fun ideas, activities, photographs and even a mystery or two. Have you ever walked on the beach at night? Do you want to be as smart as a coyote? Do you know how to track a woodpecker in your neighborhood?

You’ll find stuff like this and much more on the site. So, I invite you to visit often and see what kind of GUTZY STUFF you’re made of!

For 40 years people around the world have been celebrating Earth Day on April 22nd. It’s a special day that reminds us to appreciate nature and learn how to protect the environment on our earth.  

A few Earth Day vocabulary words that are good to know….

Environment - natural surroundings of an organism, which includes everything living and nonliving that effects the organism.

Go Green - living your life by using the 3 Rs – Recyle, Reuse, Reduce

Recycle - to use again

Conservation – preserving  or protecting natural resources such as water and air

Endangered – in immediate danger of becoming extinct – animals and plants

A couple of facts…

Plastics take 500 years to breakdown

Aluminum cans take 500 years to breakdown

Organic material takes 6 months to breakdown (compost)

Cotton, rags and paper take 6 months to breakdown

GUTSY STUFF to do on Earth Day: 

Stash the trash, hug a tree, or feed the birds.

Take a hike, ride your bike, or plant a flower.

Find a sea star, scoop the poop, save a wolf.

Start a compost, kiss the earth, visit the zoo.

Find an owl, or walk to school.

 RUB IN NATURE. Here’s how to make a great piece of art for your bulletin board or bedroom wall on EARTH DAY. Find an interesting leaf or flower with lots of texture. (Ferns are especially great for this). Get a piece of light colored paper and a box of crayons.  Place the leaf or flower under the paper and RUB the paper gently with the side of a crayon. As you rub, you’ll start to see the shape and outline of the leaf or flower come through the paper. Before you know it, you’ll have an original piece of nature art created by YOU! 

ID A BIRD. Birds are probably some of the coolest non-human living things on this earth. I mean, imagine how boring nature would be without birds flying around. Their colorful feathers and sometimes zany calls make being outside WAY MORE interesting. If you know some of their names, it makes them even more fun to watch. Study these 3 pictures of common birds. See if you can find one in your backyard, neighborhood, or local park. If you see other kinds of birds remember their color and size. Then go to the National Geographic website and click on the What’s That Bird link to figure out what kind of birds you were seeing. What a great way to CELERATE EARTH DAY!  

Singing Yellow Warbler

 

 

 

House Finch

Black-capped Chickadee

       

     Click on the Planetpals icon for more Earth Day activity ideas!!

      

      

1. CHILL BEFORE YOU FILL

Keep that water bottle in the fridge instead of running tap water until it’s cold. Then before you toss it, check the bottom for its recycle code. If it’s a 1 or 2 chances are that you can put it in one of your curbside recycle bins. Even better, don’t buy bottled water. Buy a filtered pitcher and fill your reusable sports bottle.

 2. MAKE YOUR OWN SMOOTHIES

It’s fun and cheap. And it’s even better if you use locally grown fruit from the farmer’s market. So blend up a little ice, a banana,  1 cup of your favorite berry fruit like strawberries or blueberries and 1 cup of yogurt for a delicious and nutritious smoothie that is better than any store-bought version. 

3. SMASH THE TRASH

Keeping your trash compact helps reduce the amount in the landfill.

GUTSY STUFF: In the meantime, here are 4 other things that the World Wildlife Fund says kids can do to help with climate change.  

1. Turn off the lights when you leave the room          

2. Take a shorter shower          

3. Get an adult to help you plant a tree          

4. Carpool everywhere you can

5 Fun things to do when you turn out your lights!!

1. Play boardgames with lanterns and flashlights. Make sure to set your games up ahead of time.

2. Eat dinner by candlelight. Get the table set and food prepared before you flip-off the lights.

3. Play flashlight hide-and-go-seek.

4. Take an hour long star light walk with your family and friends using flashlights and headlamps or do some star-gazing

5. Read out loud with your family. Pick a favorite book, pass it around and take turns reading.

Check out the World Wildlife Fund’s  Earth Hour website to learn all about about climate change, how it effects animals and people and what you can do to help.

Did you know that Pileated Woodpeckers are the largest species of woodpeckers and they kind of look like Woody Woodpecker?

You can’t miss them because they are as big as a crow and have bright red heads. These giant woodpeckers live in many parts of the United States, and if they live near you, you will find lots of clues that make them easy to spot.

Look for them in large trees that grow in local parks,  greenbelts, and wooded areas near your house.

They especially love dead wood and snags where lots of bugs live. You will know they are present if you find BIG retangular holes in the snags or trees.

Their favorite food is carpenter ants. 

Another dead give-away is to listen for their loud call.

4 more facts about Pileated Woodpeckers

1. Woopeckers use their stiff tails to prop them against the tree while they are eating

2. They have chisel-like bills that they use to dig wood or peel bark from a tree when searching for insects to eat

3. They usually nest in tree holes.

4. They use their long sticky tongues to reach ants that are living in the dead wood that they excavate

GUTSY STUFF: Organize a neighborhood woodpecker hunt. See if you can find the rectangular holes in a nearby wooded area and check back often to see if they are pecking away on the hole. Don’t forget to listen for their call. You might even hear them from your house if they are flying nearby.

Click here to see if Pileated Woodpeckers live near you. And if they don’t, you might find other kinds of woodpeckers living near you.

You’re on a vacation road-trip with your parents and starting to get a little bored. Wait, what’s that up ahead? It’s a gigantic bison standing in the middle of the road. It’s so cold outside that his fur is covered with frost and you can see his breath curling up over his wet nose. He looks kind of scary and  you are wondering if he’s dangerous as you drive by.

You sniff the air. It smells like rotten eggs .  

As you cruise slowly on down the road you see big holes in the ground bubbling out orange oozy stuff.     

You imagine a grizzly bear  just over the hill devouring a dead bison.  

The hair on the back of your neck stands up when you hear wolves howling. There they are…just across the river. Five wolves with their heads raised to the sky howling away.

You are starting to feel pretty good, after all, about this vacation!

What senses are used to describe this place? What is your sixth sense? (hint…it’s in the name of this website)  

Can you guess where this place is from the list below?

To see if you guessed right, check the list below for a link to the place.
   

• New York City

• Yellowstone National Park

• Africa