The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a steep increase in outdoor environmental education home schooling interest and it’s kept me busy. There is a lot of well meaning environmental education out there with construction paper cut outs, glitter and glue sticks but none of that translates well to creating a deeper connection with our natural environment. Each of the activity sessions below are designed to be engaging, hands-on and most importantly they are all experience based and educational. Check out a forest school, nature center or private instructor in your area and find some engaging programs and participate to deepen your connection to the natural world in winter, spring, summer or fall!

Some of my nature based enrichment topics:

WINTER TOPICS: Wild about Wildlife, Animal Tracking, Elderberry Study and Winter Propagation, Recycling with Paper Making, Making Charcoal Art at the Campfire, Flint & Steel & Making Charcloth, Making Campfire Bannock, Owls of NJ & Owl Pellet Dissection, Woodpeckers & Winter Birds, Bluebirds and Bird Houses, Letterboxing Scavenger Hunt, White Tailed Deer Study, Geodesic Grow Dome Experience, Fire Skills, Conifer Pitch Glue, Forest Skulls, Dinosaur Park Geology Visits, Trail Camera Tracking, Burn Bowls or Spoons, Tracking Bigfoot, Making Antler Ferro Rods, Gifts of the Spruce.

SPRING TOPICS: Flower Anatomy with Daffodil Dissection, Dandelion Fritters, Swamp Tromp & River Crayfish Exploration, Vernal Pool & Amphibian Study, Orienteering with Compasses/Hatchet Scavenger Hunt, Frog Pond Science, Fishing 101, Camping 101, Lenape Native American Life, Passaic River Studies, Maple Sugaring, Bannock Bread Making on the Camp Fire, Spring Nature Journaling, Bird Observation & Study

SUMMER TOPICS: Barrels for Butterflies, Monarch Migration, Buzz Into Action with Pollinator Seed Balls, Canoe Trips, Shelter Building, Partnership & Honey Bees, Making Bee Nester Block, Nature Olympic Games, Plaster Animal Tracking, Flower Pressing & Nature Art, Green Roof and Container Gardening with Sedum, Making Lenape Bone Tools, Bark Sheathes

AUTUMN TOPICS: All About Bats, Polypore Mushroom Paper Making, Composting with Worms Lab, Autumn Olive Fruit Roll-ups, Mushrooms Identification and Clay Anatomy Art, Native American Plants/Ethnobotany, Edible Wild Plants, Sewing Medicine Bags, Clay Coil & Pinch Pots, Woodlore & Wild Plants, Autumn Tree Identification and Terminology, Making Campfire Starters, Friction Fire

These activities and there proximity to population centers help enable and create stronger connections to nature among communities that have historically not been socially or geographically connected to public lands and waters

David Alexander is author of the Buzz Into Action & Hop Into Action Science Curricula.  He specializes in making nature accessible to people and wildlife.  You can follow him at www.natureintoaction.com