Last week, I mentioned that we are starting our Daily Outdoors challenge up again and that our family goal for this summer was to ‘nature map our neighborhood.’ We’ve been crazy busy this week with VBS and convention prep, so we haven’t started drawing our maps yet, but we did take stock of our yard and than pack up for a “field trip” to our local nursery.
There is something about being surrounded by beautiful living plants, even if they are still in plastic pots with labels on them. The boys loved exploring. As we identified plants and trees that we have in our yard, they started to write down the names. We are collecting our information to begin the actual mapping process!
Have any of you ever taken a ‘field trip’ to a local nursery? The staff are always ready and willing to answer questions and you can actually learn the names of the plants that you see in your neighborhood. As a biology major in college, I’m sort of ashamed now to admit that I made it through without taking a single plant biology class. At the time I simply wasn’t interested. Now I’m trying to make up for lost time. And where does one go when they don’t know a whole lot about plants?
A local nursery, botanical garden or an arboretum.
The local nursery is a win-win because it is FREE and CLOSE! As the weather heats up and gas prices continue to rise, I’m loving this combination.
How to plan for a Nursery Fieldtrip?
To transform this from merely a shopping trip into a ‘field trip’ you’ll want to plan. Here are some tips to get you started:
- Make a Plan – Decide on your goals. Identify plants in your area, learn how to care for plants, learn to identify perennials vs. annuals, etc? The options are endless!
- Formal Tour or ‘Self-Guided’ – Determine if you want to do it on your own or make it a little more formal. Many nurseries would love to give you an official tour or answer questions you and your children may have. We did an impromptu ‘mom-guided’ tour this time. I would love have the kids write down questions on how to properly care for the plants in or yard and go back again. I would also love to plant some fruit trees, so we might do a research trip on this as well.
- Pack supplies: We took a clipboard and pencil to take notes. Because it is already pretty hot, we packed water.
- Review etiquette: I’ve found it always prudent to review proper behavior etiquette before going anywhere. This was no exception. We discussed that this was a business and not a park. They were to be respectful, not pull any leaves and/or flowers off the trees, or run around like crazy ‘normal’ boys, etc.
- Just do it!
I gave them a little bit of free reign here… They found a mammoth sized lizard and ducked around and between different plants to track it before it quickly outsmarted them!
Nature Mapping Your Neighborhood: How Will It Work?
The plan is that we’ll start with our yard. We want to identify each plant. They will draw a picture of it, write the name down and for my oldest a few pertinent details about that plant. Next they will each draw a map of our yard – front and back yard and the general shape of our home. Finally they will color it and label the plants! From there we plan to move out and map our neighborhood, identifying interesting plants and trees along the way!
I’ve mentioned my love of maps before when we did out year of geography that I wrote for my son’s kindergarten-ish year. As the daughter of a cartographer (map maker) and a geography major it is in the blood, I suppose. We recently re-read one of our favorite books on maps, Me on the Map {and reminisced about our own Me on the Map books that we made}. We can’t wait to get started.
How did you spend your time outdoors this week?
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Sarah
Pinning!
Love your idea of nature mapping the neighborhood. I’m thinking on how to adapt your idea for my children. We live in the middle of a large family farm. Plenty of nature to map around here!
oh my… The possibilities! If you do, we would LOVE to see what you come up with! We draw our maps tomorrow!
Great idea! We are at the nursery a lot in the spring (going there tomorrow again!). We look a lot, but haven’t taken our clipboards. That is a great idea. When we go, I send the kids on a hunt for certain types of plants, like shade-loving, mid summer blooming flower, 12-18 inches tall. I might take the clipboards tomorrow and make it more formal. Thanks for the tip.
Thank you, Heather, for hosting! Great idea! I have a few other posts from our travels..they are a few mos old, not “current.” Wondering if it;s okay to link them either this week or next?
I am about to grab your button for my sidebar. Thanks for this lovely share and God bless!
Yes! You are free to link up a few old posts too!
Thank you so very much! Good luck with your speaking engagement next week!