Going Green in the Fall With the Kids
September 28, 2009 
6 Comments
Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the cool crisp mornings, although we haven’t had many so far this fall, more will be here soon. This is a great time to get out the bike and take a ride. It’s also a great time to take walks. Our neighborhood has several walking trails, these provide a great place to walk and ride. This is also a great time to take the kids or grand-kids out for a walk
Going Green in the Fall
What a great opportunity to explore the change of season and impress upon them the need to be good stewards of the earth. Walk will provide an opportunity to teach them lessons that will be with them for the rest of their life, its good for all involved and its fun. Here are a few fall eco friendly activities to do with your children, or grandchildren:
1/ Adopt a Tree…
While taking a walk, have your child pick out a favourite tree and ‘adopt’ it. Do bark rubbings with crayons and paper; leaf collection and pressing in the fall; and look for flowers and fruit in the summer. Each year, take pictures of you child standing beside the tree. You can even bring along a measuring tape to track the tree’s growth. Kids can also research the tree on the Internet: where the tree is commonly found, usual life span, height, etc.
2/ Keep a Wildlife Journal…
Have your child make daily notes of all the wildlife living in your neighborhood. They can even take photos, or draw pictures, and write down the times of sighting, habitats and behavioral patterns. It is amazing how many different species are living in your own backyard!
3/ Being Good Stewards….
A good way to teach our children about taking care of our planet, and get some exercise at the same time, is to take bags with you when you go for a walk. While doing so, “clean up” along the way. You can pick up stray bottles, newspapers and discarded food containers. Make it a contest to see who can get the most items. Choose different paths on different days to clean up a wide area. Use the time to talk to your children about recycling and reducing waste. (Kids can wear rubber gloves or bring a pointed stick if they don’t want to touch any garbage.)
4/ Acorn Necklaces…
Help your child string together acorns or other seeds to create a wonderful necklace.
5/ Buffet Surprise…
Kids can help out their friends the squirrels, tell them they are making a “squirrel buffet surprise” and pile up as many acorns as they can find by a certain tree. Visit each time you walk; add more if they are gone.
6/ Fall Colors…
Encourage kids to find as many different-colored leaves as possible. See if they can make a “rainbow” of leaves by showing the graduation of color from green to yellow to orange to red to brown.
7/Spelling Leafy Names…
Another fun and secretly educational activity to do with the leaves, is to get kids to spell their names using the leaves. Bring a camera along for the leaf adventure, it’s nice to make a circle or heart of leaves and then get the kids to stand inside the shape to take their photo.
Do you have any eco friendly fall activities to share?
I guess I don’t understand what #5 does for the Earth? What does feeding squirrels do? Isn’t it better for the squirrels to learn real survival skills by searching and foraging themselves?
Our intent with the list was to show ways to re-connect with nature and get kids involved with their local environment, but I agree, squirrels should definitely learn to forage for themselves… The one’s in our neighborhood are extremely self sufficient
I guess I don’t understand why you would help squirrels out at all. They are a nuisance and should not be given food no matter what. Unless those acorns you are piling up are covered in poison, there is no need to give squirrels anything ever.
Lol… Thanks for reading and for your comments! We can see that your opinion of squirrels is firmly entrenched. All the folks here at Our Everyday Earth love squirrels and would never think of harming them but we can see your point that feeding wild animals is probably a bad idea.
We still think that from the aspect of educating kids about their environment this would be a fun fall game but your comment is noted
I actually heard on our news that it was beneficial to help them out this year……….food is scare for the squirrels – which can affect other animals as well. I am teaching a sunday school class to toddlers about growing and I'm planning on helping them understand by helping the animals grow this winter. We're making bird feeders for the winter birds and corn for the squirrels
Hii,
I like this article its Very informative and useful for all of us.
Really the kids most know this thing. Keep it up.
I would like to share one more article which is based on “Go Green Kids”. So check on this link http://www.greenyatra.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124&Itemid=214