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cheltenham chamber of citizens

With so many families homeschooling and the weather getting nicer, here are some activities to do with children of different ages.

Plantings to Attract and Maintain Butterflies

​​​​​​​​​​​Lanternfly Control Methods
Beneficial Insects
Spotted Lanternfly Update
Common Holiday and Household Dangers to Pets​
Spotted Lanternfly
​Say "No!" to Mulch Volcanoes & Ways to Deal with Bugs on Plants and Lawns 

(includes Integrated Pest Management)
Bird Friendly Plantings

(for younger children)

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  Take a walk with the focus of finding various colors in nature. You can use a crayon box to help focus on different shades of one particular color at a time. For example, take out all the green hues and as you walk have the child look for matches to those colors. S/he can swipe that shade of green on paper, to show all the greens s/he found. Put away each color as it is discovered. You can do this on different days with different colors.

  Take a walk to find different numbers of things in nature. For instance, can the child find 2 acorns? 3 yellow flowers? 4 leaning  trees? etc.
  Take a walk to find various shapes in nature. Draw and cut out the

shape of the day: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, heart, etc.


It is the time of year to act to control the  Spotted Lanternfly and to think about how to manage garden pests. Earlier Environmental Info. You Can Use posts have useful information to help.

​ENVIRONMENTAL

INFO.

YOU CAN USE

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     Take a walk with a grabber tool and 2 bags (different colors would be best, such as a black and a white trash bag). Label one bag Trash, the other Treasure. Use the grabber tool to pick up and deposit items that are not nature (plastic bags, glass bottles, face masks, etc.), and deposit each in one of the bags. When you get home, look up each item oline up to see if it can be recycled or reused. If it can be recycled or reused it’s a treasure. The child can learn into what it could be made or the process to make it reusable. If it can’t be recycled or reused then it’s trash. Use the grabber tool to transfer items into the correct bag, then put the contents of the bags into the correct container for collection.

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Take a Walk​

by Judith Gratz, Environmental Education Specialist

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   As you walk slowly, each child gets to photograph any of nature that looks beautiful or ugly or interesting to them. After the walk, share. Some photos can be printed out and hung on a line for an exhibit. Share that exhibit with the neighborhood if you wish.

(for older elementary and  younger middle school children) 

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(most ages) 

(for mid-elementary school age children)​


 

​    Before doing this activity discuss what real oil is like, and what the child will be looking for in this simulated oil spill. These are (1) How a real oil spill could affect the land. (2) Which animals live in the Creek and how the oil spill could affect them and how they might react. (3) How the oil spill could affect the animals that otherwise depend on the Creek and what they might do. (4) How the oil spill might affect people who walk along the Creek, picnic there, or study it. Then get a bag of popcorn and spill it all into a Creek. There will be a natural oil spill from the popcorn that will not hurt the environment. Follow the oil spill for a little way to see where it goes and where it stays. Using his or her imagination, answer the above questions. Each answer could begin with the words “maybe” or “possibly” or “likely”, etc. Can the child think of another appropriate question to ask and to study about or observe? Eat popcorn while thinking about the possibilities.​
          

  

  Go for a quiet walk at night. It can be a 5 minute or 10 minute walk. whatever works for your family. Listen for the sounds around you. No one is allowed to talk until you get to a designated sitting down place. At that time everyone shares what s/he heard.