If you are able to take your class on a monthly hike in a nature area near your classroom, it’s a great opportunity for them to get to know their natural neighbors. Here is what we do in our class in the Seattle area. You can adapt it to the native plants and animals in your own area. This curriculum is very flexible and can work for preschools, elementary schools, forest kindergartens, and science camps.

Teacher Preparation: learn about at least nine plants that you will see on your nature hikes. Create a page with pictures, and basic information about each one. I’ve got lots of resources for teaching kids about plants that are native to the Pacific Northwest, including this plant of the month guide:

Each month before our hike, we learn about the plant of the month. And sing the song to remind them about what plants we’ll see.

Learning the Song

Before our first hike, we learn about native plants by learning a song I wrote. I am always amazed at how quickly they learn the song, how well they retain it, and how effective it is at helping them identify the plants.

All the details are here. Or just check out this video:

September – Meet the Woods

Plant of the Month – Big Leaf Maple

1. We gather outside by a maple tree we call our class tree. We get to know the tree – ask them what they notice about it. Have them feel the bark. Explain that it’s our class tree, and we’ll take a picture with it each month and notice how it changes throughout the year.
2. Explain the rules for hikes – always one adult in the lead, one adult in the back. We stay on the path. We “leave no trace.” We pick up trash we find.
3. Take a slow hike on short loop, seeing if we can spot the plants from our song – if we see one, we sing out the line of the song.

October – Homes in the Woods

Plant – Blackberry (and Stinging Nettle)

1. Prep: Bring a small plastic person or several.
2. Visit our tree and take a picture – compare to last month.
3. Take mid-range hike, looking for homes: bee trees, spider webs, bugs in rotting logs, nests, holes in the ground.
4. Have the children gather twigs. Build a small lean-to for your plastic person.
5. Optional: gather fall leaves for a nature collage or leaf rubbings.

November – Mapping and Directions

Plants – Oregon grape and Salal

1. Prep: make enough copies of trail map for everyone to have one. On the trail maps, mark arrows to show which way you’ll turn at each intersection. Add some landmarks if possible (a bench, a pond…)
2. Brief visit to our tree. What’s happened to the leaves?
3. Explain the map to them and help them figure out where they are.
4. Take a LONG fast hike following the map. Each time you come to an intersection or a landmark, help them find it on the map.

December – Evergreens vs. Deciduous

Plants – Holly and Ivy

1. Prep – find a path with holly and ivy on it
2. Brief visit to our tree.
3. Short to mid-range hike through the woods, noticing what has changed. Talk about seasons and seasonal changes… less birds? Less bugs? Notice what plants have lost all their leaves, and which are still green.

January – Tracking

Plants – Sword Fern and Mushrooms

1. Prep – If you think you’re guaranteed to find signs of wildlife in the woods, no prep needed. In our park, we might not, so I created “signs a dinosaur has been here.” Printed / laminated pictures of: footprints, poop, chewed leaves, eggs, etc.
2. Gather under the tree. Observe. Take picture.
3. Talk about how we can tell an animal has been in the woods: tracks, scat, signs animal had been eating (stripped bark, chewed leaves), homes (spider webs, holes, etc.) and eggs. Tell them that on the hike we’ll look for signs of real animals and of dinosaurs.
4. If find trash, talk about how animals sometimes leave waste behind because they can’t help it. Humans can choose to leave no trace – carry out all trash.

February – Five Senses

Plants – Douglas Fir

1. Prep – choose two different scents (e.g. peppermint and vanilla) and use essential oils or cooking extracts to wet cotton balls. Put each cotton ball in a ziplock baggie. On the path, everywhere you’ll have to make a choice, place one scent (e.g. peppermint) on the path they want to take, and the other in the direction they don’t want to turn.
2. Visit tree – use four senses to explore. (No tasting!)
3. Mid-range hike, asking kids to describe what they perceive with senses. Teach them how to cup their hands behind their ears (deer ears) to hear better, or to make binoculars with their hands (predator eyes pointing forward) or put their hand between their eyes so they can see off to the sides but not straight ahead (prey eyes) as they walk to see how that feels different.
4. Each time you come to a fork in the road, have them use their sense of smell to decide which way to turn. (Explain that animals follow scent trails.)

March – Camouflage

Plant: Red Cedar

1. Prep – hide large plastic animals that will camouflage well in your environment. Count how many you hid and remember where you hid them so you don’t accidentally leave something behind!)
2. Visit tree – use four senses to explore.
3. Explain what camouflage is, then go on a hunt for your hidden animals.
4. Also notice signs of spring. Were there buds on the class tree? Flowers?

April – How Plants Spread

Plants – Vinca and Indian Plum

1. Nature bracelet – turn a piece of duct tape inside out – wrap around child’s wrist sticky side out. On the hike, they’ll collect items to put on there to decorate with – blossoms, seeds, fallen leaves… Teach them how to gather without causing harm to plants.
2. Visit class tree. Are there leaves? How else has it changed?
3. On hike, look for an Indian Plum. (Is it flowering?) On hike, talk about creeper vines, seeds, pollination, pinecones, burrs, and so on. Find a non-native blackberry or other weed and pull it to see the roots.

May – Wetlands

Plants – marshy area plants (cat-tail, horsetail, skunk cabbage, water lilies)

1. Visit class tree.
2. Hike to the pond and notice all the ways the wetland / pond area is different from the woods.
3. Can you find the plants from the song around the pond?

June – Scavenger Hunt

1. Prep – print the pictures from the whole year of them at the class tree. Make and print scavenger hunts of items you’ve learned about this year to look for in the woods.
2. Visit class tree. Look at all the pictures from the year. How has the tree changed? How have THEY changed since September.
3. On the hike, search for all the things on the scavenger hunt.

More Info for Learning about Nature

• Easy nature activities to do from home.
• Benefits of outdoor play.
• Overcoming the barriers to spending more time outside.
• Find lesson plans for: Seeds and Plants, Eggs, Habitats