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Provided by: The Nature Conservancy |Published on: September 29, 2025
Activity - Outdoors
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Synopsis
This activity guide from Nature Lab by The Nature Conservancy features five winter activities students can do to explore the outdoor environment around them and enjoy the season.
Students will do some winter stargazing, create feeding stations for migratory birds, gather twigs to identify local trees, explore animal tracks in the snow, and make a winter diorama from a shoe box.
These activities are simple and low- to no-cost, emphasizing the use of found and natural materials.
Students will love being outside and exploring nature in their local area.
Prerequisites
It may benefit students to be familiar with or have a guide book of the plants and animals that grow and live in their area.
Differentiation & Implementation
To make math and biology connections, teachers can set up the bird feeding station by the window and graph the number of birds that visit the station or have different feeders with different seeds to see which birds visit them.
As an art project, students can create winter nature journals for the journaling activities in this guide. Students can upcycle old cereal boxes and paper to create journals.
To make connections to creative writing, students can write stories about the animals they track in the snow, imagining what they are doing and where they are going.
To make connections to climate change, teachers can discuss the impact of climate change on migratory patterns or snowfall, and discuss the importance of biodiversity during the twig activity.
Many of these activities can be connected to Sustainable Development Goal 15, Life on Land.
Scientist Notes
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
About the Partner Provider
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive. The Nature Conservancy has grown to become one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world.
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