Fun science activities you can do outside in your backyard, or in the great outdoors.
Fun game to learn how to find north using your senses, the sun, and a compass!
Recently Bumble Bee gave Jewel a compass for her 9th birthday, so we decided to bring it along on our next hike to try it out – and we invented a game called Finding North.
How (and why) spiny leaf phasmid insects make fun, easy and educational pets for young kids. They’re a great way to encourage an interest in entomology and a love of nature.
We’ve had pet spiny leaf phasmids (a type of camouflage or stick insect) for about 4 years now. They make awesome pets! Let me share with you why I think they’re awesome pets for kids, and how to look after them easily (and cheaply).
Spiny leaf insects are a great pet option for kids of all ages.
Babies and toddlers can safely watch them inside the enclosure, which can be brought down to their level, and then put back out of reach again. Once they are able to be gentle, they can stroke them or let them walk on their clothing or arm. (My youngest daughter was about 1.5 years old when we first brought phasmids home. She loved them then, and still does now!)
Phasmids are also great for preschoolers. I’ve brought phasmids in to visit preschool on several occasions. The kids can study them through the enclosure, and those brave enough can take turns handling them (with close supervision).
Phasmids make great pets for older kids too – who might take on more of the responsibility of caring for them. My eldest daughter is 7 years old now, and she still loves showing off her pet insects to her friends (although she hasn’t quite taken on the responsibility part yet!)
Having phasmids as pets is a great way to expose kids to biology (the study of living organisms) and entomology (the study of insects) in a caring and nurturing way. They’re safe for little kids to touch, as they don’t bite or sting. Plus, did I mention they’re easy to look after?
But first, in case you’re wondering what on earth phasmids are?
Phasmids are insects that eat leaves, and resemble leaves or sticks for camouflage. There are about 3000 species of phasmid worldwide. Many are referred to as stick insects, stick-bugs or walking sticks. The ones we have are spiny leaf phasmids (also known as Macleay’s Spectre).
I can show you how to set up a DIY portable phasmid enclosure, for just a few dollars! But before we get into how to look after them, let me tell you a little bit about them – they’re really cool!
Spiny leaf phasmids go though an incomplete metamorphosis – that is they have only three stages of their life cycle: egg, nymph and adult. But there’s two really cool things about spiny leaf phasmids: the relationship they have with the ants, and how they can clone themselves! Let me explain….
Adult females lay a single egg, about once a day or so. These eggs have a sweet knob on one end. In the ‘wild’, eggs fall to the ground, where they are picked up by ants, and carried back to their nest. The ants eat the sweet knob (yum!), and leave the rest of the egg in their nest, thus offering the egg protection from predators who might be leery of an ant bite. Ant nests are also sandy, which provides the eggs with the dry environment they need to hatch. Baby nymphs look, and act, very similar to red-headed black ants (but with curlier tails) which is their first form of camouflage.
This relationship with ants is called a “symbiotic relationship”. Both species benefit – the ants gets a free meal, and the phasmids gain protection, an appropriate egg-hatching environment, and initial camouflage.
Nymph spiny leaf phasmids leave the ants nest and quickly climb a tree, where they’ll spend the rest of their lives. They eat leaves, and drink rain drops or dew. They first molt (shed their outer skin or exoskeleton) when they are a just few days old, and change from looking like an ant, to looking like a dried up old leaf. If scared, they sway, to look like a leaf blowing in the breeze. They continue to grow and molt until they reach adult size.
Spiny leaf insects change in appearance quite significantly with their last molt. The adult males are dark grey/brown colour, with thin straight bodies and long wings. They can fly short distances. The females are much larger, with thick clay coloured bodies with spiky lumps along their backs, a curled tail and very small wings, which are ineffective, as the females can’t fly. But here’s another cool bit. Adult females lay about an egg a day, but they don’t need a male to fertilise them necessarily, because they’re able to clone themselves, in a process called parthenogenesis. (So cool!) With spiny leaf phasmids, only female offspring can be produced through parthenogenesis. (Fertilised eggs on the other hand, can produce either male or female offspring).
I’m glad you asked!
One reason they’re great as pets is because they’re safe for little kids to handle. They don’t bite or sting. Their whole defence mechanism is camouflage – so if they get scared, they just sway trying to look like a leaf in the breeze.
The only tricky thing is that they are rather fragile. You have to teach kids not to use their fingers to pick phasmids up (lest they squish them or tear off a leg), but rather to let the phasmid walk on themselves.
Phasmids instinctively want to move forwards and upwards, so if you just put your hand (or any other object) slightly above and in front of them, they’ll generally step up of their own accord. And they are very good at hanging on, actually preferring to be vertical or upside down.
Some kids don’t like the feeling of phasmids walking on their skin – it can feel like a tickle (for younger nymphs and males) or feel a bit prickly (for the adult females). Many kids might prefer to just look, tough gently with their finger, or let the phasmids walk on their clothes instead of directly on their skin. If a leg does get torn off (eep!), phasmids can actually regrow their lost limbs (which is kinda cool in an unfortunate way.)
Another reason spiny leaf insects make great pets is that they don’t need much day-to-day care. Once you have your enclosure set up, it takes about 20 minutes, 2-3 times a week to replace their leaves and clean out their enclosure, plus a few seconds a day to give them a quick water spray to drink.
A third reason, is that looking after phasmids encourages kids to love nature! These insects are a great gateway to learning about habitats, life cycles, metamorphosis, the food chain, parthenogenesis, insect body structure, camouflage, and much more!
A fourth reason, is that its really easy to make a light-weight and portable enclosure. Our enclosure is light enough that my 4 year old can hold it on her lap in the car. This means you can take your phasmids with you to visit preschool! It also means you can take your phasmids to a friend’s house for them to pet-sit while you’re on holidays (or you could even take your phasmids on vacation with you.)
We’ve tried out several different phasmid insect enclosure designs over the past few years, and below is the type we’ve found to be the most effective. This design lets you keep the phasmids indoors, gives easy access to replace the leaves, allows lots of air flow, and is light-weight and portable.
You’ll need:
You’ll probably have many of these items at home already. The only things we had to buy were the a wastebasket and a piece of fly screen mesh, which we picked up from our local hardware store for under $10. Not a bad price for a new pet enclosure, don’t you think?
Before we set our enclosure up, I first hammered a hole in the jar lid (making sure not to leave any sharp edges), so that we’d have a hole large enough to put branches in easily, but not too large that the nymphs might drown. If you want to skip this step, try to find a jar that has a narrow opening at the top.
Fill the jar with water, screw on the lid (if using), and tack the jar to the bottom of the wastebasket. Add fresh branches of leaves.
Cut a large circle of insect screen mesh and secure to the top of the wastebasket with a large elastic band.
Double check that there is enough vertical space in your enclosure for your phasmids to hang freely from a branch while they molt. And then add your insects! The mesh makes it easy for them to climb all over the enclosure, and it enables lots of fresh air.
You’ll need to spray your enclosure with water several times a day. I set my spray bottle to mist setting, and spray straight through the mesh. The phasmids drink the tiny droplet as if they were dew. (Please make sure you use a new or clean water spray bottle – that is, not one that might have had any previous cleaning products inside, or you might poison them!)
Also, speaking of poisoning, remember to not use insect spray anywhere near your enclosure!
Change the leaves every 3 days or so (although you can leave it longer at a pinch), and replenish water in the jar to keep the leaves fresh.
Regularly clean up the phasmid poo (which look like little brown pellets). If you have adult females, you can also collect eggs. Store the eggs in a plastic container with river sand (or vermiculite, as we use). Add holes to the lid of your container to allow air flow. In spring, leave the container on a windowsill in the sunshine, and spray gently with water every few days, and you might get some nymphs hatching next spring! (Be patient though – some eggs can take up to 2 years to hatch…)
For more information:
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Not all ladybirds are red & spotty! Learn about metamorphosis and the life cycle of this cool yellow & black ladybird beetle. Fun spring nature study craft for kids.
This spring we’ve been inundated with ladybirds (or ladybugs or ladybeetles as you might call them). Except that our ladybirds are not red, and they aren’t spotty!
The ladybirds in our backyard are always yellow and black, and they have a cool mask / zigzag pattern on their back instead of spots.
My 4 year old daughter Bumble Bee is obsessed with insects and entomology. So of course, these yellow and black ladybirds presented the perfect opportunity to learn more!
Try this nature study activity with preschoolers or kindergarteners. Bumble Bee had just turned 4 years old when we did this.
But first – can I tell you the most adorable thing? I just found out that a group of ladybirds is called a “loveliness of ladybirds” or a “loveliness of ladybugs”. Isn’t that so sweet! We have a loveliness of ladybirds in our backyard. 🙂
Anyway, back to our story. Turns out that the yellow and black zig-zag ladybirds in our backyard are actually called Fungus-eating Ladybirds (illeis galbula), and they feed on tiny spots of black mould that grow on the underside of leaves (and, as I discovered, on the underside of our dog kennel). And here I was thinking all ladybirds ate aphids!
This particular ladybird is actually native to New Zealand, but seems to have infiltrated much of Sydney. Sydney’s a very humid city in spring and summer, so it makes sense that black mould and fungus-eating ladybirds would both thrive here.
Ladybirds undergo a complete metamorphosis, just like a butterfly, changing from an egg to larva to pupa to ladybird.
We found lots of ladybird larvae all over our backyard – they’re super speedy, running around all over the place! The pupa took a little more searching as they seek a secluded place to undergo their transformation. I found many stuck to the underneath of our dog kennel, where they (normally) wouldn’t be disturbed. Once the metamorphosis process is complete, they break through the pupal casing and emerge as a beautiful yellow and black ladybird, complete with wings!
Bumble Bee and I decided to create a fungus-eating ladybird life cycle craft, that tracks all the stages that this ladybird goes through, from egg to metamorphosis.
We used:
We did one life cycle plate each, crafting alongside each other, as we like to do. It’s a two-way learning experience – Bee copied from me and I copy from her, as we both learn about this fascinating insect together.
We also spent a lot of time referring to the live specimens in our backyard, making sure that we were getting as many of the details as accurate as possible. Lots of nature study going on!
Our first step was to divide our paper plates into quarters.
We painted yellow eggs in one quarter, using the stem of a gum leaf to create tiny little dots. (We couldn’t find any actual eggs in our backyard, so we Google searched to find out what fungus-eating ladybird eggs look like.)
We mixed yellow and white paint to make a pale yellow, which we used to create the body of a larva and a pupa. We used a brighter yellow colour to paint the head of the larva, and the ladybird.
We waited a few minutes for it to dry (paint dries quickly in the Australian heat), then we added all the extra details using black permanent markers.
We noticed that the larvae have 6 legs (but no wings). You can’t see any legs on the pupa at all, as the ladybird is inside the pupal casing. Once the ladybirds emerge, they have 6 legs and 2 antennae. They also have wings underneath their shell. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you can find a ladybird that has just landed, and see its wings quickly before it folds them away. The wings are about double the length of the shell when they’re unfolded.
Bumble Bee decided to draw wings coming out from underneath the shell of her ladybird, so everyone would know that they were there.
I wrote labels on mine, which caused Bumble Bee a bit of angst, because she doesn’t know how to write. She didn’t want me to write on her project, as she wanted to do it all by herself. I suggested that perhaps I could write labels on another paper plate, and she could cut them out and glue them on. She was happy with that idea.
And here’s her finished project!
While we were crafting, a teeny little ladybird larva decided to walk on Bee’s project! I thought this would be a good chance to show you how small they are, as you can use the plate for scale.
Of course, being the snap happy blogger that I am, I took hundreds of photos of ladybirds. They’re so cute! Here’s just a few of the best ones…
Ladybirds are also known as ladybugs or ladybeetles. There are over 100 species of ladybirds in Australia.
Ladybirds are an insect that goes through complete metamorphosis, which means that they go through a four stage life cycle: eggs, larvae, pupa and adult ladybirds.
One species of ladybird is the fungus-eating ladybird (or its scientific name is illeis galbula). Both adults and larvae feed on mildew fungus, so fungus-eating ladybirds are very welcome in most gardens to help with this problem!
The adult fungus-eating ladybird are bright yellow with two black zigzag markings on their back. Female ladybirds lay small groups of white eggs on the underside of leaves infested with powdery mildew.
These eggs hatch into pale-yellow larvae, with rows of tiny black dots on the back. The larvae are very active, and shed their skin as they grow.
When the larvae are fully grown, they attach themselves to a sheltered place and moult into a pupa, which remains attached by one end.
Adults hatch from the pupa and mate, to start the life cycle over again.
You can find more detailed information on the fungus-eating ladybird here.
For more nature study ideas, you might like to check out our Nature Study Projects for Kids page, including:
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How to make a cool Christmas tree bubble wand – and learn about bubble physics though play. Fun Christmas STEM activity for kids!
We’ve been playing with bubbles a lot this year. We’ve worked how to make quick and easy DIY bubble wands, so we can theme our wands to match the occasion!
Each time we’ve made our own bubble wands, we’ve had a chance to learn a little more about bubble physics, and what makes them take a particular shape.
Plus, bubbles are fun!
Related: We’ve also made geometric shapes bubble wands, Easter egg bubble wands and heart bubble wands….
Bubbles are fun for any age! Babies and younger toddlers are usually entranced with catching bubbles, rather than the implement used to make them, so this activity is probably best for the preschooler and kindergarten / early primary school age group. Bumble Bee was 4 and Jewel was 6 when we did this.
You need:
and/or
We used two different types of pipe cleaners – a sparkly one and a furry one – to make a two different looking trees. They work equally well (although aesthetically I think the girls preferred the sparkly one).
Here’s how to make them:
Four year old Bumble Bee initially thought the bubbles would be Christmas tree shape, and then quickly revised her hypothesis when she saw that they were round. She discovered that after blowing a few bubbles into the air, she could then use the bubble wand to catch the bubbles again and study them!
We talked about how bubbles are made up of both bubble mixture and air.
The bubble shape is called a sphere, and the outside of the sphere is the bubble mixture, and the inside is the air that she blew.
When her older sister Jewel (6 years old) came out to join us, we took the bubble physics explanation a little further.
We talked about how there is air all around us, even though you can’t see it. When a bubble floats through the air, the air that is inside the bubble pushes out, and the air outside the bubble pushes in. That’s why it is a round shape. If there were pointy bits (like if it were still Christmas tree shaped), then the inside air forces and the outside air forces wouldn’t balance each other out. The outside air forces would push on it until the bubble was round again.
Jewel noticed that the bubble changes shape if it lands on the (very wet & soapy) table.
“It’s a semi-sphere!”, she cried.
We talked about how the table acts as another force, and that whilst the part of the bubble against the table is flat, the part of the bubble that is pushing up against the outside air is still round.
Jewel wanted to see what would happen if she added another bubble to this first one.
We noticed that the parts of the bubble that were touching something else (like another bubble, or the table) were flat, but the parts that were exposed to the air remained curved.
We talked about how, if you had a bunch of bubbles joined together on each side, you could create a middle bubble that was flat on all sides, like a cube.
Next Jewel tried to see how big a bubble structure she could make. Her record was eight bubbles. It’s not easy though, as the bubbles refused to stack, and sometimes when she added a new bubble, the existing bubbles would join together and make one big one!
I love how we’ve done this activity a few times now, and we’ve been able to revisit our prior knowledge, and expand upon it, each time. Bee is still quite a way off understanding about forces just yet, but it seems that Jewel is starting to ‘get’ it.
Our (store-bought) bubble mix is made up of (mostly) soap and water. The soap makes the surface tension of water weaker than normal, and also forms a very thin skin (or film) that is flexible, perfect for making bubbles.
Bubbles are actually a film of soapy water with air trapped inside. There are two forces occurring here: the air inside the bubble is pushing out, whilst at the same time, the soapy film and the outside air, are pushing in. To balance these forces, the soapy film assumes the smallest surface area it can, and that shape (in the absence of other forces) just happens to be a sphere.
Therefore, in the absence of other forces, bubbles that float in air are always round, regardless of the shape of the bubble wand used.
I wonder what shape a bubble would be in space???
For more Christmas-themed fun, check out our Christmas Science page, including:
For more physics fun, check out our Physics Experiments for Kids page, including:
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* This post contains affiliate link(s) to similar products used. An affiliate link means I may earn a referral fee or commission if you make a purchase through my link, without any extra cost to you. It helps to keep this little project afloat. Thank you so much for your support.
Corroboree frog nature craft idea, to help kids learn about biology, conservation and environmental science.
Have you heard about the corroboree frogs? The northern corroboree frog and the southern corroboree frog are two tiny Australian amphibians with striking yellow and black markings.
We’ve been learning about these fascinating animals recently, partly because they are so awesome, partly because of the conservation efforts to save them (see below), and partly because of another project.
When I spied some bright yellow leaves in our backyard, I came up with a cool corroboree frog nature craft idea.
But first, let me tell you about these amazing animals.
(Note: affiliate links included below)
We used:
What to do
I made the northern corroboree frog first, cutting it out from a small yellowish leaf. Cutting something this small is tricky!
Initially I tried drawing on the black stripes, until I realised that my fine tipped permanent marker was out of ink! Doh! So instead, I dipped the tip into black acrylic paint and carefully painted on the stripes. (You could use anything with a fine tip, like a toothpick, as your painting tool.)
Next I cut out the southern corroboree frog from a larger, brighter yellow leaf. I painted on the eyes, and then some stripes.
Once they were dry, I added a coat of mod podge sealer, just to protect it a little from small hands, as I knew the kids would want to play with them when they got home from school. As they dried, they curled a little bit, as leaves tend to do.
I think they look quite realistic! It’s not til you turn it over and see the underside that it’s obvious they are made from a leaf.
This craft requires advanced fine motor skills. Older kids (7+ year olds) may be able to do it for themselves. Younger kids will likely need an adult to help, especially with cutting the leaves.
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Sensory play meets explorative science with this nature-based backyard science experiment.
Science experiments don’t have to be complicated! Sometimes the simplest things can enthrall young kids. My 3.5 year old daughter Bumble Bee loved this backyard dirt observation activity so much that we’ve done it several times now, and it’s been interesting to notice how the results have varied each time.
My daughter’s interest in the scientific method has been recently kindled by the book 11 Science Experiments That Failed, and so we followed the scientific method for this backyard dirt experiment too, which of course, makes it feel extra science-y. 🙂
Question:
What lives in the dirt in our backyard?
Hypothesis:
Worms live in dirt.
What You Need:
What To Do:
1. Dig dirt with spade.
2. Put dirt on sheet.
3. Sort through dirt to see if there are any living creatures. Study them with magnifying glass.
4. Record (or ask an adult to record) findings.
5. Dig more dirt and repeat.
5. Tally results at end of the dirt play experiment. Compare with previous results.
What happened:
When soil was moist, many (dozens and dozens) of worms and one slater (aka woodlice, roly poly or pill bug) were found. When soil was dry, few worms were found, and no other insects.
Honestly, I can’t emphasis enough how much Bumble Bee loved this activity. “What lives in dirt?” might seem like an obvious question to us, but Bumble Bee loved being able to verify her hypothesis (that worms live in dirt) for herself. She did sometimes ask for help with the digging part (perhaps our spade was a little big for her), but she really loved sorting methodically through the dirt to see if there were any worms in that particular load. When our sheet was too full of dirt, we emptied the ‘old’ dirt back into the same patch of garden and started digging again.
We found many, many worms. We talked about what sort of things worms would need in their habitat. We talked about how worms need food, water, and shelter (dirt and leaf litter) to protect them from the birds. We talked about how they wouldn’t be able to live outside of the dirt for long. We decided to rehome a few into our worm farm, and carrying worms back and forth from the garden to the worm farm became part of the play.
We also found one slater (which, depending on where you live in the world, are also called roly polys, pill bugs, woodlice or potato bugs). Bee wasn’t expecting to find anything other than worms, and so she was pleasantly surprised. (I, on the other hand, was surprised at the lack of insect diversity in our soil!) We duly recorded it, and then put it (all rolled up) into her specimen tray, along with a few of the smaller worms. Every time Bee turned around, one of her specimens escaped. One of the challenges of field science!
We repeated this experiment again several weeks later, after a particularly dry spell, and that time we hardly found any worms at all. We hypothesised that this may be because the habitat in our backyard top soil no longer catered to what worms need, and that all the worms had moved to a wetter part of the soil that was better suited to their requirements.
This would make a great Earth Day science experiment. In fact, we actually did it just before Earth Day, and then used the same soil to make our Planet Earth craft, except I hadn’t a chance to write it up until now… (Sorry – been busy and all that!)
For more nature-based science ideas, you might also like:
* This post contains affiliate link(s) to similar products used. An affiliate link means I may earn advertising / referral fees if you make a purchase through my link, without any extra cost to you. It helps keep this little blog afloat. Thank you for your support.