Connecting kids with wildlife with 5 simple actions

Games and activities to teach your children to take care of nature and their environment

To enjoy our forests, we need to start by protecting. Let’s protect with our children the wildlife that nourishes us so much; Let’s protect biodiversity. Every day and since childhood. Because they will be ambassadors of sustainability, respect and care for our environment. Because they will do it from consciousness and love. Love for the living, for what surrounds us and for what we are. Because we are nature. Therefore, this time I propose some simple actions to carry out to connect children with the wildlife that surrounds them.

5 actions to teach children to protect wildlife

How can we bring the importance of wildlife closer to our children? How to raise awareness about the importance of wild flora and fauna? I propose five actions to carry out with your children:

1. Bird Observatory
When the milder and warmer weather begins to arrive, the birds also begin their journeys to get closer to spend the spring and summer in our country. The migrations of thousands of birds begin, thus putting the note of color, movement and life in the blue skies. Swallows, Bonelli’s eagles, common planes, storks, Egyptian vultures… welcome!

Take your bird guide, binoculars and go to a bird observatory. In Spain, which is where I live, there are almost 600 Special Protection Areas for Birds.

2. Collect. Let’s harvest!
Although it is also time to plant… it is also time to collect! Find out what vegetables and fruits, mushrooms or berries, are common in your territory. Tangerines, wild asparagus, pomegranates, kiwis, potatoes, or even peas!

Always remember to thank and if there are parts that you are not going to use (shells, skin …) you can take advantage to start a compost bin.

3. Identification of footprints
and traces There are many field guides that are specialized in footprints and tracks of wild animals. How about taking a walk and paying attention to those footprints or traces? Do you know how to identify what they ate? What animals are they? What kind of traces have you found?

4. Create nest-houses for birds
Very soon the birds will begin to create their nests or look for places to begin their breeding stage. Creating a nested box can be a gift that surely a bird will appreciate. Just remember some important considerations when placing nested boxes:

Look for a quiet and discreet location, if it can be somewhat camouflaged among the foliage of branches, if possible away from many noises and roads.
It is advisable that they are not exposed to direct sun or throughout the day, especially in areas with high temperatures. Let’s look for areas where the branches can protect them from the sun and offer shade.
We will try to place them as high as possible to avoid predators and also offer greater peace of mind.

5. Forests without garbage
Beach, mountain, forest… In nature we often find waste that should not be there such as plastic remains, bottle caps, cans …

I encourage you to go with your children on a regular basis to clean the natural environment. Bring gardening gloves and some bags to separate the waste you find. And even if you prefer, you can also take tweezers to take the waste. It is an activity that they usually like a lot because it is like ‘fishing’ garbage; An activity of the simplest and that will not leave anyone indifferent.

‘My Green Action’ game for the whole family

Although the ideal is to go out daily to nature, our lifestyles sometimes make it difficult. But there are several actions we can do on a daily basis with our children to raise awareness about the importance of protecting nature.

On this occasion I propose that during the time you establish, each member of the family choose a green action that you will carry out and keep in mind during that time. It is said that to change habits the human being needs 21 days in a row doing that new habit that we want to incorporate … what do you think of that time?

Some green action ideas could be:

I
will be more responsible for turning off the lights when they are not in use.
Save water
I will pay attention to turn off the taps while they are not in use, let’s replace the bathrooms with the showers … Any gesture to save water is valid.
I reuse materials Whenever I can, I will reuse materials
instead of using more and new resources.
Separation of waste I will be more aware of the waste
surrounding my environment and contribute to the cleanliness of the natural environment.

As you can see, there are several proposals that invite us to approach nature and reflect on our role and place in it. As biologist John Piccolo says ‘We are not apart, but a part of nature‘ (Piccolo, 2017).

Actions that call to enjoy that biodiversity of wild fauna and flora that surrounds us and the wonderful ecosystems and natural landscapes that we need and have the responsibility to care for and protect.

March 3 is World Wildlife Day

The Earth is home to countless species that interact with the environment. Historically these interrelationships have been such that thanks to them here we are: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the materials we use… However, inadequate and, sometimes, poorly controlled human actions are currently producing a high percentage of species in danger of extinction.

In December 2013, the UN General Assembly decided to proclaim 3 March as World Wildlife Day to raise awareness of the value of wildlife. As the ‘Life on Land’ report explains within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, forests cover 31 percent of the Earth’s surface and around 1.600 billion people around the planet depend on them for their livelihoods. Taking into account that they give us air, water, food (and much more) their care is essential.

This seems something big, so big that sometimes it could be unfathomable and even something distant for society and, more specifically for children, it is easy to approach. And not only easy, it is, above all, necessary. Because raising awareness about the importance of wild fauna and flora, about what surrounds us, that great biodiversity that is often threatened and in danger of extinction, is as simple as making small gestures. Daily, daily, habitual, continuous in time. Gestures that bring us closer to what surrounds us; that bring us closer to their problems and gradually turn us into active protagonists of actions that protect the natural environment.

Short stories about nature

History of a tree
A family secret
Take care of Monk

You can read more similar articles to Connect kids with wildlife with 5 simple actions, in the category of Outdoor in Guiainfantil.com.

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