Students will gain awareness of local phenology and each other by playing a game connecting their birthdays with local phenology and seasonal phenomenon. Adapted from Birthday Phenology Game: A Getting-to-Know-You Game by Georgia Gómez-Ibáñez, Cambridge Elementary School, WI.
The following activity is an introductory lesson in the basics of observation skills for young children. Students will germinate seeds and observe the growth of their plants. They will learn basic plant anatomy, and about what plants need in order to grow and survive.
The following activity is an introductory lesson in the basics of observation skills for young children. Students will construct a bird feeder
using basic materials, hang their feeders at a safe outdoor location, and observe the behaviors of the birds who visit.
The following activity is an introductory lesson in the basics of observation skills for young children. In this activity, students will use their senses to observe different plants. Then, they will make seed balls out of clay that can be planted at your school or brought home.
An educator's blog with links to websites focused on climate change.
Lesson plan written and created by GK-12 Fellows of Michigan State University Liz Schultheis and Dustin Kincaid, 2012.
Watch a feeder as a group/class and keep records of what you see. Compare your notebook with historical records for the same species in your area, if you can find any. Created by Signs of the Seasons: A Maine Phenology Program.
Students visit the local library or a historical collection to look through source materials (newspapers, magazines, photo collections, etc.) to find dates and/or photos of annual festivals related to phenology (apple festivals, lilac festivals, maple sugar festivals, etc.). Created by Signs of the Seasons: A Maine Phenology Program.
Using a numerous and easy to identify flowering plant, students learn basic mapping and graphing skills, and practice making sense of the phenology data they have collected. Created by Signs of the Seasons: A Maine Phenology Program.
Students learn to graph a small dataset about the timing of monarchs and milkweed appearance in Maine. The exercise involves graphing comparisons between groups, making predictions, and thinking about variability, an important concept in statistics and data literacy. Created by Signs of the Seasons: A Maine Phenology Program.