DK Wildlife Gardening

A17 and I love this new book we found! DK's Wildlife Gardening --How to Bring Birds and Bugs to your Backyard by Martyn Cox. We are looking forward to trying some of these projects. Projects are listed as Watch It, Make It or Grow It.

Here is a sample from the table of contents:

Keep a nature diary

Make a butterfly house

Grow smiley sunflowers

Make a wormery ( this looks really cool for A17!)

Make a ladybug sanctuary

Grow a wildlife hedge

Make a flower pot birdhouse

Watch a pond dipping

Make a frog and toad home

I'll update when we have completed some of these projects.

Nature Journal and Sun Prints

A17 started a nature journal last fall. We use a binder that he decorated with stickers. In the binder are sheets pre-printed with room for the date, weather, items found and animals/birds seen. I printed out sheets of boardmaker pictures of common items to use a stickers.

Here is one journal entry. He went for a walk and collected an oak leaf, pine cone and small yellow flower. We then glued the corresponding boardmaker pictures in. We also have several nature books that we can use to look up items and find out more information.

Since A17 can't sketch, we are using Sunprint paper to make pictures of the things he collects. I found mine at my local United Art and Education store. It's very easy to use. Put the items down on the paper and leave out in the sun for several minutes. Next, lay the paper in a shallow pan of water to set the prints. Last, dry the paper out of the sun. You will then have a nice sun print!