Knowledge is supposed to enrich our lives, not just reside in dusty books (or hypnotic bits and bytes). So, we took our map skills on the road and used them to explore a “new to us” nature trail.
Check out this map! Ain’t she a beaut?
Most of the trail maps we encounter are faded, sad affairs. Not this one. This one has a lovely compass rose for finding directions, words for reading and sounding out, scale for determining how far we need to walk, topographic contour lines for seeing elevation (not to mention practicing skip counting bv tens), and a beautiful legend with symbols so you can see which paths you will tread to find…
…a labyrinth!
No David Bowie serenading us, alas…but a fine place to rest while your mom shows you how to make daisy chains and your friend’s mom makes you a lily wand so you can play Faerie Queen with your friends.
On the way, we checked our direction with the compass (no geocaches nearby, unfortunately), saw a mama duck with her baby ducklings, read signs, and talked about the minotaur and Theseus and other favorite stories.
We always learn so much on our nature walks–about the plants and creatures that share space with us, about our fellow hikers, and about ourselves.
A magical day of literacy, ecology, mathematics, geography…and play!
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This post is part of the Smart Summer Challenge. Check out our family’s plans for Week 1: Me on the Map, find out more about the Smart Summer Challenge and grab our free calendar of summer learning ideas, and “like” the Smart Summer Challenge page on Facebook.
Find more great ideas from your hostesses, Candace of Naturally Educational (that’s me!), Amy of TeachMama.com, and MaryLea of Pink and Green Mama!
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I love the idea of getting kids out of the classroom and into the fresh air. I have never understood why in the process of trying to educate children about the world we remove them from it as much as possible.
Looks like a great time! Cool map! 🙂