ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES
Check out these great educational resources compiled by the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts:
Here are some fun educational activities families can do from home:
1. Make a soil baby (aka grass head):
2. Disappearing eggshell activity:
3. Take virtual tours of Virginia State Parks by clicking on this link:
4. View virtual Virginia State Park Programs by clicking on this link:
5. Go on a nature scavenger hunt:
6. Make soft as cloud play dough using only 2 ingredients: corn starch and hair conditioner (food coloring optional)
7. Earn a soil expert or living in your watershed patch:
8. Make puffy sidewalk paint:
The District has numerous resources available for teachers to check out. Below are just a few. For a complete list, click on the link at the bottom of the page.
Teacher Bucket Kit – Lesson outlines, blank forms, reference lists and suggestions, website instructions, ideas; Book entitled, Ten-Minute Field Trips, 2-way magnifier, metal clicker with insect picture to get attention, “Farkle” the friendly mouse puppet with suggested uses and stories, tree identification guide, CD/video by Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries, insect net with 18” handle, 24 pieces of clothesline to make a circle on the ground for search area, package of 12 extra magnifier bug boxes, 14 pieces of 24” x 24” shower curtain liner for kneeling on damp ground, 12 small dip nets, Student Bucket Kits (20) - Trowel, mist sprayer, magnifier bug box, hand lens single magnifier, Compass, thermometer, plastic forceps, 6-inch ruler including metric, wide mouth plastic bottle, 24” x 24” shower curtain liner for kneeling on the ground.
(40) trowels (20) Buddy Buckets Leaf bags
(15) 4xx6x 2-way bug viewers (17) UV Ray indicators (10) mineral exploration kits
(1) box 15 classic igneous rocks (1) box 15 classic sedimentary rocks (1) box 15 classic metamorphic
(25) Nature Scavenger Hunt Litterless Lunch Box Tracks, skulls, molds
Macroinvertebrate charts (2) Chesapeake Bay Watershed maps (6) Hidden Life of Soils Card Game
Compost! Card Game (30 people) (2) Backyard Fun Conservation Game Flip for Science Rocks & Minerals