Kim's Spring Activity Guide
Our Outdoor Activity Consultant, Kim, has rustled up some exciting Spring Activities to keep our Pathway community busy!
1. Kites
2. Help the Birds
MUD
- Choose a spot at the edge of a flower or vegetable garden to establish a mud hole. Use a hose or a bucket of water to wet the earth.
- Squish the soil using your hands, a stick or a shovel, until it reaches a muddy consistency.
- Try to find clay soil. Don’t worry if the mud contains small bits of grass or other plant fibres.
NEST LINING MATERIALS
- Stuff a mesh onion bag with materials such as dead twigs, pine needles, leaves, feathers, moss, dry grass (as long as it’s chemical-free), strips of bark, and plant fluff from plants such as cattails or cottonwood.
- Hang the bag from a clothesline or tree branch in your backyard.
- Some materials that were previously recommended for nesting are now considered unsafe. Do not provide hair (human or animal), string, yarn or loose bits of thread, as birds can become entangled in these materials. Likewise, do not provide pieces of felt or cloth, dryer lint, plastic, tinsel, cellophane or aluminum foil; these can be choking hazards or cause internal blockage.
3. Create a Wild Bee Sanctuary
For a detailed outline visit this link at the David Suzuki Organization
- Fill your yard with flowers
- Plant native
- Go organic
- Add water
b. Make a Bee Bath
Use a shallow plate and place it at the ground level where you’ve noticed bee activity. Place a few flat stones in the plate to create landing pads or islands and safe places to crawl out should they fall in. Add fresh water but don’t submerge the stones. Birds and butterflies will use it, too. Replace the water every few days to eliminate mosquito larvae… more here
Make a bee home
Honeybees and bumblebees live in social colonies, but most wild bee species are solitary. About two-thirds of solitary nesting bees use tunnels in the ground to lay their eggs. About one-third use hollowed-out plant stems or tunnels in dead trees or fallen logs… Want to discover the best homemade housing you can make for bees in your backyard? Read more here
4. Plant a Pollinators Garden
Check out this amazing resource from Bee City Canada on how to create a habitat. and Follow it up with the Planting for Pollinators blog from Kidsgardening.org
5. Create a Spring Checklist
With your kids, make a checklist of things that make you think of spring. Go on a hike in the forest, check off all of the things that you see and feel on your list. Try to ensure that the list is multi-sensory, so things like feeling the warmth of the sun and different smells of the seasons are also on the list. Feel free to add to the lists as you are walking and noticing more things.
6. Colours of Spring
Pick up some paint chips from a hardware store. On your outdoor adventure, hand them out to your kids and see if they can find matches to many different colours. They may think it’s impossible, but this gets them to really look at items to find a match. Remember to look up, blues often match the sky!
If paint chips are not available to you, crayons will work too.
7. Meet a Tree in your Neighbourhood
Have your kids pick a tree that you really get to know over time. They can get to know it in so many different ways (draw, take bark rubbings, look with a magnifier, or use a camera). In the spring, they will be looking for the buds starting to explode into leaves. Most people think that buds form in the spring, but with careful observation, you will see that buds are actually on the tree all winter!
8. Disc Golf
Get your family involved in this fun, active, burgeoning sport. Peterborough has three easily accessible, free courses for you to enjoy. The courses are at the north end of the Riverview Park and Zoo, TASS, and Hamilton Park just south of Jackson Park. In outlying areas of Peterborough, there is one at Mount Julian Viamede and Ennismore Waterfront Park. Or, you can make your own course anywhere you would like by simply identifying objects as your targets. All you need is a frisbee, or a disc, and a good arm! www.peterboroughdiscgolf.ca
9. Take a Hike
10. Discover the Pathway Robin Cam
A cheery sign of spring’s arrival, the American Robin is one of our most familiar and beloved birds. Watch a female robin live as she incubates her eggs. Enjoy a nesting craft and read-along with ‘Bird Builds a Nest’.
Visit the live nest cam here
