Take a tour through the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History with our Museum coloring book! This booklet features many of our favorite exhibit features – from our tide pool and sea cow skeleton to our observation honeybee hive. Learn fun facts and bring some color into your Museum favorites!
Post by: Natalie
Native people living along the Central California Coast practicing the Ohlone culture understood nature and responsibly stewarded resources for their survival. Do you know what it means to be a steward of nature? To be a steward is to take care of something. To be a steward of nature you first must understand nature and then you can learn how to care for it and preserve it for the future. In the past and today people have depended on natural resources to survive. Today we are going to learn about natural resources that were important to the Ohlone.
Matching Game
This 20- to 30-minute activity is for students to learn about natural resources that were important to the Ohlone culture and reflect on natural resources that we rely on today. Students will look at photos and read descriptions of natural resources and match the resource with the artifact they think came from it. Students will check their own answers by reading facts about the artifacts. This activity was adapted for distance learning from the Ohlone Classroom Kit and was created for 3rd/4th graders.
Materials:
Pick more resources about Native Californians in our Online Museum Store
Post by: Elise
Explore science illustration with artists featured in our annual exhibit, The Art of Nature, and get tips for how to make your own science illustrations at home. This post is from Megan Gnekow, recipient of the Museum’s 2019 Laura Hecox Naturalist Award.
I make scientific illustrations because I want to inspire folks to look closely at the world around them. I want to make complexities and relationships more clear, helping people understand that all organisms are connected to each other. — Megan Gnekow
Prompt: Sequential Observations
There are so many great ways to use a nature journaling project to connect to your local habitat(s). One of my favorites is sequential observations — making notes and sketches about an organism you observe over time. Spring is a great time to do this because there are so many visible changes happening in our environments.
Choose an organism that you can observe regularly over a period of time (the period of shelter-in-place is a good place to start!). Observe the organism you have chosen as frequently as you are able to and make notes and sketches about what you observe. Note date, time, location (macro-habitat and micro-habitat). Use as many of your senses as you can and record what you learn!
Recording your observations over time gives you insights into an organism and the environment in which it lives. Hopefully this plants a seed for further observations and exploration. Don’t worry about making beautiful drawings. Just sketch and/or note what you observe!
If you can’t get outside or have other limitations to observing organisms, there are plenty of webcams available to inspire you — I would suggest a bird camera hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology or the falcon cam at UC Berkeley.
Read more about Megan Gnekow here and visit her website here. Explore all of her illustrations from this peregrine falcon series here.
Experiment with creating art from nature! Many plants and rocks have pigments inside of them that you can paint or draw with. You can even go one step further and try making your own paint brush from found natural materials!
How to find materials
Look in sidewalk cracks for leaves or flowers and look in dirt patches for different types of rocks. Look on bushes or trees for berries, flowers, and leaves. My favorite is oxalis, more commonly known as sourgrass (pictured to the right). It is a yellow flower that is common in Santa Cruz and makes a highlighter yellow color when used as natural paint. Bonus: this plant is invasive and is often considered a weed that you could completely remove.
On the other hand if you want to create art from nature but want to stay inside you can do that too! Some of your food can be used to paint and draw. For example, you can use colorful spices such as turmeric or paprika to create paint by mixing the powder with water. Beets, purple cabbage, and berries will also work – they often turn my cutting board different colors when I am chopping them! If you have a fireplace you can even use the small pieces of burnt wood that are left behind to draw with or you can grind it up and mix with water to create black paint.
Collecting plants
Creating Paint
Questions to ponder
Post by Elise
As we enjoy the blooms of spring, we have many creatures to thank. Show us what you already know about pollinators by playing a matching game! Then go on a scavenger hunt to continue learning about pollinators around your home.
Preparation:
Matching Game:
Show off what you know and match the picture of a pollinator with the picture of a flower you think they would be most attracted to. Check your answers using the information on the back of each image.
Questions to think about:
Have you heard of a pollinator? What do they do?
What are some pollinators that you have seen before?
More Information
Click here to learn more about pollination and pollinators
Click here to learn how to help protect pollinators
Explore more resources about pollinators in our Online Museum Store.
Post by Elise
Learn about different types of clouds, recording daily observations of clouds on your cloud chart, making weather predictions, and an experiment to make your own cloud at home!
What are clouds?
Clouds are made up of water droplets or ice crystals that float in the sky. We can learn a lot about the weather by looking at clouds.
Types of Clouds
Go outside and observe the clouds. Based on the diagram above, which clouds do you see today? If there are no clouds in the sky think about why that might be. Identify your clouds using this NASA Cloud Chart (Guía de las Nubes en español), and learn more about each type of cloud here.
Each day go outside and observe the clouds for one week and record your observations in this downloadable cloud chart. Make weather predictions based on what you have learned about different types of clouds. At the end of the week you can look back on your weather predictions and reflect on if they were correct or not. Use your data to see which clouds were most common during that week.
Download and print this worksheet to aid in your observations — or make your own!
Guiding Questions for Cloud Observations
Optional: Pair this with our Weather Observation Activity
Try This: Make a Cloud in a Jar!
Materials: a jar, water, lid, and hairspray.
Kid-friendly instructions for making your own cloud: https://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2015/03/make-cloud-jar-kitchen-science.html
Post by: Elise
Learn how to explore the habitats around you by measuring tree canopy cover. This activity is adapted from the Museum’s Nature Rangers school program.
Download and print this worksheet (PDF | HTML) to aid in your observations — or make your own!
Explore more resources about trees and plants in our Online Museum Store.
Post by: Natalie
So much can be revealed to us when we immerse ourselves in our surroundings and give our undivided attention to nature! When we slow down and focus our senses, our awareness deepens and we begin to notice more. Noticing, in turn, leads to connection, familiarity, a desire for stewardship, a sense of place, and so much more. By familiarizing ourselves with nature in this way we can also learn to recognize patterns and relationships that exist all around us.
The intention for this guide is to help you build your sensory awareness skills through nature journaling, games, stories, and exercises in mindfulness. So grab a journal, head outside, and let’s begin!
This Nature Awareness Guide (PDF | HTML) by our Education Assistant Ellen Stone was written as a capstone project for the California Naturalist Program, 2019.
Related Activities:
Neary Lagoon Wildlife Refuge is a beloved park nestled at the heart of Santa Cruz. Once a true lagoon (with an open connection to the ocean), Neary Lagoon is now a freshwater marsh. It is an important part of an 850 acre watershed that drains into the lagoon via Laurel Creek and Bay Creek before draining into the ocean through a controlled flood gate.
This is a 44-acre park with roughly 14 acres of freshwater lagoon, and is an important habitat for many animals. Click here to download a guided hike for a 1-mile loop through this beautiful wildlife refuge (PDF | HTML). As you observe wildlife, refer to this guide of commonly-spotted animals (PDF | HTML).
Post by: Chris
Have you seen a western gray squirrel quickly climbing a tree or running fast to cross the street in between cars? What else have you seen it do? Is there one that you see daily? I see one every day, climbing up and down a tree outside of my home. It often sits close to the fence, flicking its tail back and forth. Sometimes I feel like it does this just to taunt my dog, who is captivated by the squirrel on the other side of the fence.
Western gray squirrels live in Santa Cruz all year long. They mostly eat seeds and are known to steal from people’s bird feeders. They nest up in trees in “dreys”, which are made out of twigs and lined with moss or fur. They hide their food in caches (secret food storages) and will return to them when food is scarce. Their alarm call sounds like a bird chirp and it is used to warn others of a predator or danger in the area.
Fun Facts:
CLICK HERE for a coloring sheet of a grey squirrel!
Here’s a video of Squirrel Sounds! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVRJsCsqFB0-
Post by: Elise
