Last Friday was National Geographic Day and it got us all started looking at lots of new topics and we started looking at our world through our own camera lenses - the gorgeous photography in Nat Geo Magazines a great springboard for all kinds of adventures in our natural world!
We're continuing exploring the natural world this Friday with World Wildlife Day! So dive into Friday Fun; learn, play and grow!
What is World Wildlife Day?
The World is full of amazing creatures and this special day is a fantastic opportunity to remind us that wildlife is not just something we passively observe, it is part of our world and something that we need to care for!
We sometimes get caught up in our very human existences and forget that we aren’t the only living things on Earth. In reality, we’re far outnumbered by other living things, from animals and plants to fungi and bacteria.
World Wildlife Day is your chance to celebrate all wildlife, from the smallest insect to blue whales.
Whether you love animals, you have a passion for plants, or you're concerned about climate change, pollution or deforestation - today is the day that you can use to learn more, connect with others, and take action!
No matter what you love about wildlife, you can celebrate the incredible biodiversity on our blue-green gem of a planet and you can get out there and explore!
A Bit of History...
March 3, 1973
On this day in 1973, the United Nations General Assembly took a stand to protect Endangered Species throughout the world. The importance of these species (plant or animal) in every area of human life could not (and still cannot) be understated. Billions of people benefit daily from the use of wild species for food, energy, materials, medicine, recreation, inspiration and so many other things that promote human well-being! At the time the UN took action, hundreds of endangered species were being threatened every year, and extinction was at a staggeringly high rate. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was put into place to ensure that the world did not continue to lose species at an unprecedented rate that would never be seen again!
December 20, 2013
Another step to help spread awareness of the fragility of endangered species in the world was taken on December 20, 2013. At the United Nations' 68th session, they declared that each year World Wildlife Day would be dedicated to a new purpose and idea. These themes would help keep people up to date on the changing nature of our world, and the treasures we stand to lose if we don't take care of it. Some past themes are: 2018 Big Cats - Predators Under Threat 2019 Life Below Water - For People and Planet 2020 Sustaining All Life on Earth 2021 Forests & Livelihoods - Sustaining People & Planet 2022 Recovering Key Species for Ecosystem Restoration
March 3, 2023 (Today!)
The theme for World Wildlife Day 2023 is Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation, honouring the people who are making a difference. Partnerships can be large scale or involve a few children in a school or club. It might be organising a sale to benefit a conservation group, or it might be posting photographs online to raise awareness of endangered species or threatened habitats. All of these partnerships are equally important! This year, the UN celebrates a special partnership: the 50th anniversary of the Convention on International Trade of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) too! This year's theme is all about sustaining existing partnerships and building new ones - this is critical for the future of life on earth. Changing our relationship with nature and working together is key!
How to Celebrate World Wildlife Day!
World Wildlife Day is all about learning about our natural world and all of the flora and fauna in it. It is also about creating an awareness of sustainability, developing the skills of informed and active citizens, building and promoting partnerships, and supporting conservation.
If you've had a look at the Australian Curriculum you'll note that the General Capabilities and Cross-Curriculum Priorities also highlight the importance of these topics through Ethical Understanding and Sustainability. These elements of the curriculum are dispersed through most subject areas - so by having a focus on developing these skillsets - you are hitting those high quality education benchmarks AND developing active and informed global citizens!
Like National Geographic Day, World Wildlife Day is a great way to 'tick curriculum boxes' in a fun way, and another excuse to get out and about in our world - becoming explorers, connecting with nature, and learning in hands-on, meaningful ways!
Using this special day as a springboard for new units, reasons to get out into nature and connect with others (how about developing a partnership with a conservation organisation), and steam through those, sometimes more challenging subjects, like geography, history and science - by letting your children lead the learning - is sure to instil a love of learning in your children (and possibly rekindle some passions of your own).
What Are We Doing?
READ
We're revisiting our bookshelves for books about wildlife and conservation - we didn't realise we had so many! Appreciation & conservation of the natural world is already built into our family culture (yay!). The kids lean more towards books with lots of engaging pictures with short bursts of texts.
Some books on our reading pile are:
Australia's Endangered Bush Creatures by Myke Mollard
Australia's Incredible Insects by Jessa Thurman
History of the World in 100 Animals by Simon Barnes
Lonely Planet Kids Animal & Bug Atlases
The Book of Australian Trees by Inga Simpson
The Big Book of Bugs, The Big Book of Birds & The Big Book of Blooms by Yuval Zommer
We're also planning on checking out the Wildlife Warriors website to read more about conservation, wildlife and get some fun activities too!
WATCH
We're checking out some live webcams around the world that give us a sneak peak into the lives of animals.
We love:
Zoos Victoria - Animals at Home
Africam
There are so many live streaming animal cams out there, it's hard to choose favourites (some are only active at certain times of the year, so mark those in your calendars). We are also going to set up a camera in our own backyard again and observe what happens at night on our block. Last time we explored our block at night we saw a variety of different frogs, owls and some giant snails...can't wait to discover what else is there!
PLAY
Oh my gosh, so many wildlife-inspired games to explore from our collection! Playing games has to be one of our all-time favourite things to do (which reminds me, I owe you guys a few more Game Reviews!). On our list to play are: Wingspan (of course!) This has to be one of our all-time favourite games to play (and with the expansions there are just so many options to explore). The great thing about Wingspan is that there are loads of cool facts on each of the bird cards that make for an interesting learning experience & are often a springboard for more explorations (or at the very least, initiate some interesting questions & conversations!). Wildcraft! This interesting game links our dependence on nature for medicine really clearly by identifying, harvesting & creating herbal remedies with different plants. Oceans The aim of this marine-themed game is to create & evolve marine species in an ever-changing ecosystem, & try to stop them from going extinct.
CREATE
For the littlest members of our tribe we're going to be doing... Jungle Playdough - this is a great way to get them familiar with all of the different animals in a particular habitat & we can also have conversations about what those animals need to survive & thrive! The bigger kids will be doing a STEM Challenge... Reverse-engineering a Bird's Nest - not only does this develop & refine a whole host of research, observation & design skills; it also gives the kids an appreciation of how much work goes into building a nest & in turn, how important it is to conserve habitats for animals. Together, we'll be looking at adding to our own little 'nature reserve' aka our house yard. Ideas in the mix (still to decide what we want most) are:
Possum Boxes
Bug Hotels
Frog Ponds
Pollinator Patches
EXPLORE
Heading out into nature again to participate in some Citizen Science Projects. This is a great way to learn about your local environment, the flora & fauna there, conservation issues or initiatives, and to connect with others while gathering important data for further research and conservation. We already do the Aussie Backyard Bird Count, FrogID Week and are looking for more citizen science projects to add to our calendar! There are loads to choose from, and if we can't find something we can do right now (or something we're really interested in) we'll check what's happening locally with Landcare or our local council - there are always loads of opportunities out there to volunteer and get involved, you just have to look for them! We can always nurture the ecology in our own backyard as well, something as simple as planting some more native trees creates food & shelter for countless local species of animals & insects...every little bit counts, and the nicer you make your place - the more critters you'll see out & about! Win-win!
REFLECT
Of course we always have photographs of our adventures and we add these to our journals, but this time I think we'll do something a bit special. We're going to create a video diary... First, a before we start entry...I'll ask the kids what they know about World Wildlife Day and conservation (we might use this as an opportunity to generate some questions to explore too!). Then, we'll get stuck into some activities... At the end of the day (or week...or month...however long this adventure takes!) we'll do another video diary entry about what they've learnt, what their favourite parts of the activities were, and where they want to go from here. Depending on their level of interest, our video diary might change format or go longer or shorter for some of the kids. We might even decide to record our thoughts along the way during our adventures...you never know what exciting things you might want to keep track of. Most importantly, we'll watch our video diary at the end to see just how much we've learned & experienced!❤️
Other Ways to Celebrate World Wildlife Day...
READ
Don't already have some books or inspiration to get started on this Friday Fun adventure? It's all good...we've got you covered. Here's a few comprehensive lists of top reads for all ages to explore: List 1 This list of 100 Conservation books from BookRoo has some of our favourite books and some really excellent ones we've added to our 'To Find & Read' List. List 2 This list from A Mighty Girl has top reads for all ages and some really interesting selections I'd not seen before. List 3 Looking for something a little more adult? Then this little list is a fabulous place to start (No. 1 is a David Attenborough tome...so it's off to a great start!) And, if you're really stuck or just want to connect with someone in the know...head on over to your local library and have a chat with a librarian (the children's librarian is the BEST!) - they'll be able to point you in the direction of all kinds of cool reference books, fiction stories, magazines, DVDS and might even have a few ideas on activities or people or places to connect with locally!
WATCH
You've probably already headed on over to our favourite webcams and even found some of your own...but if webcams aren't your thing, or you'd like to dive a little deeper then maybe some documentaries or kids' nature-inspired programs would be a good fit for you. Try...
Anything (and we mean, literally anything) David Attenborough - the filmography is incredible and the content is engaging - always a winner at our place!
Global Wildlife has some great recommendations on impactful documentaries - these are a great option for older kids in particular - it will get them thinking, questioning & innovating!
Some classics for the little kids are:
Octonauts
The Lorax
Ice Age
One Big Ocean
Dirt Girl World
Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth
Tiny World
And if you're still hungry for more, why not check out some of these YouTube channels:
SciShow Kids
Crash Course Kids
Nat Geo Kids
Minute Earth
PLAY
Find your favourite nature-inspired board or card games - if you're stuck for ideas then our Fabulous List of Nature-Inspired Games is a great place to start (check out the FREEBIES section to grab your copy)!
If you're up for a little more active fun why not try one of these ideas:
Wildlife Movement Dice or Cards (who doesn't love jumping around like a frog, running like a cheetah, or buzzing like a bee!)
Animal Yoga (what a great way to wind down after a busy day exploring, a great book to help guide you is Yoga Animals in the Forest - beautiful storyline and easy to follow instructions and images)
Wildlife Walking (head over to the FREEBIES section to find out how!)
FREEBIES!
Looking for some fabulous games to play at your house? Then download our Fabulous List of Nature-Inspired Games!
Heading out into nature to observe wildlife? Then get off to a great start by downloading our Wilderness Skills Mini Book: Wildlife Walking to help you get your stealth on!
We hope that this has given you lots of fun ways to celebrate World Wildlife Day and get you excited about animals, the environment, sustainability and conservation! Friday Fun at The Hub is all about connecting homeschoolers with fun learning experiences that enrich every homeschool; and providing families with fabulous freebies to support learning, playing and growing at home!
If you've got some suggestions for other great ideas or would like to share your adventures, please visit our private group on Facebook - Little Sprouts Homeschooling and join a community of homeschoolers just like you!
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