Birmingham Zoo, American Alligator
Birmingham Zoo
Birmingham Museum of Art
FOUR FABULOUS DAY TRIPS THAT CAN TURN INTO SUMMER FUN By Denise Morrison Yearian
Local day trips are a great way to spend time with your family that creates lasting memories and saves on travel expenses. With a little planning and creativity, you can turn simple day trips into at-home activities that will ignite kids’ interest in learning for days to come! Here are four fabulous day trips with themerelated activities to get you started:
ZIP DOWN TO THE ZOO
Take a trip to your nearest zoo (www. birminghamzoo.com). Before going, ex www. exploreamag.org plore the website to explore kid-friendly web pages and become familiar with exhibits, demonstrations and programs. Afterwards, try these activities: 1. Create a personalized adventure book by having your child write about and illustrate her trip to the zoo. 2. Make animal masks from paper plates, paint and yarn. 3. Make origami birds. 4. Draw an animal shape and use different materials such as fur, fabric, yarn or beads to create a textured animal.
DIG DEEP INTO NATURAL HISTORY
Visit a natural history museum to explore fossil exhibits (The Anniston Museum of Natural History is just an hour away, www. 30 | birminghamparent | march / april 2021
exploreamag.org.) To make the most of your trip, find books and videos on the subject. Or search out kid-friendly websites such as www. fossilsforkids.com or www.amnh.org/ology. Then try these ideas: 1. Create fossil impressions with plaster and nature items. 2. Collect clean chicken or beef bones. Cover bones with petroleum jelly and bury them in a pan of plaster. When it hardens, have your child dig through the plaster with a spoon to “unearth” the bones. 3. Bury miscellaneous items in a sand-filled kiddie pool and dig in. 4. Write and illustrate an adventure on what you might find if you were a paleontologist.
ADVENTURES AT THE ART MUSEUM
Visit your local art museum (www.artsbma. org). Before going, check out special exhibits and family programs. Keep the creative juices flowing with these fun activities: 1. At home, create abstract art by taping paper to the bottom of a flat pan. Squirt paint randomly around the paper then roll a marble through it. 2. Carve a soap sculpture by whittling a bar of white soap with a plastic butter knife. Or mold a sculpture with homemade baker’s clay.
3. Create three-dimensional art using cereal boxes, straws, wires and other recyclables. 4. Draw a portrait of yourself using a mirror. Sit across from a sibling and draw one another.
EYE ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Visit a local park for a nature hike. At home, try these activities: 1. Make leaf, flower and bark rubbings with paper and crayons. 2. Pour plaster into animal track indentations, let it harden, then carefully remove the surrounding dirt. Turn tracks into paperweights or refrigerator magnets. 3. Find a caterpillar in its natural environment, then recreate its habitat in a glass jar. Observe it at various stages of its lifespan and record observations. When the insect emerges from its cocoon, release it and write a creative story. 4. Cook dinner and roast marshmallows over an open fire. Look at stars and identify constellations. Listen for insect and animal sounds. Denise Morrison Yearian is a former educator and editor of two parenting magazines, as well as the mother of three children and four grandchildren.
