Nature Hike in your socks

Here's a fun activity that will certainly show up in the Animal Kingdom book.
You will need:
A nice day for taking a walk outdoors (I know, I know, it's January and many of you are buried in snow, so you'll have to save this activity for the spring).
A pair of old mismatched socks, preferably dads since they need to be big (and cotton seems to work best)
A paper bag
A book for looking up plants and seeds
A large white piece of paper or poster board to display your finds

You may also want to have:
A large planting pot
Some potting soil

Here is the first part of the activity:
You pull the socks on over your shoes and go for a nature walk
when you are done, pull off the socks and put them into the paper bag (this way all of the items that stuck to your socks while you were walking won't end up stuck to the inside of your car's upholstery)
Next, take your items home and spread them out on your white display paper.
Use your nature book to identify the plants and seeds that came home with you.

You can either spread them out on your display and label them as a science project or you can Plant Your Sock! (This part of the activity is usually most successful if done during the fall after many trees and plants have lost their leaves or in the spring when plants are letting go of their seeds into the wind).

Put some potting soil into a pot and bury the sock in the soil, keep the soil moist with water and wait to see what happens.

Corinne Johnson is a Christian homeschooling mom of five (almost six), a help meet to her husband Don, and the author of Vacation Education Books; Travel Guides for Families Who Love to Learn & Unit Studies For Families Who Love to Travel!
Learn more at www.vacationeducationbooks.net