Creating Nature Boxes

I have been putting most of my free time effort lately into the creation of nature discovery boxes.

I am housing my nature boxes in photoboxes from Michael's craft store as they went on sale for 1.66 and well I filled 3 shopping carts full, you know in case I needed them LOL I use these same boxes for my continent box and they are awesome in general for many school uses! So far I made a list of the boxes I would like to make first, then went through and made a list for each box's contents. Some of the more obscure items I found on ebay or through general internet searches. If you are persistent enough you can find a lot of awesome things to put into your boxes for very cheap! The idea behind making these boxes is we have discovery units ready to go that can be pulled out at any time and put on a wooden tray on our science shelf for exploration. I plan on coordinating the boxes with what we are currently studying in science as well as every box that corresponds with a creature we can raise we plan on doing that! We already have an egg incubator, frog kit, butterfly kit, ladybug kit, praying mantis kit and we can get a new fish at any time LOL Best thing about the kits is you can buy them in advance and just wait till you are ready to send in the coupon to get your larvae/eggs! Most of my boxes have little books inside them on the subject matter within. They also have corresponding nomenclature I store in my nomenclature drawers. The boxes I have made first are: Bat - Even has a freeze dried bat in the box (creepy I know) Sea life- different types of shells and preserved sea life trees - different leaves, branches, pine cones and bark Bones - contains a real skull, real jaw bones from a variety of mammals, animal xrays, human xrays and a baby tooth Skin, scales, fur and feathers - contains exactly what it says Birds - feathers, fake nest, bird skull, hoping to add a emptied preserved egg. Insects - a bunch of dead bugs preserved in clear acrylic blocks, a book on insects, some specimens we collected and I have placed into little acrylic boxes with magnifying lids. - We also have a hornet nest that the hubby removed from the side of our house in a separate plastic shoebox with plastic wrap over it so the kids cannot touch since it was sprayed with raid. The coolest thing about our nest is there was a new hornet emerging from a cell when it was sprayed so it is preserved mid hatching! Bees- bee life cycle models, beeswax candle making sheets, honey, a dead bee in an acrylic block Animal tracks - animal tracks rubbing plates, animal tracks matching cards, Rubber molds of real animal tracks. We also will be going out with the boys for nature walks w/ plaster so when we see some tracks we will cast them and add them to our box! Butterfly - Butterfly wing in a magnification box, butterfly life cycle model, a collection of many different butterfly wings. My bones box as an example of contents

Some resources for making your own (will come back and add more over time too)

 bat activity sheets free!
http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/bats/activities.htm
http://www.theteachersguide.com/batslessonplans.htm


Wildlife coloring pages and activity pages
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=613673&mode=2 http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/education/9110 Articles http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1054377&mode=2 http://www.conserveturtles.org/seaturtleinformation.php?page=flatback