Summer is a great time to study nature with your kids and this site offers lessons for preschool through high school.
http://www.naturely.com/archives.htm

Here's some great nature activities that kids can do in groups or activities for one.
http://www.outdoor-nature-child.com/nature-activities.html

So go explore the great outdoors!  Join Valerie   for more great links.

Have you ever wanted your kids to create a nature journal? It's time to head for the great outdoors and see how much you can identify!
All you need for outdoor use is
*a sketch pad
*a set of colored pencils
*a pencil
*a field guide (I prefer to keep several--one on trees, one on flowers, one on wildflowers, and one on birds. I also have an insect field guide)

Simply find a quiet, comfortable outdoor location and observe things around you for 10 to 15 minutes and then draw what you find. I love that this activity gets my kids outdoors and helps them feel calm and peaceful. Plus they have a chance to practice their drawing and study skills at the same time. What's not to like about that?

Find forms to create a nature journal here: http://donnayoung.org/science/  ( look under "nature journal")

Here is another nature journal form: http://www.symbols.gov/jrsnowranger/NotebookPage.pdf

Here's a form to help with nature that you have read about:  http://www.noeoscience.com/BiologyI_homeschool_sample_pages.pdf

Birds:

Here's a link to notebooking pages on birds: http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/ZOOoneNOTEBOOK.pdf

Pants/ Trees

This site has three hundred flower coloring sheets and a coloring guide to each one: www.nps.gov/plants/color/northwest

Here is a website where you can print off a lesson on drawing trees for nature journals by Clare Walker Leslie.
http://www.lessonsforhope.org/pdf/GuideToTreeSketchingPDF.pdf

Here's a site to help you identify the plants that you find on your nature walks: www.botany.com

Bugs:

Links to help you identify those bugs you find on your nature walks:

What's That Bug?  http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

The Iowa State entomology insect gallery:  http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegallery/

Activities to try:
identify and take pictures,do bark rubbings, collect leaf samples,measure the diameter etc.. of the trees in your yard or at your favorite park etc..
*look up what your State tree is and find out why
*Difference between deciduous, coniferous trees etc...
*Food products we get from trees
* eat some apple smoked bacon or other meat and talk about the processof using wood for smoking meats
*Ways to identify what kind of tree your looking at i.e. leafshape/size, overall tree shape, bark characteristics, seed type
*make pancakes and eat with maple syrup and learn about the harvesting and making of maple syrup
* learn how charcoal is related to trees ( since it is summer bbq time)
*learn why trees are essential to our ecosystems
*learn about how paper is made and make some paper
* learn about photosynthesis
* diagram and label the parts of a tree ie roots, branch, bark
* study deforestation and how it is effecting parts of the world
*learn how to climb a tree safely
* learn about growth rings on trees
*learn where there are old growth forests left in the US
* learn about all the uses for trees especially hidden uses like rubber trees, medicinal uses, amber for jewelry,cinnamon bark, cork,pitch etc..
* what are the tallest trees in the world, fastest growing, which havethe biggest seeds, desert trees, hardest wood in the world
* learn about petrified forests
* learn about the scale of rating wood for it's hardness and the scale used to rate wood for it's burning potential

This website by the National Arbor Day Foundation has a wealth of teaching materials. www.arborday.org