Here is a collection of various nature-based activities, online and offline resources, and learning tools we are excited about lately!
Fun Videos:
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: pile of purple wild violets and yellow forsythia blossoms]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/violets-and-forsythia-150x150.jpg)
Make delicious and brilliant pink lemonade using wildflowers and then learn how to turn purple water GREEN! using amazing colour-changing violet syrup with this quick video from @blackforager.
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: screenshot of a YouTube video showing a hand holding and pointing to a green leaf with a lighter coloured squiggly line crossing the surface of the leaf. The Hidden Villa logo is on the bottom right corner.]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/leaf-story-150x150.png)
Read the life story of some funky little insects by investigating a leaf, with this video from Hidden Villa’s Science and Nature Series!
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a screenshot of a video showing a row of 6 identical cartoon people looking perplexed and chewing on a blade of grass, holding pitchforks, with light skin, overalls, and headscarves]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/6-farmers-300x124.png)
Learn what the Torah has to say about sustainable farming practices with this engaging and informative clip from bimbam.
Websites and Activities:
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Square with different coloured graphics depicting Jewish holiday symbols including a pomegranate, a Torah scroll, a crown, a drop of water, and a wine glass. In the Centre is a large green triangle with text that reads “Holiday Bundles 5781: Shavuot Chag Hashavuot (written in Hebrew) begins sundown of May 16 Ends sundown of May 18”. The top left corner of the image has the MNJCC logo.]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/holiday-bundle-300x285.jpg)
Families at the J puts together holiday bundles full of activities, songs, stories, recipes, and more from the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre and community partners (including Shoresh!), and they’ve just shared the Shavuot 5781 bundle – download it for free here!
National![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: screenshot of a video with a play button in the centre. The left side of the screen has text that reads “Taste Test NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS Weird but True! Shorts”. The left side shows a cartoon of an anthropomorphized purple butterfly with facial hear and glasses and looking at a large rotting fruit which is oozing sticky goo]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/taste-test-300x169.jpg)
Geographic Kids has hours of fun and educational videos, games, science experiments, and of course, tons of awe-inspiring nature pictures of all sorts to explore.
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: screenshot of the Bird Song Hero game. On the right is a lifelike drawing of a black and white bird sitting on a thin tree branch; underneath it reads “Black-capped Chickadee”. On the left is a black rectangle depicting a sound wave of the Chickadee’s song (3 detached squiggly pink lines of different lengths).]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/chickadee-sound-wave-300x85.jpg)
Have you always wanted to be a Bird Song Hero? Here’s an interactive game from The Cornell Lab to help you learn to identify some common and uncommon bird songs using visual and auditory cues.
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a small parasol-shaped mushroom growing in a wet grassy area.]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/pleated-150x150-1.jpg)
For those folks with devices who love taking photos of amazing and interesting things in nature, we are loving some sweet plant (and fungus and creature) identification apps — check out Seek by iNaturalist, PictureThis, and my personal fave, Shroomify for identifying fungi (this one works offline!).
Books:
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a page from the book Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt. The text reads “Up in the garden, carrot plants sprout. Pea blossoms bloom. Wasps are on the prowl, and honeybees visit, legs loaded with pollen.” The whole page has an illustration of a garden showing carrots sprouting, bees and wasps flying, and other plants above the soil. A cross-section on the lower half of the page shows the carrot roots, soil particles, and earthworms.]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/up-in-garden-300x224.jpg)
Here is a blog post with some current and exciting books for children who love the natural world from Read with River (of Picture Bookstagang podcast and Instagram).
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a book cover. The book is called Pearl Moscowitz’s Last Stand by Arthur A. Levine wth pictures by Robert Roth. The cover illustration is of a woman with curly hair, wearing glasses and a polka dot blouse, standing in front of a tall tree, with her arms crossed and looking angrily at a man wearing a hard hat and a dress shirt and tie. In the background is construction machinery.]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/pearl-moscowitz.png)
And our friends at PJ Library have a section about recycling as a Jewish value on their website, with books as well as action ideas!
Get outside with Shoresh:
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Several small photos framing a green rectangle with text that reads “PRAYER FOR ABUNDANCE”. The photos show garden produce, honeybees, honey, and smiling humans of various ages holding vegetables and greens.]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Prayer-for-Abundance-2-300x210.jpg)
And, we wanted to bump up some resources we shared on this blog last Spring, including this list of outdoor (and some indoor) activities that can be done safely in and around your home, as well as our blog post on The Beet about starting (or building on) your own Dayenu Garden this season!
![[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Photograph of the bottom half of someone wearing boots, digging into the ground. There are some small green seedlings already planted into the ground, and others on trays on the ground near where the person is digging. The top left section of the photo has text that reads “Dig in at Bela Farm!”]](https://shoresh.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Bela-Stewardship-Days-Graphics-Spring-1-768x768-2-300x118.jpg)
Are you eager to get out of the city and get your hands dirty with your family and friends this summer? We are too! We will be having many family-friendly Stewardship Days at Bela Farm this Spring and Summer, as soon as we are able to have these small outdoor gatherings safely. Please note that while children of all ages are welcome to join in, these are not children’s programs, and parents or guardians will be fully responsible for supervising their children on Stewardship Days. Stay posted about what’s happening at Shoresh here.
What are your favourite online nature resources??
Happy Spring adventuring!