Try it!

No paint? Make your own with dirt and water. Mix until it’s the right texture, then use paper, rocks, or sidewalks as your canvas. Try painting with your hands, sticks, or other objects. Compare mud from different places and see how it changes when it dries. When you’re done, just rinse it away and start again. Let nature be your art supply this spring.

Watch pinecones open and close with this simple experiment. Soak a pinecone in water and see its scales slowly close to protect seeds. In dry weather they open to release seeds. Try warm water or use an oven to test how heat affects the process. Female cones grow at the top and hold seeds while soft male cones grow lower and produce pollen. All conifers including spruce fir and hemlock grow cones not just pines.

Animals use camouflage to blend into their surroundings and avoid predators. In this activity, you play a bird hunting insects made from colored paper dots on a paper leaf. After picking 10 bugs, you observe which colors were easier to spot. Changing the color of the leaf shows how camouflage helps some bugs stay hidden. This demonstrates how camouflage helps animals survive by making them harder to see.

In the 1890s, the Clow family made lots of butter—over 2,000 pounds by 1880. Want to try it yourself? Shake heavy whipping cream in a sealed jar until it thickens and forms butter, leaving buttermilk behind. Cream has fat molecules suspended in liquid. Shaking smashes them together to form solid butter. Add seasonings and enjoy your homemade treat.

Create a leaf skeleton to explore the hidden “skeleton” inside plants! Simmer sturdy leaves in water with Super Washing Soda, then gently brush away the soft parts to reveal the veins. This mimics how decomposers break down leaves in nature, leaving behind lacy structures. Let it dry flat, then use your leaf as a bookmark, suncatcher, or gift. It’s a fun way to learn how nature recycles and reveals its hidden beauty!

The Clow kids may have played with thaumatropes, 19th-century spinning toys that create optical illusions. You can make one with two drawings on circles of card stock, a straw or string, and some tape. When spun, the images appear to merge due to how our eyes retain images briefly. It’s a fun mix of art and science.

Red wiggler worms are quiet, low-maintenance pets that help turn food scraps into nutrient-rich compost. Make a vermicompost bin using two plastic totes, bedding like shredded paper, food scraps, and worms. Keep the bin moist like a wrung-out sponge, feed small amounts at a time, and cover the food with bedding. Once established, share worms and castings with others to help reduce waste and improve soil.

Rainbows form when sunlight hits water and bends, splitting into colors. You can make your own rainbow with a bowl of water, a mirror, and sunlight. Place the mirror in the water at an angle, face it toward the sun, and catch the rainbow on white paper. Sunlight must shine through the water for it to work. Rainbows don’t appear if the sun is blocked. Try changing the water level or mirror to see what happens.