Be sure to visit The Best Part of Us webpage for ideas related to our 2024/25 choice for adult readers.

GO BOATING

• Build a cardboard boat
  And float it! While you’re sailing, think about what paper pollution does to water, and be sure to recycle it after.

HOLD AN EVENT

• Create a StoryWalk
  Did you enjoy the Great Lakes, Great Read books? Turn them into a StoryWalk, but be sure to follow the guidelines.
• Create a community of Water Walkers
  Connect with water and kids all over the country, and even get your own water box.
• Do a bioblitz
  Host a bioblitz during the fall Wisconsin Science festival – it’s a great opportunity to get outside and get to know the wild things around you! In the spring, join the Great Lakes Bioblitz on iNaturalist.

LEARN ABOUT FISH

• Explore the story of Spearfishing from The Ways
  Jason Bisonette, an Ojibwe of Odaawaazaga’igan and Marine Corps veteran is a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. Learn how he takes part in safe spearfishing harvest limits through Ojibwe sovereign nation rights in order to preserve Ojibwe education and tradition and to protect the practice for future generations.
  
• Learn about the importance of Treaty Rights from The Ways
  Learn how the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa are carrying on family traditions related to the Lake Superior Whitefish
• Learn to identify fish
  Use this dichotomous key to learn key species traits.
• Watch a sturgeon dissection
  Join Wisconsin Sea Grant staff in discovering what’s inside a sturgeon.
• Wisconsin Fish ID app
  Going fishing? Be sure to download the Wisconsin Fish ID app, grab a net, head to your favorite body of water and search for species to identify. (Be sure to get your fishing license first!)
• Sounds of the lake sturgeon
  Listen to the sounds of a lake sturgeon, a key species in Wisconsin. Then write about your experience. How did the audio make you feel? What do you wonder about?

LEARN HISTORY

• Learn about the Freedom Seekers and Underground Railroad on the Great Lakes.
  Then, select some activities from this drive to deepen your knowledge!
• Shipwrecks of Wisconsin
  History floats your boat? Watch this video about the over 700 ships lying underneath Wisconsin’s Great Lakes.

LEARN THE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING OF THE GREAT LAKES

• Learn about water level changes
  Once you’ve viewed the data, imagine what these bodies of water will look like in the next year. Can you draw, sculpt, collage, or create other art about this?
• Learn how water shapes Wisconsin
  Are you an educator? Teach your students about how water shapes Wisconsin, and join the flow with these Great Lakes Small Streams activities.
• Borrow an education kit
  Borrow one of our Great Lakes education kits and have fun exploring topics like invasive species, plastic pollution and Great Lakes fish.
• Food webs for Lakes Superior and Michigan
  Get to know the food webs that make up our state’s Great Lakes, Superior and Michigan. Once you’ve explored, try drawing your own.

MAKE OR DO ART

• Color the Great Lakes
  Enjoy these printable coloring sheets, created by Wisconsin Sea Grant for all Great Lakes lovers!
• Draw an invasive species
  View profiles of common aquatic invasive species and create a sketch to help educate yourself and stop the spread.
• Put on a play about plastic pollution
  This script for “Me and Debry” make plastic education fun! Scripts are downloadable and free to use. Just a few props is all you need.

PLAY GAMES

• Play some shipwreck games
  From dressing a diver to studying artifacts, these games are sure to rock your boat.
• Solve the Mystery of the Legend of the Lost Emerald
  Step into the shoes of maritime archaeologist Jules to recover the stories behind shipwrecks inspired by real Great Lakes history!
• Meet me at a Great Lake
  Break the ice to make new friends by playing this get-to-know-you game.

TAKE ACTION

• Join trash tracking efforts
  This community science effort provides open data on plastic pollution.
• Clean up a local beach
  Roll up your sleeves and protect our water!
• Become a Wisconsin Water volunteer
  consider getting your hands wet and becoming a Wisconsin volunteer water quality monitor.

VIRTUAL VISIT

• Great Lakes Quest
  Embark on a quest to explore coastal topics in Wisconsin.
• Play the Waterscape game
  And choose the future of Milwaukee, a city built on water.
• Learn Ojibwe place names
  Use this map to learn Ojibwe place names and perspectives on Wisconsin’s waters.
• Surgeon Bay Pierhead Light
  Virtually visit the Sturgeon Bay Pierhead Light on Lake Michigan, an important piece of Great Lakes culture and history.
• Stories and Science of the St. Louis Estuary
  Dive into the stories and science of the St. Louis River Estuary, the largest coastal freshwater wetland ecosystem on Lake Superior.

WRITE OR SING

• Write about your water experiences.
  Nature journaling is a wonderful way to sit and enjoy the Great Lakes and to take time to reflect. Bring along a small notebook when you visit your local water body. Take a look around you and observe what you see. These are observations can be captured in your notebook with narrative writing, poetry or sketches. Be sure to note the date, time, temperature, weather of your reflection. Not sure how to start? Begin with these: “I notice… I wonder… This reminds me of…” And add a drawing, a sketch, a doodle. It’s your nature journal.
• Learn about Great Lakes sea shanties
  Sea shanties are traditional folk songs, commonly sung while working aboard the schooners that explored the Great Lakes. Or better yet, write a shanty of your own! And be sure to learn all about the sea shanties of Black sailors on the Great Lakes.
• Words and Water for the young and the young of heart. Coming soon!