This week, we had a great time exploring nature!
On Monday, we focused on animals in our backyards and the different kinds you could possibly see. We accomplished this through a cutting activity where the children had to cut or “mow” the grass to reveal the animals that they then colored. Next, they went on a scavenger hunt for backyard animals around the Museum! After that, they looked at insect specimens using magnifying glasses. They then created a mural using animal tracks and drew the animals that made the tracks! The Little Explorers even went home with an animal track book for future references if they see animal tracks.
Tuesday was Tree day! We focused on trees and learned the life cycle of a tree. We made tree costumes with roots and held leaves in their hand in order to act like a tree! We finished the day with another mural where we painted trees and the animals commonly found in trees.
We focused on the different shapes in nature on Wednesday. The Little Explorers decorated binoculars and created a bracelet with the different shapes. We used these when we went for a long walk looking for shapes in animals, trees, flowers, etc. They loved it! After this, they made sun prints using leaves, sticks, and wood chips they found. Finally, we made plants and animals out of tangrams to complete our day of shapes in nature!
Thursday was rock day. We went on a scavenger hunt around the museum where we asked them to look for certain things to highlight the fact that rocks come in all colors, shapes, and sizes; even dinosaur fossils are rocks! After that, we looked at mineral specimens with our magnifying glasses. We ended the day with painting our pet rocks!
On our final day of camp, we focused on sounds in nature. The Little Explorers started their day with making rain sticks with paper towel tubes, rocks, and beads. We then used them in our Forest Concert where we replicated the sounds of animals and plants in nature using only ourselves! After the concert, we went for a walk where we listened to our surroundings. To keep track of the different sounds they heard, they folded over the different triangles on their plate. We ended the day with weather yoga to act out the different kinds of weather.
