We began the morning with Sneaky Animals and a hike to the schoolhouse. Then we did gratitude circle and recorded our air pollution results. We drew our observations and made a bar graph to illustrate our data. We concluded that the parking lot had the most particulate matter. We even saw some soot! Then we played "Keeping our Air Clean" (a capture the flag style game). Once divided into two teams, they tried to get a Problem card (with a common way air is polluted) into the other team's Air bucket while also getting the correct Solution card to keep their own team's Air as clean as possible. After playing a few rounds, we went inside to learn our last three native birds: the House Finch, Ru

This morning it started raining and we had severe thunderstorm warnings for all of camp! So we didn't get to go to the creek :( or hiking. However, we made sundials (to test out tomorrow when the sun returns!). We also did some more Bird Study. We learned about the Pine Warbler, Carolina Wren and Mockingbird. We also learned about NASA's LCROSS mission (NASA launched a robotic spacecraft at the moon to send up a cloud of dust which they could study for ice crystals and find evidence of water having existed on the moon). They had to hit an exact target with the spacecraft. So we had our own engineering challenge to build a "spacecraft" that could release a marble onto a target within the leas

We began with some more archery and a game of "Sneaky Animals". After hiking to the schoolhouse, we did a gratitude circle and continued our Bird Study. Today we learned about Robins, Red-winged Blackbirds and Blue jays. Then we decorated our bird feeders, put bird seed in them and hung them up. Next we performed the play "The First Bats". Then we went to the creek early in case rain came after noon. We found a vine to swing on. I tested it with my weight first and then let the kids that wanted to swing on it. We found some dragonfly nymphs and caught them to look at and then released them. Some kids made natural clay creations while others searched for more dragonfly nymphs. Once back to

We did some archery first thing this morning. Then we played a version of the Indian game "7 stones". After our hike to the schoolhouse, we started our Bird Study/Identification with the American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, Eastern Bulebird and Brown Thrasher. We also made our own bird feeders from recycled materials. They were painted white and we will decorate them, add bird seeds and hang them tomorrow. We also talked about the Earth's rotation on it's axis and around the sun and made shadow drawings to record the Earth's spin. We also discussed how solar panels work (simply: photons knock an electron off a molecule and the electron travels through a conductive layer, through a wire cr

We started off the morning with the games Eagle Eye and the Name Game. Then we hiked to the schoolhouse. Today we learned about how/why clouds form. We made a cloud in a jar and learned the prefixes and suffixes for the types of clouds (cirrus- high and wispy, strato- layer, cumulo- pile, nimbus- rain, alto- middle). So a cumulonimbus cloud is one that looks like a pile and is raining. We also made a nephoscope (reflective surface with the cardinal directions for cloud observing). However, when it was time to observe and draw clouds there weren't any in the sky! So we will do that part at another time. Then we discussed what causes wind and made some wind paintings. After snack, we played "H

We began the morning with a game called "Sneaky Animals" where one kid has a nest of "eggs" and the others try to sneak up and get an egg back across the start line without getting caught. After hiking to the schoolhouse, we checked our Solar Still (a hole in ground with moss around a cup, covered with plastic wrap so the water from the moss evaporates, collects on the plastic and falls down into the cup).It had enough fresh water for a few of us to try. Then we talked about why oceans are saltier than rivers or lakes and whether a freshwater fish could live in the ocean. Then we finished our Suminagashi (floating ink) art project. We also talked about oil spills and how devastating they can

First, we took turns with Archery and then we played a team building game called "Crossing the River". After our first hike, we recorded the results from our water pollution experiment. We concluded that polluted water decreases the capillary uptake of plants. Then we performed "Hummingbirds and the Selfish Fox". Then we discussed colored lakes. We talked about why Lake Natron and others have strange colors (mostly due to minerals and bacteria). After that, we made a Solar Still in the ground to collect fresh water to drink. There won't be any water until tomorrow. After snack, we did Suminagashi painting (floating ink painting). Then we went to visit the new guinea hen chicks on our way

This morning we did more Archery, Laser Maze and played a game called "Sound Partners" (the kids partner up and choose an animal call to communicate with, then they close their eyes and have to find their partner just by listening for their call). Then we talked about water pollution and what causes it. We discussed point source and non-point source pollution as well as ways to prevent water pollution. I set up the water pollution model to first show examples of how water pollution occurs and then the kids told me what I should change and do to stop the pollution. Solutions included: fixing a leaking sewage pipe, washing the car with eco-friendly soap, farming without pesticides, sending th

We had an exciting start to the day as we took turns aiming bows and arrows at balloons. For several kids, it was their first time learning how to hold and shoot a bow and arrow. They wanted to keep practicing so I told them we will do it again tomorrow morning. We played another round of Eagle Eye and tried a new game called "Give and Take" (practicing focus and awareness). After gratitude circle, we discussed the Water Cycle and made mini water cycle models which they will take home (see pics below). Once home, they will need to add a little water to the ziploc bag and hang in a sunny window . Then we played a game of Water Cycle with team Swiffles vs. team Water Cycle. One team tries to p

We started the week off with a game of Eagle Eye, Group Shapes and The Name Game. We had a gratitude circle that included wonderful answers like "family", "trees" and "being together at camp". We discussed how much of the Earth is water vs land, drinkable vs salt water and how our bodies like the Earth are made of mostly water (60-65%). Our eyes are 95% water! We looked at the different Ocean Zones (Sunlight, Twilight, Midnight, Abyssal and Hadal Zones). We also learned about some of the sea creatures that live in each zone and made a flip book to record the zones and each creature we talked about. I think they turned out really great (see pics below)! After snack, we went to the woods to

Day 4: We began the morning with a game of "Fire Protector" (one kid is protecting his pile of sticks for a fire through the winter and is sitting by his "fire" blindfolded while all other kids try to sneak up and take a stick without being heard). Then on the hike to the Art Studio/Science room we made a sensory map. A sensory map records not only what you see but also hear, smell and feel. Next we had a lesson on how and why earthquakes occur and what scientists use to measure the strength of them. In teams of 3, we built seismometers, a village out of our mud bricks from yesterday and then created an earthquake (shaking the table) to record on our seismometers. After snack, we did a Nativ

We started off the morning playing Flower and Bees. Then we checked our Biodegradable experiment. So far only the lettuce and paper has decomposed some. We were surprised the apple wasn't very different yet. We will check it one more time Friday. We water colored our sketches from the first day and went on a hike to collect natural elements to add to the paintings. We performed the Brazilian folktale "The Dreaming Tree". We did our bug study and learned about insects we might see around Little Rose. We colored our Nature Journal pages that had information about Pill bugs, Crickets, Fireflies, Box Elders, Katydids, and Water Striders. Then we made bug traps and baited them with banana peel a

We started today with secret agent forest training! Hah! There was a "laser maze" made of string with bells tied to it and we set a goal of no more than 3 bell rings. Most made it through with only 1 or 2 bells jingling! We had our gratitude circle and played a name game icebreaker with funny motions. Then we talked about caves, stalactites, stalagmites and columns and started growing our own stalactite. Then we looked at different animals we may encounter at Little Rose and their tracks. In two teams we made tracks that the other team had to guess the animal for. Then we played Guardians of the Path (where two kids leave a trail of cut fabric and two other kids are trackers who find and fol

We started the day with a gratitude circle (introducing ourselves and saying something we are thankful for) and playing a round of Meet My Friend. Then we did a sketch in pencil that will be water colored and filled in with nature findings from our hikes tomorrow. We made nature brushes (paint brushes made from nature). Some brush tips included flowers, grass, moss and pine needles. We will experiment painting with them tomorrow. We also talked about decomposers (fungi, bacteria, insects, worms) and how long it takes for certain materials to decompose (a glass bottle takes about 1 million years!!!). Then based on this information we stared an experiment to answer "which materials decompose f