Nature staff!!!

[The_Lorax]

Hey guys! I am a nature specialist at an overnight camp (I do ecology, enviromental awareness, gardening, animal care and overnight trips)

I was wondering if anyone had any fun programs for getting the kids excited about the enviroment or the outdoors. I find that often nature is the dreaded program!

Any good ideas would be awsome~

[speedx5xracer]

Hey Lorax,
First of all I love your name. Im an environmental policy major. Even though im a life guard i have a few environmentalist ideas to teach the children on rainy days. With my internship I have slides of common aquatic life for my camps area (coincidance but it workes) with some facts about their adaptations. I also have lsessons about the water shed and water systems.
Send me an IM for any more questions.

[collissimon]

We did some fishing last year, and also made a simple curd cheese and butter, which some of the kids loved and some hated.

We also have animals: rabbits, sheep and goats. I don't know what's left though, because I know some of the sheep and goats got eaten by the local bear!!

[Dave]

We have a petting zoo and a cabin with caged animals (snakes, frogs, etc.). The kids like that. I remember one activity we did at nature last year was a camp clean-up "scavenger hunt." Basically, the bunk was divided up into groups, with a counselor per group. Then they were given a list of "items" to find around the camp. What the kids didn't realize was it was simply a way to clean up the camp! We go to walk all around camp looking for these items (such a candy wrappers, popsicle sticks, juice cartons, etc.). The team who brought back the most items (each item was worth a different amount of points, by the way) won a prize. That was fun and the kids really enjoyed it. Plus, it was a sneaky way to clean up the camp. :P

[runrachrunn]

We have a petting zoo and a cabin with caged animals (snakes, frogs, etc.).

We're getting a zebu this year.

[collissimon]

What's a Zebu?

[Sparkes]

some of our campers bring their animals to camp to care for them. We had rabbits, and snakes, and mice and rats. I tried to stay away from the science bunk.

[ArtisticEric]

When i was younger and went to boy scout camp we would go on hikes and learn about local plants, ect, the turtles they had were also pretty cool back then......last summer the science coulselors where i was did some neat expeirments and took them stargazing one evening... you should look at The Ultimate Book of Kids Concoctions maybe you do a few things from it and talk about the chemical or physical reactions that take place.

[camper]

sparkes they let your campers bring animals??? that would never fly at my camp haha.

[clarabelle1985]

we ahve three ravines at my camp and the youngsters loved goign for walks up them the older ones would go up the harder one invoved ropes and some rock climbing, the younger ones went up the easier one but had made bird feeders from pine cones and penut butter to hang up as they went along. This tied into a sensible hiker and how rocks are formed. Our younger kids also loved fosil hunting real easy at my camp seen as every rock u pick up has a fosil it would amuse them for hours on end but hey could only take one home and it had to be smaller than there palm. We also did a river walk which has a waterfall at the end wich was cool, it also had clay so would make masks etc. we also did flower pressing which tied in with arts whcih tehy used them for, tree rubbings, finding animal and taking impressions we had a whole nature week so i could go on here forever but i wont if u want to knwo more pm me.

[runrachrunn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebu

[KiwiCRB]

If you have many animals that leave tracks around it's always fun to do casts of them. We have a guy come out once a week or so and and give nature hikes. They are very cool and he tells the girls a lot about the plants and animals native to our area.

[Dave]

I forgot to mention that at the end of the camp year the nature center lets some kids adopt the small caged animals (frogs, gerbils, snakes, etc.) The kids always like that because you never know who's going to win. It's like a raffle. All the names who want a certain animal are put together and a name is randomly chosen and that kid wins the animal. And before any entries can be submitted the parents must sign their consent, so it's not like the kid's coming home with an animal and the parents didn't know about it. They're fully aware.

[collissimon]

Rach,

That is SOOO cool! It would be bad if it died though, apparently that happened when we got a calf one year. My friend had to help it limp along till the end of the summer, and it died the day the kids left :(

[Sparkes]

Camper, yeah our campers can bring their animals, but only if they sign up for science, which part of that program has to do with taking care of the animals. All the campers know that their pet is their own responsibility, and all the animals stay in the science bunk.

We also have puppies at camp that we adpot every summer. The kids take care of them (walks around camp, feed/wash, etc) and then at the end of the summer they are adopted by campers/staff.

[runrachrunn]

Rach,

That is SOOO cool! It would be bad if it died though, apparently that happened when we got a calf one year. My friend had to help it limp along till the end of the summer, and it died the day the kids left :(

Si,
I know!!! I had never heard of one before until the PD told me about it.

I'm not a big 'animal person', so I don't think I'll be spending a lot of time in the barn.