Growing Up Wild

I'd been looking forward to this Growing Up Wild training for several months. I know the book is highly sought after and is included in the $20 fee. If you can find it, it usually costs more outside of the workshop. In addition to the curriculum guide, it also was good to swap ideas and experience some of the activities in the guide.

I am excited to have this resource. It is centered on 27 nature based lessons for children ages 3-7. It includes the rationale of connecting to nature, developmentally appropriate practices, nature play, nature in the classroom, math connections, language and literacy connections, and healthy kids sections to approach these activities with a comprehensive mindset. It talks of sparking creativity, scientific inquiry, assessing children's learning, respect for living things, responsible collecting, and safety. 

Each activity shares standards and correlations, resources, quick facts, vocabulary building, materials and prep, warm up activities, tips for excellence in early childhood education, activities to take outside, health activities, helping hands to help build on appropriate respect for living things, math connections, take home activities, art projects, music and movement, extension activities, and an snack idea. It's nice to have this all in one place! While the book is oversized and rather large, the suggestion to put it on top of the books on the bookshelf was helpful. It includes many additional resources, such as an index, children's book list, educator resources, federal agencies, organizations and programs, and a list of where to purchase materials. Here is a sample activity on fishing fun. Many of the copy pages are available here, which makes it much easier to print as the books is rather bulky. I also had found this wildlife correlation to holidays previously on the Internet, yet didn't realize it was part of Growing Up Wild. The website for Growing Up Wild has a wealth of other resources if you keep poking around. It is part of Project Wild. 

Project Learning Tree

Saturday, I went to a Project Learning Tree workshop at Rieth Interpretive Center in Goshen. It was a busy day, but I would have loved to spend more time on the topic and with the people attending. Thankfully, I do have the curriculum after attending and know how to find many of the people there. One lady who attended is an artist--I loved hearing her thoughts and applications on how to use different art applications to tie into nature.

Project Learning Tree is a multidiscipline curriculum that uses the forest as a springboard to help students understand environment, increase critical thinking and ability to make decisions, and to empower taking action in communities. I actually took this training about 13 years ago while living in Japan, but knew a refresher course, updated curriculum, and connecting with others in the area about local knowledge of trees would be beneficial. Plus, it was FREE! Elkhart County Soil and Water District Conservation underwrote the training for those living or working in Elkhart County. Still, it's only $20, so is an inexpensive way to learn about trees and get professional development credits. The instructors were Nancy Brown and Eric Kurtz from SWCD, as well as Aaron Kingsley, the Goshen city forester who works out of Rieth Interpretive Center.

We started by decorating tree cookies for name tags.

Watershed Treasure Hunt! #1

I'm so excited about this Treasure Hunt, sponsored by Greater Elkhart County Stormwater Partnership. There are 50 signs placed in various places along the watershed in Elkhart County. To be eligible for the prizes, we have to collect the letters and fill in the puzzle. My 4-year-old understood the letter concept, but not what kind of sign. As we started looking for the signs, he found a sign and said, "Look, LETTERS!" He did this for many signs until he started getting used to the type of sign we were trying to find. He is reading very short Bob Books as he is learning to read and doing lots of "letter play", so letters are on his mind! We've used these to start reading with the other boys, too, and had great success as we helped them form the words without reading the books to them. We provide support, but allow them to read the simple books to us. They've all been early readers with them. I found some of our sets at garage sales, too, which is a bonus!

We started with number one with is in the southern part of the county in River Preserve County Park. We're not as familiar with this park (which is HUGE), so weren't quite sure where to start. We'd love more time to explore, but were on a mission, so did a quick walk looking to see what we could find. If you haven't been here before, I suggest finding a map as there are various places to visit along the river. We found one at a kiosk in the park.

Hoosier River Watch

Today, I went to Hoosier Riverwatch Training at Bonneyville Mill park. What a training! It is geared for adults--people 18 and over that are interested in water quality in the area. Do you like to drink water or use it for recreational or other uses? This could be a great FREE workshop for you! While the workshop trains volunteers to perform citizen scientist tests to monitor water quality, there are no requirements to do all the tests or any of the tests after the workshop. However, the data collected is very important to monitor the quality of the water in the area. Which reminds me, I worked quality control at a large bakery many moons ago while home from college summer. I did several similar tests to make sure the bakery items were up to standards.

We looked at the many uses and possible pollutants of water. This small scale model let us see how normal life might affect water quality.

Rain Gardens!

Several members from the North Chapter of INPAWS (Indiana Native Plants and Wildflower Society) and Eric Kurtz from SWCD  (Elkhart County Soil and Water Conservation District) came to Woodlawn Nature Center for a site assessment for an upcoming rain garden! They looked at the soil, the building and how the water runs off, the shade of the trees, existing plants, etc. and came up with a preliminary plan to work with the Girls Scouts on installing a rain garden in front of Woodlawn Nature Center. While this is a girl led project, I helped connect them with good experts that could help them along the way!

Later, Eric gave an interactive presentation to the girls about water quality and how rain gardens help keep our water clean. He talked about how much water is in the world, breaking it down to how much water is really available to us for use. He started with 1000 mL to represent how much water is on the Earth. 

However, out of those 1000 mL, only 1 DROP is really available as clean water for our use and consumption!

Eric illustrated this by giving one drop to each of the girls to remind them of how little fresh water is available for our use.

Later, they set up a sample city with varying levels of topography. Eric guided the girls to set out various elements that might affect water quality, such as construction, transportation, farm animals, etc.

The girls made it "rain" (sprayed with water bottles). Then Eric guided them to discuss some of these pollutants. They used various items (like food coloring in a bottle, brown sprinkles for the poop!, green sugar for pesticides, glitter, etc.) to represent some of these pollutants.

 It "rained" more and the girls could see the effects of pollution. They talked about the watershed area.

As they wrapped up, they talked about some of the things they could do to make a positive difference on water quality, such as having rain gardens!

One of the Girl Scouts noticed my little guy didn't have a chance to make it rain, yet wanted to spray the bottle. She spoke up for him and made sure he could make it rain too. I loved watching this interaction and thoughtfulness.

It was kind of nice to have all the women leaders get a baby fix. Once he woke up, I didn't hold him until we left. He had plenty of love! :-) 

The girls had such interesting comments and questions. Most were right on target, yet some were distracted with dinosaurs being related to birds and lizards and sharks living in salt water. It's always so interesting to listen to what children connect. Another girl asked, "Is it true the water we use to shower is recycled? If so, it's kind of gross . . . " I guess it kind of is, but it drives home point of how precious water is. I think it's something I tend to take for granted. I always have clean, accessible water when I turn on the faucet. But I lived in the Dominican Republic for about 1 1/2 years as a missionary. I know what it's like to not have safe drinking water or running water in a house or even hot water.

During the evening, the Girl Scout also brought an arbor and barrel to donate to Woodlawn Nature Center! It's neat to see some plans for the outside of WNC coming together. Thanks Girl Scouts!

Have you thought about creating a rain garden in your yard or using more native plants? There are educational helps for rain barrels and rain gardens in Elkhart County, as well as a reimbursement plan for residents. Find more information here. St. Joseph County SWCD has some information here. Both counties have rain barrel auctions as well! 

Rain Barrel Auction in St. Joseph County 

Rain Barrel Auction in Elkhart County