Teen Nature

Today I went to a coming of age nature program that my friend runs. It was beautiful weather, I could hardly believe it's December (my friend was in sandals!)

We had a couple cool projects. For one we collected pine boughs for wreaths. Some of the teens had a hard time getting engaged in the activity, but for the most part they were very enthusiastic and creative. I think this was because the adults in the program gave them a lot of leeway to express themselves (read "be silly"). This might have helped generate creative energy which could then be channeled, rather than try to keep them on task and wind up in a low energy state.

We were careful not to collect too many boughs from any given tree. However, not a lot of our boughs were used in the actual project, so next week we are going to discuss other ways to use them, out of respect for the trees.

Our other project was to create wind chimes out of Japanese knotweed (an invasive plant that one could argue resembles bamboo).

See the distinct sections along the stalk?

One girl (who gained my immediate interest based on her fervor) decide she wanted to turn it into a flute. She spent the entire project working and whittling trying to figure out how. She was so excited when I got my flute to work, proving it was possible. By the end of the day she had a little whistle, and was very keen to tell me everything that she tried that helped or hindered her effort. I love the spark in that one!

Now I have a half-finished wreath to accomplish. Maybe the little lady and the young gentleman will help me after school tomorrow...

Bird Calls

My friend, who is a wonderful woman as well as a talented cartoonist, has created a handy chart for remembering bird calls, with absolutely charming illustrations. I can't wait to get one on my wall. Check it out here.

I love her style!

Cones!

The Four Winds lesson this month was on cones. We described and discussed different cones, and played cone-related matching games (such as types of cones to the branches of the trees they came from). We spiced up the lesson this time by bringing pine cone necklaces for everyone (using the cones collected in previous posts.)

(See the young gentleman in the middle?)

We also helped illustrate conifer tree facts by taking the kids outside and having them show us the circumference and height of the largest trees with their armspans. This was a lesson for us in group coordination!

Measuring an 'average' wingspan 

Stretching out our arms to the fullest to reach the length of the tallest redwood tree

At the end of the lesson we sent each kid home with a note for their parents. The note suggested they help the kids spread peanut butter on the cone on their necklace, roll it in birdseed, hang it by the thread, and watch to see if any birds come to have a snack!

If you want to see more pictures, you can visit the blog the classroom teacher keeps: she wrote an entry on our visit.

Summer Camp Tricks 3

Continued from Summer Camp Tricks 1 and 2


Discovery

Children learn best when they don't realize they're being taught. Lead them right up to the conclusion, talk them all the way around it, but get them to pronounce it in their own words before you're done. 

One of my jobs at camp was to mentor high-schoolers who wish to work with children in the future. I let them run some of the projects I had designed for the kids. Once I explained it to them I tried to give them slack reigns so I could see how they would choose to run the lesson. One common hang-up that I noticed was when they presented the activity to the children, they would give all the information at once, including the overall concept the activity was designed to teach. "By the end of this lesson you kids will be able to see..." I had to work on this with many of my high-schoolers. Just telling them once that this is not the best way to present the activity wasn't enough, they would continue to do their introductions this way. Possibly because this is the way I presented the activities to them. "See, this teaches the students [such] in [such and such a] way." I couldn't show them or tell them how to teach, they needed to learn to teach just as much as the students needed to learn.


Watching my high schoolers I really noticed the trap, and how easy it is to fall in: we can't get caught in the idea that we're giving students information. We all know we are super smart, but the kids will respond better and retain more if they learn to draw the conclusions themselves. If they feel empowered, it is something they will remember.

Snake Mountain Trees

I didn't want to bog down the story in my last post with too many details, but some things we saw are too interesting to not discuss.

For example, I didn't provide some of the quick ID points for the Eastern Hemlock I mentioned. The needles come off the twig bilaterally, like the wings of an airplane, rather than completely around the twig as you might see in a spruce. Each needle has two white lines on the underside, and if you look closely you will see a tiny stem on each (which will help distinguish it from a fir). And there you have it!

Another part of the day that was very interesting to me was the number of American beech trees we saw. Beeches in this area have a couple of problems that are taking them down. One is an insect, beech scale, which leaves white residue. I didn't see any evidence of this, but I did see signs of beech bark disease, a black fungus.

See how the usually smooth bark is marred?

Still, most of the trees I saw on the mountain were pretty healthy, which is refreshing. We even saw some beeches that were very large, I was almost fooled on the ID because I just didn't expect a beech to be that big. Did I mention I love beeches? It wrenches my heart to see them sickly, so this stand (mostly) made me smile.

When we saw more wind-downed trees, we discussed how the hollows left in the ground stay for a long, long time, with a bump on one side where the root mass used to be. Later we saw a hollow without the tree (it had probably been cleared, but still) and we got to discuss "what happened here?"

I can really see the effect I've been having on the little lady. When her mom asked her what she knew about a tree, she went over to sniff it. Quoth Mom: "Nature lady might be able to make IDs by smelling things, you've got to work your way up to that!" I appreciate her method though, gathering all the data she can to make an informed statement :)

Snake Mountain

We were lucky enough this weekend to have great weather. It was so nice out we were able to fulfill our promise to the kids from the Mount Philo hike, which was hiking Snake Mountain next, now rather than wait till spring. True most trees are pretty bare, but it was still very beautiful. And the fact that most of the leaves are down had an unforeseen benefit: there were a lot of beech trees along this hike. Beech trees, while deciduous, do not lose their leaves as easily as other trees. You can see brown beech leaves still clinging to the branches even in the middle of winter. So the children became quick to recognize the smooth grey bark and papery-thin leaves of the American beech.

They both hugged a few beeches along the way

We talked about two different types of ferns we saw along the trail, Christmas fern and wood fern. Christmas fern particularly interested the little lady, its waxy J shaped leaflets look a little like Christmas stockings, giving us an easy reminder of its name. This fern is actually an evergreen.

She makes an identification

As we kept going up we talked of many things, such as how the types of trees were changing along the way. We jumped over (and, in the case of the young gentleman, in) many muddy patches. We also looked at tons of cool mushrooms. 

We're still collecting pine cones, and found some on an Eastern hemlock. We hadn't collected any hemlock cones for our Four Winds lesson on our searches thusfar!

My friend is taller than me, she had better luck reaching them

The tactics I have been discussing, those I picked up at camp, came in very handy here, as after the first few minutes on the trail we were already getting requests for breaks every few feet. We used tasks, like collecting cones, as well as games and songs. At one point we pretended we were pulling ourselves up the mountain with invisible ropes attached to cool looking trees. The young gentleman at this point threw me a look like "...really?" and walked right by me. The little lady loved it though. Guess he's just no fan of mime.

We also found this really cool log that looked like a crocodile. It may or may not have eaten all of us in turn...

...ham

And after all we made it to the top in time for lunch. The view was spectacular!

Cooking Post

I wrote two guest posts on my sister's cooking blog A Pinch and A Splash, the first; making pumpkin puree from our Jack O' Lanterns. The next; making pumpkin cookies from that puree. Check it out!