WILD About Winter Camp

Camper families-
Well, the winter of 2011-2012 has been a unique one to say the least, but the campers explored and discovered a lot about winter and how animals (and people) learn to live with the season of winter. We made journals to keep track of our observations and what we learned throughout our 3 days together, but here are some highlights:

Day 1:

• our first activity, after getting to know each other a little bit, was to take a hike and do a winter scavenger hunt. We ended up finding everything on our list and got to see some deer really close.
• winter pictionary
• a teambuilding activity called Ice Floe, where the campers had to cross 'an icy river' on ice floes (carpet squares) to 'rescue' a polar bear that was stuck on a 'floe'
• a WSI (Winter Scene Investigation) actvitity. Groups were given a map and legend of a winter 'scene' and had to try to discover what could've happened. The smaller groups then joined into one larger group and re-examined the scene to see if any other clues were cleared up. The groups then looked at a real winter scene photo and, with the use of an animal track guide, did the same investigation.
• winter adaptation sort- this including thinking about what animals do in the winter (hibernate, migrate, etc), what kind of animals do what, and getting to see a bunch of biofacts (mostly animal pelts). We also got to see arctic fox and arctic wolf pelts and ended with a little 'fashion show' with campers dressed like a migrator, hibernator and an animal that says active -check out the pics :)

Day 2 was mostly snow day, although there was none on the ground that day. We did a variety of crafts and activities around snow.

• Snowflake models (toothpicks and marshmellows)
• Borax crystal snowflakes (which had to 'grow' overnight)
• Snowflake puzzles and sleds made out of popsicle sticks
• "snow way to hide" game, in which snow(a white parachute) was used to 'hide' a mouse (camper) from the hungry fox (another camper) looking for a tasty treat
• made cards for and then played winter bingo
• learned more about snowflake scientist, a pioneer in the field in the early 1900's, by reading Snowflake Bentley storybook
• did indoor snowshoeing, snowball toss and snowball relay race

Day3: The snow dance I asked all the kids to do overnight worked, as we had just enough on the ground to do outdoor snow activities like snowshoeing and snow sculptures! What great fun :)

• We set up a variety of experiments to discuss how animals survive winter. These included: using different materials to insulate an 'animal' from freezing (the animal was actually a container of jello that were trying to keep from solidifying); using different size containers filled with water to see which would freeze first; and after reading a book about insects in winter called Bugs and Bugsicles, using 'antifreeze' (salt) in water in different amounts to see the effects of freezing
• played a winter survival rummy game
• played a simulation winter survival needs game where campers had to collect 'food, water, hiding places, shelter and energy' before getting eaten by a fox, frozen by the big freeze or starving from the cold
• making animal track molds with salt dough

The pictures below will really give you an idea of some of the things we did during our 3 days of adventure! To see the captions, move your cursor down to the bottom of the slideshow and click on the white balloon bubble below the photos.

It was a great 3 days of exploring and learning and I know I had fun and learned a lot myself from the campers. It was great to get to know each of them and I thank you for allowing Tifft to let your child's sense of wonder in nature and discovery be part of their winter break this year! The summer has lots more fun in store so I hope you'll consider joining us again!

Hope to see you soon and have a Happy Spring (which is just around the corner)!

Best,

Miss Caryn :)