Herp, Herp, Hoorah! 2012 Camp Review

Herp, Herp, Hoorah! Campers' Families-

Hoorah for Herps! Our largest group of campers for the summer helped end our summer camps for 2012 with a lot of energy and excitement. Here's a recap of our 3 days together.

Day 1: Introduction to Tifft and Herps

• An adventure hike to explore the grasslands, forest and marsh areas of the preserve started our day off. We saw lots of frogs and turtles in the marsh, as well as birds and deer, but not any snakes.
• After a picnic lunch and some free time, we played "Herp or Not", as we discussed what makes a herp a herp.
• Pairs worked on puzzles of different herps to learn a little more about them (the puzzles had facts & myths on them, which we reviewed upon puzzle completion)
• For snack, we made turtles out of cream cheese, Ritz crackers, thin pretzel sticks & raisins. The kids were very creative in making their own turtles.
• After snack, we read Turtle Crossing by Rick Chrustowski together and learned a lot about the life of a turtle as it grows up from an egg to an adult.
• We finished the day by turning some small petri dishes into turtles. The campers got to design the shells either by mosaic, drawing or a combination of both. This bunch again showed their creativity with this activity.

Day 2: Amphibians

• We ran out of time on Tuesday to observe George, our box turtle, so I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to do that before the end of the week. George was a little timid, but the campers got to touch his shell and see some of the cool adaptations he has.
• Out to the marsh to make some more observations of amphibians. We saw lots of frogs again, as well as a young snapping turtle crawling around in the marsh mud. 
• On our way back to the cabin, we went up the mounds and played "capture the prey", which is similar to 'red light, green light'...camper tried to sneak up on me (a mouse) as they (snakes) came down the mounds. If they were spotted, they had return to the end of the line.
• After lunch, Miss Kimberly led them through a frog catching fly craft. The campers made some really great patterns on their frogs. 
• Story time today included If Frogs Made Weather by Marion Dane Bauer and some poems from Toad By the Road by Joanne Ryder. 
• After snack, each camper 'became' a frog, and they learned about different calls of frogs. We then played "frogs on the  move", where groups of frogs moved across the 'pond' collecting eggs. They could only move if their species call was heard. 
• We ended the day by breaking out the playdoh and working through frog metamorphosis: egg, tadpole, growing legs, up to adult frog.

Day 3: Snakes

• Painting project started our day: we used pieces of citrus fruit trays to make snakes. The campers got to make whatever pattern/colors they wanted.
• Before our hike, we set up an experiment to check temperatures of different colored snakes. 
• Another hike in search of snakes found us one water snake in the marsh, and some cool birds (including egrets and a green heron)
• We checked on our snakes after lunch and discussed the hard life of being an ectothermic (cold-blooded) animal.
• In the afternoon, Miss Kimberly treated us to a visit with her two snakes: Guinness, a black rat snake, and Sausage, a ball python (with a missing tail).
• We read Slither & Crawl by Jim Arnosky, which talked about different types of reptiles.
• Today snake snacks were a big hit. Campers used a banana and rolled them in cinnamon/sugar to give them some color. They then could add sunflower seed scales and a fruit leather strip tongue before eating them.
• Sophia showed her salamander to the campers, and then we headed outside to run off some of the sugar from snack. Some of the campers ended their time by working on a beaded snake project.

Time flies by when we're having fun! I learned some new things again this year about herps and I hope the campers did too.
Below is a slideshow with photos from our adventures! To see the captions, roll cursor over bottom of frame and click on the white balloon.




Thank you so much for your support of Tifft and giving your nature explorers a chance to learn some new stuff with us!
Enjoy what's left of the summer & hope to see you again soon.
Best,
Miss Caryn

Nature Rangers 2012 Camp Review

What a week we Nature Rangers had!

16 campers ventured into a week-long adventure, exploring TASKS (Teamwork, Action, Skills, Knowledge and Sharing) and earning their Nature Ranger Badge.

Here's an overview of our week of TASKS.

Day 1:

• of course we started out our time with a great hike around the preserve, while introducing the importance of observation as a Nature Ranger
• we also played an observation game later in the day
• played Arrows, which was an observation game and a mind game too. The first round campers had to point and say the direction that the arrow (held by me) was pointing. To make it interesting, the other rounds we did opposites. They had to point the opposite way and say the direction, or say the opposite direction while pointing the correct direction. This was a little more difficult for them but they had a lot of fun.
• we learned a lot about the sun today too (besides that it made us hot and sweaty)
• we made sun dials
• teams worked together on a sun scavenger hunt
• we used solar-activated fabric to make a print to attach to a bandanna later
• we learned about a solar oven & our snack was cookies baked in it (yum!)

Day 2:

• Wetland and Water was a big theme today. 
• Big adventure  was out to the wetland to learn about the water quality and life that lives underwater. Due to the lack of rain, sun and little snowfall from the winter, our marsh was pretty dried up along the edge, but we still found some interesting animal life and learned that the water is pretty clean. Mr. Bob, one of our volunteers, worked with the campers to test pH, nitrate, dissolved oxygen, nitrate and ammonium levels in the water. We also used our dipnets to find macroinvertebrates such as dragonfly, damselfly and mayfly nymphs, snails, and backswimmers, as well as a few fish and one crayfish exoskeleton. 
• after lunch, the campers learned more about the marsh and its importance through a game called Wetland Metaphors, and also dissected some pieces of two marsh plants, cattail and purple loosestrike, as they learned about invasive species and the adaptations that make them successful.
• Direction/Map/Compass was the other focus today.
• As a group, we went on a scavenger hunt of Tifft, which served as an introduction to directions and how to read a map. 
• We then did a compass reading activity, which was a bit challenging but the campers seemed to get the basic idea. 

Day 3: TREE DAY

• We started the day with "We All Need Trees", where each camper was given an item and had to determine if the item had anything to do with trees. Each item, which ranged from maple syrup to a rayon skirt to cork and paper, was actually made by some part of a tree. 
• We also set up an experiment using a plastic bag to cover leaves on part of a tree and sealed it up to see what happened. Campers thought it was going to blow up like a balloon.  Thursday, we discovered that it had inflated a bit, but that it was also filled with water that had been transpired by the leaves. It was a good discussion of other important benefits from trees.
• Today was our big action day. We worked with Mr. Andrew to help out Tifft's forest. Campers learned earlier in the week that Tifft wasn't always a nature preserve and looked much different when the Native Americans used this land as a hunting grounds. The forest has also changed since Tifft became a preserve and Mr. Andrew told campers about the forest project that's been happening over the last 3 years (over 1500 trees have been planted). To help these new trees have a good chance to survive and to also get rid of some invasive plants (Japanese knotweed and European buckthorn), the campers worked on spreading wood chips around the bases of the saplings planted along Rabbit Run East. They also pulled out some newly growing knotweed and buckthorn, and even watered the tree saplings, which needed it with the lack of rain this summer.
• After lunch we ventured back out and learned about some survival skills and the Rule of 3 (ask your campers if they remember that one!). After a brief discussion, the campers worked together to create a survival shelter out of items found in the forest. Due to time, the shelter wasn't completely finished, but they had fun crawling into it anyway & were sad when we took it apart, which was the last step in the shelter process.
• Snack was a skill-lesson, as the campers learned about building a proper fire with edible items. We made an A-Frame fire, learning about tinder, kindling and fuel, as well as proper fire building etiquette. The favorite part, of course, was being able to eat the fire. 
• Our last activity of the day was called Birds and Worms, where campers became birds and had to collect pipe cleaner 'worms' that were scattered on the ground. The game required teamwork and also touched on camouflage and why some animals have bright colors versus drab colors. 

Day 4:

• Morning activity was fishing. Campers worked well together to help bait hooks with squirmy worm and enjoy the beautiful day by the lake. The group caught about 10 fish, including bluegill, pumpkinseed, yellow perch and green sunfish. We had a few campers catch their first fish ever, and many had 'the one that got away'.
• Another action project was in store as we did a shoreline sweep along Lake Kirsty, collecting enough garbage to fill 1/4 of a blue Buffalo garbage tote. 
• The relaxing morning pent up some energy so the campers played freeze tag to run around and get some exercise. 
• We also played two teamwork games called Insanity and Alligator Alley. 

Day 5:

• Rain threatened to come in on our last day, but stayed away to allow us to be outside. We had another guest, Mr. Walt, who did a nature journaling workshop with the campers. Mr. Walt was a graphic designer before retiring and enjoyed showing his nature drawing tricks with the campers.
• We then walked to the top of the mounds, after getting to see some wild turkey polts (young) with their mom. On our way down the hill, we played a Native American stalking game.
• Another teamwork game called Star Wars after lunch was followed by another round of Alligator Alley, popsicles for snack (the sun did come out and heat things up) and two fish games: Keep the Fish in the Pond (water balloon in a parachute) and Pass the Fish (water balloon).  
• Our last activity was making little fish out of beads.

Campers earned their Nature Ranger badges and also received a Leave No Trace card to remember some of the rules of being respectful to nature.

Below is a slideshow with photos from our adventures! To see the captions, roll cursor over bottom of frame and click on the white balloon.


It was a hot week, but it was lots of fun and it was great to meet some new campers and see returning faces as well. Hopefully you will learn something new from your Nature Ranger and enjoy the rest of the summer.Thank you for your support of Tifft as well.
Best,
Miss Caryn