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 :)

Hop! Swim! Fly! Discovery Camp

Hop!Swim!Fly! Campers' Families-

My how the summer flew by...
and what fun it was to examine animal locomotion with 6 great campers!
Quinn, Gabe, Isabelle, Matt, Aidan and Madeleine were great explorers and we got to discover a lot of new things.

Here are the highlights of our 3 days of camp:

Day 1: Hop/Jump

• we started out camp with looking for some mighty jumpers by using sweepnets on our mounds area which has lots of grasshoppers and other cool insects. We managed to catch quite of them, and even a damselfly, which flies, but was really exciting nonetheless


• We went on an animal locomotion scavenger hunt. We talked about or saw all of animals on the list (which was sent home with the campers)


• We played a game called Fox & Geese, which explored prey/predator relationships as well as animal behaviors.


• We made origami frogs and some of the campers participated in a frog jumping contest/race


• We read the book "Oscar and the Cricket" which discussed movement in a variety of ways


• The campers ended the day by designing "tumblebugs," which had to roll down a ramp (ruler) and not slide. The campers enjoyed exploring and experimenting with different items (paper, small bead weights) until they accomplished the task.

Day 2: Swim

• Today was the aquatic day, although we did do one thing that we didn't get to on Day 1. They started the day by making potato bug traps- they were halves of potatoes with most of the inside removed to make them look like little igloos. We then placed them out on the sides of the trail on our hike out to the north end of the marsh.


• The rest of the morning we spend learning a little about the marsh and using dip nets to catch aquatic animals. We did manage to collect (and return) a small fish, and a variety of insects and other invertebrates: waterboatmen , backswimmers, a giant water bug, a damselfly nymph, a leech and a whirligig beetle larva.


• In the afternoon, we switched over to discussing a favorite furry swimmer, the beaver, by examining some biofacts like their fur, their swimmer feet, tail and skull. We then made
  fun beaver hats.


• We then discussed fish by first reading "Fish is Fish" and "Swimmy" by Leo Leonni and then ate a fish snack {pretzel stick rods, peanut butter bait and goldfish fish}, then practiced fishing for paper fish, before trying our hands at some real fishing in Lake Kirsty. No fish caught but still a good end to the day.

Day 3: Fly

• Today was a focus on things that fly. We explored more of the preserve while doing a bird behavior bingo game, at the end of which we got a chance to see a goose taking a bath, which is quite interesting to watch.


• We also collected our potato traps, which had a number of millipedes and 'potato' bugs in them. Before releasing them, we had a couple of potato bug races (on a rock with a finish line, and another where we drew a circle in the dirt and placed 2 bugs...the first out of the circle wins).


• After lunch, it was warm so we played a game called "keep the fish in the pond" with a parachute and a water balloon, and then did a water balloon partner relay.


• We also made butterfly or bird wings that the campers were able to wear. The boys made bird wings, the girls opted with butterflies.


• We looked at a preserved bat specimen, as well as some rabbit fur.


• We finished the day with games: Bat and Moth (similar to Marco Polo), Nature Says (similar to Simon Says but movements had to imitate plants/animals) and the ever popular Everyone's It.

Our time together was filled with learning, discovering and lots of fun. For me, it was a great end for the summer of 2011 discovery camps. I hope all our campers have a great school year this fall and that we'll see them back next summer. Keep a lookout for 2012 summer camp info in early 2012.

Here are some photos from 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.



Sincerely,
Miss Caryn

Fins, Fur and Feathers!

Although I could tell that some of our campers were about ready to head back to school, (and I am sure the parents are just as ready!) we had a truly wonderful week with a great bunch of kids!

We started our week on Monday with learning our way around the Preserve and talking about classification of animals. Using buttons and aliens, we talked about how scientists classify animals and plants into different groups. The campers did an awesome job of lisiting the characteristics that divide birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and arthropods into their different groups. We also talked about what needs animals have and what happens when there is too much competition by playing a game called Oh Deer.

The day was finished off with an introduction of insects to prepare us for Tuesday's topic. What makes an insect an insect??? Head, thorax, abdomen (abdomen) Head, thorax, abdomen (abdomen). Six legs, Four wings, Antennae two. Head, thorax, abdomen (abdomen) :-) And yes we sang that to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!" Using those criteria, everyone had 2 pictures of a creepy crawly critter that they had to decide if each was an insect or not. We learned organisms like potato bugs, spiders, millipedes, and mites are not insects! Phew! What a busy Monday we had!

Tuesday was quite a wet day to study insects and other little friends, but we tried our best! We went on a bug scavenger hunt trying to fill in our bingo boards. The rain became a little too much for us to handle so we came back inside. We made butterfly wings to wear while we learned about the tough life of a migrating monarch butterfly. After lunch when the rain calmed down we returned outside to find ladybugs to participate in the Lost Ladybug Citizen Science Project (more info can be found at http://www.lostladybug.org/) and collect different species of caterpillars. We set up an overnight experiment with milkweed tussock, monarch and white marked tussock caterpillars. We wanted to see how much they could eat in one night. We found that the milkweed tussock and monarch caterpillars were very hungry. The white marked tussock caterpillar was not eating so we thought it was best to return him back outside. We reset our experiment later in the week with a suggestion from Miss Caryn that she heard that the droppings (called frass) would turn red if you fed the milkweed eating caterpillars a seed pod instead of the leaves. We found out this was true indeed!

Thee camp is called FINS, fur and feathers so it was about time that we got to studying fishes on Wednesday. A little trivia for our readers: did you know that the word fish applies to a group of fish of all the same species, but fishes is the correct term when you have a bunch of species together. What better way to study fishes than to go fishing and so we did! Three campers caught 6 fishes between them, including 2 bluegills, 1 pumpkinseed, 1 rock bass and 1 yellow perch. The campers were given a lesson in identification of the different fishes that were caught, mainly 1 characteristic to look for on each species (ex: rock bass have red eyes). We learned about aging fishes using their scales and reading the rings like the rings of a tree. We pressed the scales between special slides to make impressions on slides and looked at them in a microfiche reader. We also made fish prints and constructed cartesian divers to learn about how a fish uses its swim bladder to float or sink in the water.

Thursday we moved onto birds. We started our morning going on a bird behavior scavenger hunt. We found lots of bird activity if we were quiet and patient. We came back in and made a flying osprey craft in honor of our nesting osprey that we had on the Preserve throughout the summer. In the afternoon we had a wonderful presentation about bats by another Tifft staff member, Lauren. She helped to dispell common myths about bats and talk about some benefits to bats and dangers they face, such as the white nose syndrome. We even got to play an exciting game of fruit bat tag to remind us that while bats can see, they rely more on echolocation to locate objects and food. We finished our day back with birds, learning some bat trivia playing Jeop-Birdy.

Friday we spent the morning fishing again since that is always a camp favorite. The afternoon was dedicated to learning about mammal adaptations on a walk around the Preserve. We had a chance to see and touch some biofacts including a beaver pelt and tail! We spent the rest of our afternoon playing games. We even played a game about skunks. Be careful! Don't get sprayed!

Below are some photos from our week. You may need to click on the box below to begin the slideshow. Have the children tell you what the activities are, or click on the white bubble to read captions of select photos.




What a fun and learning packed week we had! It was great to meet all of your wonderful children and we hope to see them again soon! Thank you for your continued support of Tifft! ~~Meghan

Herp, Herp Hoorah! Camp Highlights

Wow, how did we get into August already?!
The summer has just flown by with all the fun we've been having at camp here at Tifft.

Although I'm sure that the campers were disappointed in not seeing tons of herps (reptiles and amphibians)on the trails, but we still saw a number of them and all learned some new things.
Below are some highlights of our 3 days dedicated to reptiles and amphibians, and I know we have some budding herpetologists in the bunch!

• Day 1-Frogs: we went on a frog hunt, played everyone's it, a game called "what do you know about herps?", made frog blowers and took a hike to the marsh for another frog hunt


• Day 2-Snakes: played 'pin the scale on the reptile' and looked at 'frog eggs', went on a snake hunt, learned all about Copper, the corn snake, Riley's pet snake he graciously brought in for the day, made breadstick snake snacks, created snakemobiles, sang a snake song, Mr. Dave shared a little brown snake he caught on the trail, and played 3 snake games-'rattlesnake', 'skin the snake' and 'snake in the grass'


• Day 3-Turtles: The rain didn't keep us from doing some fun stuff on this day-read books Frog Hunt and Turtle Splash, got to check the turtle traps Mr. Russ (a high school teacher that's doing a project at Tifft this summer) set out for us and see the 2 painted turtles that were in the traps, went on a turtle hunt, met George the Turtle and Maury, Cooper's leopard gecko, sang some turtle songs, played a salamander migration game, made turtle tambourines and ended the day with a round of 'moving meals', a frog game like 'red light, green light'

Here you will see photos from our 3 days together.

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Thanks again for your support of Tifft and enjoy August!
Miss Caryn

Field Entomology Camp

Field Entomology Campers Families-
Sorry it has taken me so long to get this information up, but here it is!

Seven brave campers undertook the adventure of discovering some of the amazing insects and other arthopods that call Tifft Nature Preserve Home. During the most intense heat of the summer so far, these campers learned a variety of collection and observation techniques, as well as the steps of preserving insects for a collection such as at the Buffalo Museum of Science. Dr. John taught both the campers and myself a lot of new information and he learned some new things right along with us.
Some of the highlights include:

• setting a variety of insect traps, including poop, pitfall, sugaring, potato and sugar water/tic tac box ant traps learning about insect galls
• learning about setting up collection plots, and why multiple plots or traps are set


• surveying dead log for specimens


• eating insect larva (mealworms)


• comparing aquatic and terrestrial insects
  

Enjoy this slideshow documenting some of the things the campers did during their 3 day tour of Tifft.
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Thanks again for letting your children enjoy the outdoors, have fun and learn at Tifft this summer! Enjoy the rest of it before it's gone!

Miss Caryn

Nature's Neighborhoods Photos

Sorry it's taken so long to get these up. Enjoy the photos!


To see the captions, move your cursor over the white balloon bubble on the bottom.


Miss Caryn

Nature's Neighborhoods Days 4 & 5

It is hard to believe that our 5 days of camp have already ended. I think we had the best weather week I've had at a summer camp in a looooooong time, so it allowed us to do some really good stuff.

Highlights of day 4, our wetland/marsh day:

• a morning full of marsh exploration-we used dipnets to catch a bunch of marsh critters, which include tadpoles, sticklebacks(a type of fish), water striders, a giant water bug, water boatmen, backswimmers, a caddisfly larva, midge larva and water mites. Many of these critters eventually turn into flying aquatic insects, but spend the majority of their lives in the water in larval or nymph stages.



• We got a chance to journey as a water droplet through the various places water exists on earth in a game called 'The Incredible Journey'



• We did a watercolor painting of a habitat to camouflage an animal in.



• We discussed all the good things marshes do for the earth and all its inhabitants during marsh metaphors and then took a stroll on the boardwalk through the heart of the cattail marsh here, while learning about cattails and a bully plant competing with it, called phragmites



• A short discussion of water tension and some of the properties of water. The campers then jumped into designing their own water strider, which actually walks on water.

Day 5 was our grassland day/camper's choice. In the morning we finished up a few craft projects, then headed out to our mounds/grassland area and caught a variety of different grassland inhabitants including spiders, beetles, bees, grasshoppers, a ladybug, a praying mantis, leafhoppers and host of other unusual insects that Miss Lauren and I just didn't know the names for. For campers choise, we played another round of the very popular fish migration game, and spent most of the afternoon fishing. We ended up catching 7 fish, which were a combination of bluegill and pumpkinseeds. We then took our last short hike together to the top of the mounds and got a nice group photo together with beautiful Lake Erie as a backdrop. Look for another post early next week with a slideshow of Nature's Neighborhoods photos!

We are so lucky to have this wonderful natural ecology of the lake and so many cool habitats at Tifft. I hope you all get a chance to come visit again and just get out and enjoy the beautiful outdoor summer sights and sounds around your neighborhoods. It will be gone before we know it, so have a great rest of the summer!

Miss Caryn