Aug 3, 2011 Nature Day at Plainfield Christian Church

I wish I had pictures to go along with our special day; but alas- I don't!  One of these days I will get a cell phone; one with the ability to take photo's.  I think I would use the picture feature more than the calling feature!

The family that did the Thursday Girls Bible Study invited us to go to Nature Day with them.  I almost said 'no'; but then she mentioned they needed some helpers...and I am always a sucker for helping, so we agreed.

The kids were broken up into small groups; we were the "Fireflies".  There were 11 kids in our group.  We were assigned an order to go through the circuit of varying stations; and we were off! 

Station One: The Garden & The Water Cycle
Here we saw three different tomato plants, planted in either sand, or topsoil and the third plant was in the shade.  Boy, was there a difference in how much the plants thrived or didn't-it was really, really apparent how much better the topsoil-in full sun-grew.  We discussed how clay soil is good for ponds and why.  The kids pour water in buckets of sand, topsoil, and clay and saw how the water was absorbed.  Our presenter had a greenhouse from last year to show the kids how with a little dirt, water, and seeds this greenhouse was thriving without ever getting opened.  The water cycle was constantly moving and doing it's job.

Station Two: Fishing Station
Here the kids all got their own fishing rod and worm and they were off.  Many of the kids had no idea how to fish.  That was a big surprise for me.  Many had no clue how to cast out the line.  I was running back and forth the whole time -taking bluegill off lines, putting worms on the hook, casting out the lines and trying to show them all how to do it for themselves!  Many of the kids said this station was their favorite.  One boy caught a BIG catfish; it was so big it broke the line when he tried to lift it out of the water to unhook it.  This pond was really stocked well.

Station Three: Observation Station
This was in a big field with metal chairs spaced throughout; each chair all by itself in a remote location.  The kids were given a clipboard and a pencil and told to go find a nice quiet location to sit, meditate, pray, draw, and think about God's creations.  The kids came back after 15 minutes with a list of the neat things they saw or shared their drawings from nature.

Station Four: Bird's Nests Station
Here the kids discussed where various birds would nest.  What type of bird would build it's nest in the tops of trees?  What type of bird would build on the ground?  What do birds who build on the ground do to keep attention off their nests?  (Killdeer examples)  What birds build near water?  We discussed ingenious examples such as Cowbirds who lay their eggs in other birds nests--that parasite!  Then the kids had lots of materials to build their own nests.  They were broken up into three groups: water building bird nests, predator bird nests, and robin-average bird nests.  My dd wanted to build the Robin's nest.  They took a "v" spot in a tree and build up the grasses to form a nest.  There was a bucket with water that had tennis balls in it to show how Robin's rub mud on themselves and then rub it off in their nests to get mud onto the nest.  The kids really enjoyed that part!  It was a very cool station.  There was a table with different bird's nest for the kids to look at and hollow logs with old bird nest holes and various broken eggs that had been found.

Station Five: Creation
The kids and myself had to crawl into a plastic tent inside the church.  The 'tent' was really for a dome shape to show the video.  It was a computer generated show about the creation, and then another show about our solar system and the stars.  It was a cool demonstration.

*Lunch*

Station Six: Tadpole & Stream/Creek Life
This was the other "hit" for the kids.  Here they got nets of all sizes and got to find tadpoles, bugs, bettles, spiders, crawdads, and small fish-bluegills.  It was amazing the amount of tadpoles these kids were able to catch!  I bet there was about 40 tadpoles.  The man that ran this station was from McCloud Park and this was his area of expertise.  He brought print-outs of various bugs and critters that we were finding and we could look up the bug we had caught.  My dd really, really loved this station and didn't want to leave it!

Station Seven: Plant Cycle
We went to a hedge-row and saw a big tree that had been turning to mulch for quite a long time.  There were lots of bugs and decomposition going on.   We saw an acorn that had grown and become a seedling.  It has root hairs and a tap root and had been doing well; until it had become our display.  This was a good discussion station-about life and death; plant cycle and life cycle.

Station Eight: Waste Water Cycle
There were two woman from the Waste Water Management to discuss how litter and oil, etc. get into our water system/septic/sewer.  They had a fun demonstration using kool-aid, chocolate jimmies, tea, lemonaide powder, etc. etc. into water to show how little things can really mess up our lakes, rivers, streams, etc.  They also had lots of photo's showing a lake on fire in Ohio b/c of all the trash and chemicals that had collected in that lake.  They showed all kinds of litter pictures.

Station Nine: Level
This was perhaps my favorite station.  The man had a few fun hands-on experiments for the kids to do themselves showing how we can find level with simple things like string and a weight to make our own "Plumb-Bob".  He had a clear tube/hose to show how to build a bridge over a creek by filling the hose with water until each side leveled itself out.  That was really cool.  The kids each took turns doing this experiment.  He had brought long levels to show how level the simple methods had been successful.

This was a very full day, full of learning.  My dd and I couldn't figure out who had more fun; her or me!!!  I wanted to write out all the details in case I ever need to do a project like this again.  It was really well thought out and really fun.