Junior Rangers on the loose!

Yesterday (Wednesday 7/17) Yvette and I put on a Junior Ranger program!  What fun we had.  We decided that the topic would be trees, and so we had to come up with activities for the kids associated with our tall friends.  Y.E. had done something similar before, so we based our approach after what she's done.  But for the most part we relied on our own imagination and Project Learning Tree.  I don't know if any of you have heard of it, but PLT is an amazing organization that works to create educational programs for kids about the environment.  They have games and ideas for kids from K-12. 

Setting up was so fun.  I made a Mystery Box out of an old cardboard box and covered it with craft paper (green of course), and cut a slit in the side.  Then I went around and collected samples of the  various types of trees that were around the Visitor Center.  I picked out Alder, Cottonwood, Willow, Birch  and Spruce.  The activity was to have the kids reach into the box, pull out a tree and go and find one that matched it!  Then I went around and checked to make sure they were right, and asked if they knew what the tree was.  I was amazed, most of the kids knew their trees!  I only had to help a few ones out. 

Then we had the kids run back to Yvette and do a craft with pipecleaners.  We made little trees.  What memories that brought back of girl scout crafts.  And we soon realized that allowing them to do the craft first was a mistake.  There were always a few kids that wanted to make their tree just perfect and held up the rest.  That was usually me in the old days. 

We had the kids play with tree cookies next, which display tree rings.  "What do the tree rings mean?" we asked, and the reply?  "Birthdays!"  How cute those kids were.  We had a much more manageable crowd that day, only 10 little rangers, the perfect sized group for me.  We got out paper plates and had the kids draw their own tree cookies. 

Then we scattered papers of brown, yellow, blue and white across the lawn.  We then told the kids to head out to the scattered papers and stand on their tree cookies, but not to move, because now they were trees, and trees didn't pick up their feet!  Then the fun began.  We had them reach, as far as they could, without lifting their feet to get as many of the papers as they could.  Some kids were a little more ambitious than others and grabbed most of the lot.  Others, like me (yes, I participated...it was fun!), only grabbed a couple.  Miss Yvette then explained what the papers meant.  Blue was water, white was air, yellow was sunshine, and brown was nutrients!  Then she told us why the tree needed all of the elements to survive.  What a fun activity. 

I then read flashcards with clues about the parts of trees.  Each flashcard had a different part, be it the leaves, the bark, the buds, the seeds/fruit, etc.  Most of the kids got each one right.  Twig was the only one nobody got, so our next activity was to find a twig and learn why it is different than a branch. 

We gave them a little lesson about the different parts of the Visitor Center displays (namely the fish cache and bone rack, and the Bristol Bay Double-Ender (it's a boat).  And how each part was made from trees. 

Finally, we took them inside (as they were getting hot--it was 70 degrees and sunny, those kids were melting!) and gave them a worksheet on animals and trees.  It was great to walk around and help.  They were just so sweet and polite.  We also served snacks.  Note to self, lemonade on the really cool map table = disaster, we'll just stick with water next time.

And then the big event, we swore them in as Junior Rangers, gave them their visors and badges, and they were off.  10 more Junior Rangers into the system.  It was a great day!