Taking the Kids: What's in your bag of tricks for outdoor fun?
Making a leaf rubbing is easy, demonstrates ACES' educators Denali Barron and Bowman Leigh: Put the leaves under the paper in any shape and then rub the crayon over the paper. Make a creature from different shaped leaves and then do a rubbing with a crayon! Presto! A masterpiece!
Barron and Leigh have a lot of experience engaging kids outdoors as ACES educators. They teach environmental education at three regional elementary schools and interact with kids on field trips from 60 other schools -- some 125,000 educational contacts just last year.
That's where the bag of tricks comes in, especially for kids who aren't used to getting outside and exploring. The notebooks, pens and magnifying glasses enable kids to instantly become citizen scientists, recording their findings. Just heading outdoors in your neighborhood can be an adventure as the kids record what they see as the fall season progresses, suggest Barron and Leigh.
It always helps to play to the kids interests, whether art, music or fairies. How about building a fairy house? Can you find an app that will help you identify trees? Birds? (Try the eBird or the Audubon Bird Guide app.) The older kids can help navigate with the AllTrails app that lets you search for kid-friendly trails and more important, download maps so you aren't stuck when there is no cell service.
Put a series of age-specific challenges in your bag of tricks:
-- How many different shaped leaves can you find?
-- How many different colored leaves?
-- Turn over a rock and note three things you notice under the rock.
-- Find four different textures.
For older kids:
-- Draw a comic strip from the perspective of an ant.
-- Find a place where you would hibernate.
-- Design a video game from the perspective of an insect.
"The way a parent behaves has such a big impact," says Leigh, who has been at ACES for eight years. "If the adults are immersed and excited, the kids will be too."
Especially when you pull out your bag of tricks.
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