So far the direction and leadership has been by zoo staff: Zoo staff have started each session with great stories and activities to gather everyone together and to promote thinking about nature and living things in new ways. Then they have given activity ideas to give a slight direction to our time out in nearby urban nature. The reason I think it is such a success is the casual gathering of neighbors and families. The carefully thought out materials that lead to wonder as well as and the time spent in nearby nature. The children love to explore nature while spending time with the people who care for them.
So far we have attended only two sessions and already the boys are looking in new ways for colors, patterns and texture in nature. The first week they had a handout of colors that they were to search for in an small-but sweet outdoor space behind the library. The second week they were given play dough to take outside and make impressions of things they found in nature at a nearby park. It was a different way of seeing.
Here is a picture of one of the "impressions" on of my boys made in his play dough.
