Stories connecting us to the past. New ones for the Present.

Last night our family went to see Estella Leopold as part of the the Urban Naturalist Series with the Seward Park Audubon and Royal Room.  Estella was sharing stories from her newest book, Stories from the Leopold Shack: Sand County Revisted. I wanted the whole family to hear them.  Stories are so powerful!  They allow us to build community, connect to times and worlds that do not always remain, and they feel good!  Her stories were wonderful!  They meant even more to our family as we have visited the Aldo Leopold Shack and Leopold Center. Also,  despite the fact that we live in the city our family has collected our own stories about chickadees, crows, and time spent in nature.  

As summer wound down I have been thinking a lot about storytelling.  We attended a family camp at the North Cascades Institute where stories was the theme. We spent a weekend making stories.  Then when we came home I happened to be reading the book, Let them be Eaten By Bears : A Fearless Guide to Taking Our Kids into the Great Outdoors by Peter Brown Hoffmeister and within it was a section about the importance of storytelling.  In the book Hoffmeister refers on page 78 to a study “ According to a team of scientists at Princeton University, functional MRI scans prove that stories link the brains of the storyteller and listeners. During a Story, the brain activity of all the people involved becomes synchronized, identical activity wise.” I can’t help but feel grateful to have been connected with those in attendance at the Royal Room last night and especially with a Leopold.  I am full of gratitude and awe.    

It is now time to collect our own family stories, especially those memories which connect us to nature.  

Reflections on Summer

During the summer there is almost no time to write.  My twin boys and I are busy with play, art, and work together and alongside each other.  In the end I hope they feel like they had great adventures, learned skills and developed deeper connections to nature and community in a way that complements the rigidity of school. We explore mediums for artistic expression. We invent. We play in the yard as well as go to urban parks for playful afternoons and long evenings.  It is important to me that we play often until the light of day has flickered away.  We built forts in the woods and we camped.  We tried to eat local food and chomp on corn on the cob outside as much as we could before the bees and wasps found us.  Here are some of the things that make you feel connected to the world  in the city or country:

Time with sky  I want the boys to grow up knowing to pay attention to the clouds above them and the horizon away from them.  They have learned the old adage "red sky at night, sailors delight and red sky in morning sailors take warning." I also want them to experience the crows flying over and the sounds of the world around them as the sun sets.

Stars and the Moon  We spent a couple of nights in New Halem and Colonial Creek away from City Lights, but ironically near the dams that provide so much of the City of Seattle's light.  We also look out the window or stand on the porch when brushing our teeth...looking for the moon.

Water, Exploring it by throwing rocks, searching for invertebrates, watching streams flow and experiencing the tides.

Wind  Playing with kites, hearing the trees, and knowing when to stay out of the forest.

Temperature Variations I am thankful that my boys can experience the hot humidity of the midwest on visits with family as well as that they can survive the cold rain on a summer camping trip in the NW.

All of these experiences occur by making time out of doors as part of life.    There are so many more, but by experiencing the elements, by paying attention to them, it seems we must be making memories more meaningful.

Reflections on Summer

During the summer there is almost no time to write.  My twin boys and I are busy with play, art, and work together and alongside each other.  In the end I hope they feel like they had great adventures, learned skills and developed deeper connections to nature and community in a way that complements the rigidity of school. We explore mediums for artistic expression. We invent. We play in the yard as well as go to urban parks for playful afternoons and long evenings.  It is important to me that we play often until the light of day has flickered away.  We built forts in the woods and we camped.  We tried to eat local food and chomp on corn on the cob outside as much as we could before the bees and wasps found us.  Here are some of the things that make you feel connected to the world  in the city or country:

Time with sky  I want the boys to grow up knowing to pay attention to the clouds above them and the horizon away from them.  They have learned the old adage "red sky at night, sailors delight and red sky in morning sailors take warning." I also want them to experience the crows flying over and the sounds of the world around them as the sun sets.

Stars and the Moon  We spent a couple of nights in New Halem and Colonial Creek away from City Lights, but ironically near the dams that provide so much of the City of Seattle's light.  We also look out the window or stand on the porch when brushing our teeth...looking for the moon.

Water, Exploring it by throwing rocks, searching for invertebrates, watching streams flow and experiencing the tides.

Wind  Playing with kites, hearing the trees, and knowing when to stay out of the forest.

Temperature Variations I am thankful that my boys can experience the hot humidity of the midwest on visits with family as well as that they can survive the cold rain on a summer camping trip in the NW.

All of these experiences occur by making time out of doors as part of life.    There are so many more, but by experiencing the elements, by paying attention to them, it seems we must be making memories more meaningful.

Toddle Tales and Trails: Inch Worm Connections

This month I led a story activity about bugs. Since my two seven year olds favorite activity is putting out the stuffed Audubon birds- we started with them: Each child who came to the session was given a stuffed bird. Then I asked specific details, such as," if your bird has blue raise your hand."  When they raised their hand, they showed the class the bird and then I gave them the birds name if they didn't know it and the child played its call. Then we sang a version of a song taught to me by a fabulous naturalist, Anastasia,  "Blue bird, blue bird fly through my window... who will the next one be. " I called out a new color until we had heard and seen all the birds.

Next I asked what birds eat and we talked about bugs and worms.  My boys assisted me and gave each child a cut out string (one inch) and I told them to measure with them.   Since they are young children I asked them to find something smaller and something bigger.... Then I read Leo Lionni's Book called Inch Worm.  Next we read the book Sing By Joe Raposo and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. Thankfully some of the parents and adults attending helped sing as well.  Kids joined the second time through.

Then it was time for our hike.  We did a bug hunt.  We stopped and played with the parachute.  I showed the kids a preserved mole and we found mole holes...and then sang as we did the parachute...a version of the song I wish I were a mole in the ground....

Adventure Playground

This forest has yet again been transformed by children's creativity, a great parks program, and donated scrap wood. Each summer kids come with dreams and ideas and then are given a few guidelines, lent a toolbox and a hard hat: Time to build!

How Trees Calm Us Down - The New Yorker

This article, written last year, is a good reminder to take care of our street trees!

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-is-a-tree-worth

Butterflies in the Garden: Lesson

Today I presented a lesson on butterflies to a class of first graders.  The lesson was to compliment their classroom studies on the life cycle of butterflies.We began class by doing a kinethestic activity acting out the life stages of a butterfly.  Rolled up as an egg.  Hatched into a cocoon.  Standing with hands over head for a chrysalis and then arms out for a butterly.  

The days objective was two fold: I wanted students to think about the unique traits that help flowers attract butterflies to their pollen.  In this part of the lesson the students had to draw their own flower based on what they had observed in a walk around the garden and also by the story that I read.  The expectation was to design a flower- thinking about color, shape and lines.  Students noted that smells also contribute to flowers attracting butterflies.  This component could not be expressed in a drawing, but my optional activity was to write a poem about how a flower calls to butterflies.  In this case you could definitely add scent.

The second part of the lesson was to identify plants in the garden for each stage of the life cycle.  I put the children into groups and gave them each life cycle cards.  They were then supposed to find places around the garden to put their egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly.  The kids had a good time doing this, but the papers would not stay put as it was a blustery day. I think it would be good to either laminate the cards or actually think of other ways to represent these areas in the garden.

Finally a culminating activity that would have been nice would have been to put their flowers on a large piece of butcher paper representing our classroom’s garden.   

Toddlers and Eagles

Teaching is a joy, a dance, an improv.  I am thankful to be able to volunteer regularly leading a Parent/Toddler story time.  We do art. We sing. We move. We hike in nature.  My wish is that families leave our hour together with some lingering wonders, ideas and inspiration to guide them throughout the week.  Today’s story was Eaglets World by Evelyn White Minshull.  While it is a rather verbose story for young toddlers listening to a read aloud, it is nonetheless beautiful and would be fabulous for a lap reading. It also worked today with our class.  Reading it gave us a storyline for later when we gathered sticks and leaves to make a nest on our hike: the kids crouched into the nest making their bodies into eaglets in eggs and then hatching. 

A sweet moment of the morn was lying on the ground looking up at a tree with two nests in it!  Birds were flying overhead.  You could see leaves, bark, nests and the sky.

Toddler Tales and Trails April

It was a gorgeous spring day and we focused on colors and shapes of flowers.  The story of the day was Flowers are Calling by Rita Gray and Kenard Pak.  It is a book about why flowers have different colors and shapes- primarily to call insects and bees not mammals.  The group was large and the pictures were perhaps a bit too detailed for young children, but it would be a great book if you had a small group.  We sang De Colores and waved scarves as though we were flowers.  Then a poem and a song later the sun beckoned us outside. 

Spring shouts in Seattle on days like today.  You can find every color represented in the plantings at parks and yards.  However, we did balanced our hike with the subtleness of the native plant garden, whose diversity tends to be in greens and shape rather than bright color which we explored in the central island. We played can you find- with color cards.  And we also looked for different shapes.  In the future I might even bring a bell….a cup…other objects that might represent the shape of a flower.

To play in the sun and celebrate spring we also did parachute games and circle songs and a game of “I spy.”

Walking in the woods

...discovering ferry houses at a local green space!

Planting Vine Maples

On Saturday at the school garden/ playground work party I led a crew in planting evergreen strawberry and a couple of vine maples on the playground.

Planting with children is amazing.  They love the dirt, the worms and the work.  I was amazed at how quickly our project was done.  They wanted to do more.  Wangari Maathai knew the power of planting in leading the Greenbelt movement.  It does good on so many levels.  Her heart must have sang with joy often. That is how I feel when planting trees, especially with children.

After we had dug the holes for the young vine maples we took turns saying our hopes for the trees: connecting the present to the future, taking a moment to be thankful.

Crows and the Web of Life in Our Cities

In recent years there has been a plethora of books on Crows.  I read one of them a few years ago, by John Marzluff called Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans and it connected to and influenced my own observations of crows.  Since my boys have been born I have watched crows morning and night fly across the sky. I have taken note of where they sit and eat out my bedroom window.  I find gifts from them in our backyard.  What I didn't realize was how so many people have this connection to crows and to nature.

Now I have once again picked up a book on crows, called Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.  It turns out she is a neighbor in my own city, Seattle.  She is also a naturalist...an urban naturalist as I consider myself.  I feel like I have found community.

There is a community of urban naturalists and we all have our own art and approach.  Another local urban naturalist that I follow is the Kelly Brennen who blogs at the Metropolitan Field Guide.  Her writing, art and links give me guidance and inspiration.  Then of course are the naturalists and organizations that I have taken classes from or worked alongside in the city.   This cadre of people: watching nature, taking actions to inspire others to see nature, and working to make change so that our urban communities grow and develop with conservation, greenery, and diversity.

Planting with Children

Yesterday I led a group of third graders in planting salal and sword fern in their school's new nature council ring.  It was  great to work with the children. They were so excited to dig and get the bare root plants in the ground.  They have been studying native plants so it was easy to connect to prior knowledge.  I asked, “What can native plants provide for animals?” and they made many suggestions from food, to shelter.  They also knew that the plants provide resources for humans from clean air, beauty and to making perfumes.  The latter is what one person attributed the missing needles on the playground's young grand fir.  We used that as a teachable moment, that trees can provide uses for us, but that we need to be careful when they are young to not stress a tree by pulling off it's needles.  This led perfectly into a discussion of photosynthesis and how we can care for our plants so that someday they can be big and tall.

Children exclaimed with joy with each scoop of dirt and with every worm.  There was also the satisfied looks and proud statements from the children after  having carefully tucked a new seedling into a home on their school grounds. 

Opportunities to plant and tend for the earth and their community are so great for children.  In doing so they see  how they can make a difference in their world.  They also learn how all our actions have effects.  

I love to plant with kids! The more often- the better. 

How Hospital Gardens Help Patients Heal - Scientific American

Having worked at a hospital, I agree with the research that suggests gardens help patients. They offer a place for peace and rejuvenation for staff, family members and visitors as well.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nature-that-nurtures/

March Toddler Tales and Trails

It was wonderful to team teach with the new Americorp Early Childhood Educator at the Nature Center.   We met together and planned yesterday and today it made it much easier for us to keep 15 or so children and their parents engaged in nature exploration.

Our topic today was salamanders.  However, we did not find any salamanders at Seward Park.  There may not be any.  But, we will continue to look.  In the meantime here is what we did to engage the youngsters in nature connection and play.

First the children entered and made a play dough salamander.  Then we read a few books: In the Small Pond by Denise Fleming and The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer.  In The Salamander Room a young boys brings a salamander to his house and in telling his mom how he plans to care for it- he connects his salamander to the web of nature.  

We shared a few poems and songs before heading out on our nature walk and exploration.  Along the native plant trail we had children and their caregivers look for things that salamanders need- where could your salamander live, what could it eat- many are mentioned in the book-and along this trail were leaves, decomposing logs, insects,  large stones and even small pools of water.  

Next we played a salamander game.

Finally we ended at the lake and dipped for water macro invertebrates as well as searched along the shore.  The kids found mostly shells and rocks, but had a great time scooping and exploring.  They also used magnifiers to investigate.

We ended with a couple of songs and a closing circle.

In Like a Lion

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.  Yesterday in Seattle was a “lion” day.  The winds were blowing and an occasional rain would pour down. My children said they had only two recesses - as the third one was canceled due to rain.  Luckily, the rain stopped by the end of the day and my husband and i gathered up the kites and went to pick up the boys. 

On the school playground after school kids excitedly watched as we unwound the kite tales and checked to see if the kite string was fastened and untangled.  Then the kids took turns and with  a bit of running the kites were unfurled to the wind and lifted.  Kids gathered gleefully shouting “my turn, my turn.”

“I have never flown a kite before,” said several of the children.   I was glad that we had brought extras. Soon there were three- four kids at each kite taking turnings, running raising the kite into gusts- watching them dance and then often tumble back to the ground.

A couple of the kites were of lighter material and once up stayed high in the sky.

Indeed this was a day of wind blowing, kids joyfully laughing and getting tangled in strings & soon more neighbors joining.  It was a great way to greet March.

This reminds me of how much fun wind can be.  Here are some other ideas for playing in the wind:

Get small wooded rings and tie on strings to catch the wind

Give out scarves for children to throw in the air and then catch

Make home made kites out of all sorts of materials- see which flies the best

Sing: Lets Go Fly a Kite from Mary Poppins

Spring

My heart sings out when my almost seven year old boys notice and wonder about things in nature. Today one of my boys said, "we have that flower in our yard," as he pointed to a patch of purple crocuses along his path to school.

My other son asked, Isn't it early this year that the daffodils are already blooming? I noticed them as early as Valentines day?!"

I suggested, we should keep a journal so that we note when they are opening and can notice if they are coming up earlier each year.

These understandings of nature, climate and the seasons let me know that even though my boys are in a dense city - they are not disconnected from Nature.

Seed balls

Today at the Beacon Hill good forest work party we made seed balls. We added many nitrogen fixing legumes such as peas and fava beans, plus some other edibles. It was a team effort. 5 parts clay to 5 parts compost and a bit of water. Then we sun baked them. Next is to find a place to throw them!!

Thank You!

Thank you to those of you who came out for the Schools Out Washington Summer Con Workshop on Incorporating Nature and Outdoor Time in your Summer Youth Programs. I wish we could have spent time outside listening, feeling, seeing and playing in urban nature, but time went so fast!  Thank you for sharing your stories and memories.  Thank you for all you do for our children.  I hope you find some time to take in nature as you get inspired for your after school and summer programs. 

I did want to follow-up with a resource on the benefits of walking to school as someone asked.  Here is one resource from Safe Routes to School that lists the benefits.   Another local resource if you are trying to plan walks in Seattle is Feet First where you can access maps of many of our local communities.

Toddler Tales and Trails: Moles

Today we focused our lesson on: Moles and what they eat.  We started with an opening activity of making play dough worms and stamp insects.  Then I showed a stuffed mole.  We talked about what moles eat,  the insects and worms that are in our soils.  We sang a song that was an adaption of a song in the curriculum Growing Up Wild. It went.  “the worms are mixing up the soil, up the soil, up the soil, the worms are mixing up the soil, now plants can grow”  we added a verse about bugs and then moles.  After singing we read the story of Mole’s Hill by Lois Ehlert.  Then we tried a parachute mole game where we pretended the kids were moles and the adults held up the parachute as kids tunnelled under it. 

We also sang the song “Wish I were a mole in the ground” learned from Pete Seeger from his Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Fishes cd, but with variations … such as if I were a mole I would tunnel through this town...eat wiggly worms.

Then it was time for our hike.  We stopped for an opportunity to dig for critters living underground.  We found and explored  mole holes and then play a mole game.  Kids had to find bugs & worms (plasic) first using their eyes and then being guided by their adult with their eyes closed, since moles usually have quite week eyesight and adaptation due to their life underground.

Parks That Connect You to Nature Through All Your Senses | Conservation | Parks & Recreation Magazine

This article reminded me about how powerful it is to take time and pay attention to all your senses in nature.  Sometimes it is a personal choice or you are guided to rely on senses you don't usually use by activities such as a blindfold walk, however parks and outdoor spaces can entice you with plantings that smell wonderful or textures that make you want to touch near the trail.

This article  shows that certain elements of nature can make a big difference- especially when in high trafficked areas such as playgrounds.

http://www.parksandrecreation.org/2016/January/Parks-That-Connect-You-to-Nature-Through-All-Your-Senses/

As I was rereading the book Your Brain on Nature: The Science of Natures Influence on your Health, Happiness and Vitality by Eva M. Selhub MD and Alan Logan, Nd.  I came upon a quote by John Muir that starts off a chapter...although I can't find the authors say the Muir source referenced I am going to write it so I can find where it comes from...and because it reminds me to use my nose.

" The fragrance with which one is feasted in the woods is, like music, derived from a thousand untraceable sources..the whole air vibrates with myriad voices blended that we cannot analyze.  So also we breathe the fragrant violet, the rosiny pine and spicy fir, the rich, invigorating aroma of plushy bogs in which a thousand herbs are soaked. "

Thank you John Muir!

Toddler Tales and Trails Owls

We opened with a short owl activity where kids made owls and glued on feathers. Then we looked at stuffed owls that the Audubon has on display and we talked about their similarities and difference.  

Our stories were  Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and next we read Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughten. 

We listened to a silent owl wing.

We went on a walk noticing an owl vomitorium.  We also notice an eagles nest.  It was a beautiful Mt. Rainier Day so actually went over time and did a longer loop.  We played the game Owl and Mouse.  We also played another game where kids and adults had to touch a tree when it was "day" and run around pretend flying and hunting during the night. 

As a closing I asked children to talk with their adult about what was their favorite part of the day: the top activities were mystery bags and the hike.  In terms of nature the most engaging activities for kids was touching trees, discovering mole holes & for parents the owl vomiium and finding the new eagles nest (it was high up in the tree and not as meaningful to the little ones).