Toddler Tales and Trails

It was wonderful to get the opportunity to volunteer at my local park and lead the Toddler Tales and Trails.  I am always talking about the benefits of getting children out in nature and while I take my own out I realize that leading large groups of young children (ages 1-3 in today's situation) is a huge challenge.

I decided that I would focus on looking for what birds eat because I knew that kids would find insects and worms at ground level. I try to keep in mind that kids want hands on things.   They also want to move their bodies.  However, they are also capable of connecting to stories.  Here is basically what we did in just one hour:

Introduction to names, a weather check in ,  and a song, "Open Shut Them"
Then I asked how the kids got to the park and shared with them that we often bus to the park and in some cities you can even take the train to the park.  Then I opened the book called Subway Sparrow and out came a feather.  We used the one finger touch to gently pass it around.  Then I read them the story.  It is about how three people who speak all different languages help a sparrow out of a train.  It inspired me to ask the park naturalists if this was indeed the correct way to get out a bird and they said yes, but usually a dark scarf will actually help to calm the bird down more.  Even if a bird crashes into a window and gets disoriented by putting it into a dark box and leaving for a while it will get re-centered and then about an hour later you can safely release it.   At the end of the story I had a stuffed sparrow wrapped in a cloth and we opened it, listened to its call and passed it around.

We sang "Little Bird, Little bird fly through my window."

We then discussed what birds need to eat and the kids came up with insects and worms...so I did a "walk and talk" through a book called An Earthworm's Life which is all about worms.

Kids were getting wiggly so we did sing "Way up in the Sky" as a repeat after me song.  

Then, it was time to go hiking.  Hiking with probably 12 children and their grownups is a challenge.  I wanted it to be as hands on as possible and so I found open places for the children to look for insects.  We did use a bug jar magnifier and passed around a rolypoly.  The kids all did a one finger touch of a worm and later a slug.  The kids hiked. We stopped a couple of times to sing and I did open an insect counting book for a brief time along the path so that we could get the whole group gathered together.  The naturalist who accompanied us led us in a song about wiggly worms and some kids even crawled about on the ground wiggling.    We also sang a song that the naturalist had provided about a Five Little Robins. 

All in all it seemed like most kids were engaged.  The naturalist said when I asked for advice that sometimes with such a big group she tells the parents to look with their child along the trail together and ask open ended questions about what they see.  This was a great suggestion-- I was trying to decide as I led the group whether I should focus purely on the children or also the adults.  It is a grand balancing act.   I think it is most natural to focus on both, plus the experience is hopefully one that will inspire families to get out with their children even more.

Closing song was "The More we get Together"