Living near green spaces could add 2.5 years to your life, new research finds | The Seattle Times

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/living-near-green-spaces-could-add-2-5-years-to-your-life-new-research-finds/

Swimming Beaches - Parks | seattle.gov

https://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/swimming-beaches

Are You Doing Recess Right? A New Tool Can Help | Edutopia

An article that may help as I plan for my first year teaching PE!

https://www.edutopia.org/article/are-you-doing-recess-right-new-tool-can-help

End of Summer Vacation

The days are getting shorter.  The sun now returns to child sized days.  Bedtime is once again round eight in the evening.

 School starts.  Memories linger.

This summer was one where our family traced the state of Washington in our travels.  Our connection to the land and the people has grown.  We know the trees that are burning across our lands in these awful fires of 2017.   We have traveled by road and by water around our state.

I am full of gratitude for the time we have spent in nature.  Here are a few small memories that I want to preserve.

We camped without any agenda.  Therefore the kids were able to make their own discoveries.  In three days at Lake Wenatchee the boys watched chipmunks, ground squirrels and douglas squirrels eat vine maple seeds, hide in tunnels, chase one another, and munch on doug-fir cones.

They also saw a pileated woodpecker, then two woodpeckers, both eating bugs from beneath the bark of the ponderosa pines.  The boys followed them barefoot.  Then, one ran for a camera, but it was too late.  No photo, but the birds have imprinted themselves on the minds of the children.

A family nature hike deep in the north cascades with song, friendship, and a waterfall as well as bright colors of wildflowers in late afternoon light among the burned out trees from the 2015 Wolverine Fire.

Invented games of pinecone baseball.
Playing catch, then distracted by deer.

The solar eclipse in the zone of totality.

The red sun in these days of wildfires around out state.

Wonder.

Adventure Playground

It has been four years that my children and I have been regularly going to the nearby adventure playground.  Four years of connecting to the beautiful cedar, maple, and fir trees composing a patch of forest on nearby Mercer Island.  Four years of learning how to hammer nails, remove nails, measure boards, and use a level and other tool while participating in and witnessing remarkable creativity.

The trees are marked with memories.  They have witnessed so much, even in just these few years,  these few visits, my kids can point to different parts of the forest and explain what they had built there: They remember building with parents,  grandparents, neighbors and friends old and new.   They have heard numerous language spoken in the forest around them.   They remember the nails, the challenges, the mistakes and successes in each tree, even while new structures are taking their place.

The rules are simple.  No open toed shoes.  Do not take down structures ( they will come down in September when it closes for the year).  Have fun.

Each summer the forest starts out a blank slate.  Each year kids, some the same and many new, move in to build with donated lumber, nails, and imaginations gone wild: forts galore.

My children at age eight are still learning how to build structures.  Nonetheless they have a feeling of confidence as they approach their work.  They are learning to judge what is a safe situation and what is dangerous.  They know how to make a platform for themselves in the woods.  They can work with friends to solve problems and then share cookies and snacks.

I hope these lessons and memories follow them through life.  This is place based hands on learning at its best.  I am so thankful for the Mercer Island Parks and Recreation and their donors for sustaining this program.  I am so thankful for these trees that stand tall and strong withstanding the new structures each year.

Nature Bridge

This past weekend our family attended Nature Bridge Family Camp, nestled at a historic facility in Olympic National Park it feels a bit like a second home as we have been there before.  It makes us happy to see our children so comfortable playing in the meadow, meandering the foot trails and exploring the rivers and waters in a place known by so many since they are part of our public lands.   

We attend Nature Bridge Family Camp to learn through play, build community, connect to nature and the Pacific Northwest and to sustain these amazing organizations that are working in partnerships with our National Parks and our school children.  

This past weekend we explored Tidepools at Salt Creek.  We canoed Lake Crescent in a Salish Style Canoe and we hiked to Marymere Falls.   

We played games including: 

Low Tide High Tide  (barnacle, sea cucumber, sea anemone)

Earth & Atmosphere

Sea Lion/ Seal race

Dolphin Echolocation 

Plus, there was plenty of time for the type of free play that all children need.  Technology was put aside and there was time for new friendships, frisbee, invented ball games, and the exploration of skipping stones in the water.

The nature educators were inspirational and well prepared.  Each activity was well prepped so families were able to experience the tools of scientists, but have the wonder of children power investigations. 

We even sang and had a fireside ceremony.   All quite amazing for a single weekend.  Thank you.

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/