Interactive Animals Fun and Summer Camp Planning

Since the last post, we have sure been keeping busy. We took a trip to the local wild animal park, and had a great time. We have a membership, so we try to go out there once every 1-2 months. It's a great chance for the kids to see the animals up close, and the staff there are so engaging and informative, we all learn new things every time! Before I add in a bunch of pictures of this trip there, I'll share what else we have been working on.

We took a trip to the craft store and picked up all the materials we would need (hopefully) for our summer camp craft projects. The kids sat down with me and we made a list of all the things that they would like to do this summer. It was a great way to get a general feel for what things they would like to do. Some of it may be tough to fit in around Reagan's 2 day a week karate schedule, and Rob's work, but we'll find a way. Based on their interests, as well as the craft projects, I've made some weekly lesson plans to do with the kids to make it a bit more structured for them. They love having planned activities, which demands that I do some planning. So, this summer, we'll be learning about trains, drama, bugs and insects, the food we eat, the ocean, and space! We have field trips planned to the Arizona Train Museum (trains), The Phoenix Children's Museum, the aquarium (ocean), and Meteor Crater (space).

We're kicking things off this week with a combined week of drama and trains. Lots of craft projects and interactive stuff for dramatic play, and then some great kid friendly books about trains. We're ending the week with our trip to the AZ RR Museum on Saturday. Thankfully we looked up the info for it early, since it is closed starting June 1 for the hot summer months. Today we started out our drama week with a tie dye project. The kids chose the patterns they wanted and helped with banding their shirts and immersing them in the pre-soak. Then they chose their colors and I dyed the shirts. They're sitting for the dye to set now, but should be ready to be washed out tonight, so I'll post a pic of them when they are done. We can wear these shirts as "costumes" later in the week. But the main intent is for them to last the summer. Just like tie dyed shirts you might make at summer camp! I'm planning to have them wear them on field trip days to make them easier to spot, and also to give them something to wear that can get a little dirty without worry.



Counter clockwise from top left: Adam feeding Kibo the giraffe, the kids at the Pet N Feed, Reagan feeding the iiland (sp?), Reagan checking out an ostrich egg, Adam checking out an ostrich egg- before he accidentally dropped it off the unimog and it broke open.

FUN FACTS:
*A giraffe's tongue is blue because it has extra pigment in it that acts as sunscreen to protect the tongue while the giraffe is eating (many hours a day).
*The iiland is the largest antelope species in the world.
*Ostriches lay their eggs in a community nest. When each female take her turn sitting on them, she moves her eggs to the middle.
*An ostrich egg is approximately equivalent to 18 chicken eggs.