Sketch of 50 Activities To Do With Kids At Nature Camp/Summer Camp With Science Activities

 
                    LIST OF ACTIVITIES FOR SUMMER CAMP


                        PHYSICAL STUFF
3) begin day with  tai chi inspired by natural rhythms
                   mad rannung around in circles
16) morning hike to warm up

44) walking around in the field spacing ourselves out:
    how far is a 100 ft ?
    how far is 1000ft ?
    how much is an acre?  can 12 of us surround it?
    can we spread ourselves out in a line a mile long?
    whats it like to run 100ft, 1000ft?
    walk a mile, 5 miles?

    make pilobolus like animal and tree sculpture acts

35) learn some yoga.  learn to stand on your head

36) move like different animals

30) how from how far away can we hear each other? see each other?

31) can we discover what's happening out there by smell?  track people
animals by smell?

32) what's it like to wander around in the woods blindfolded, can you
recognize stuff, find your way?  do it in pairs: one blind one not

33) sit in front of a patch of grass pond etc.. for an hour and just watch!
pretend your a frog.  take notes?



                                    CONTESTS
25) contests/games:
    which team can find the most insects/leaves etc..  maybe over the whole week
    track animals
    one team hides stuff or makes some kind of puzzle... and the other team solves it...

34) scavenger hunt with teams




                            INTERPERSONAL STUFF
5) getting to know each other:  what nature stuff do you like, sports games,
hobbies

13) are they really into baseball, nintendo taiquando pop music...

7) find out which kids are into running around and playing games, and which are quieter, want to explore things...

27) make teams by the second day of 3-4 kids to stick together during the week for diff activities?


6) on this week long nature expedition each of you is the group's expert at something, let's find out what it is.

14) each kid gets to lead an activity of their choosing related to their interests like tai quan do, music, sports...

42) different group adopts a diff area of the farm to get to know and has to take the rest of us on a walk to show us what's there




                                SHAMAN STUFF
4) first day: "this is a special place, it has things to say to you, can you hear it?  let's listen before we begin all our busy activities

17) each kid finds an animal guide/study at the beginning and sticks to it all week and sees what he finds



                                PROJECTS
44) do some simple surveying and make a map

45) make a topo map!

21) spend the week on a project to find something new to report to science     write it up

30) do a bird plant tree... survey to keep on record.

31) each week my group makes observations on something that accumulates all summer

22) make an (animal story?) puppet show

23) make up a symphony of the meadow with recorders, drums, whatever





                            CRAFTS
10) find stuff to make crafts out of

11) find stuff to make every day useful items out of

12) make paper

28) make jewelry

26) carve different kinds of woods.  are they allowed to use knives?

27) make animals, puppets out of plant stuff

37) find natural dies to paint with

1) its beautiful out here, draw it, paint it

2) pressed plant collection

28) if a bunch are into computers, lets make computer programs to do simple ecology simulations




                            COLLECTION
32) collect stuff to take home?  (what are they allowed to take off the grounds)

33) collect a jar of pond water to take home and observe

24) make terrariums to take home

38) leaf collection




                            SCIENCE
8) learn to use an Identification key

9) who think there are a 100 different creatures out here?

29) teach em conway life, to play GO.  compare chess and go?

39) collect stories, ie watch and find things that happen, as many
interactions between two diff creatures as possible.

40) look at the place using only nouns for objects.  then look at the place using only verbs for interactions

43) what can we count and calculate?  how many leaves on a tree?  total surface area?  how high?  how much does a tree weigh?  How many snails in the pond?  how much water flows through the stream every minute, hour, year?
how much soil gets moved every year, century, million years?...
    time sound delays, get speed of sound
    if thunderstorms calculate how far
    how high are clouds?





                            STORIES
18) Native american stories: coyote!

19) spenser holst stories!

25) if they have summer reading assignments talk about them



                            MUSIC
23) get em all recorders, teach em to play

24) imitate bird calls

25) find good songs to learn





29) repair/maintain a path  or do some kind of work project around the farm.

15) build a fort  (can we?)

16) or at least lashing poles, make a shelter, a (the carrying injured
people thing we did at scouts),


20) who lived on this land before us?  find evidence?


26) whole foods lunch. enjoy its aliveness. discover where it came from
how it grew



41) come up with the best names for different plants and animals
that don't have common names


46) how diverse is a population of individuals?  how about us?  who's the fastest, longest endurance, see the farthest, best hearing, strongest, lightest, heaviest, tallest, shortest, best memory, best at balancing, sing the highest note, lowest note, most limber...