The third component of our new Home Grown Stewards program is our private Facebook group where we post daily activities for families.
For 9 weeks this summer, from June 15 – August 14, participants can log in every weekday to find a new activity that can be completed at home, either with no materials needed or items you already have on hand. Each week has a different theme that the activities are based on.
Monday’s activities with Kim are aimed at our younger learners while Wednesdays with Ellie include a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) activity.
Finishing up our third week, we’ve already had some fantastic activities! The theme for the first week was birds, with followers encouraged to make a bird’s nest out of natural materials and other objects found around the house, engineer a bird that actually flies, craft silhouettes for their windows so birds don’t fly into them, and more!
Week two, which emphasized the importance of pollinators, had families fashioning a bee bath because bees and other pollinators need fresh water just as much as humans do, creating a butterfly feeder, and simulating pollination with a homemade bug.
Here’s a sample of the cool stuff you can find out in our daily activities group.
With many families out of town and busy with 4th of July festivities this, the third week, we issued daily outdoor challenges, such as going on a listening walk, observing and relaxing in nature, and picking up litter.
As a bonus, every Sunday one of our staff will post a storytime with a book that relates to that week’s theme as well as share the schedule for the coming week.
Here’s a sample of storytime with Nora.
The best part about this group, aside from the awesome activities, is that families can pick and choose what they do. If you don’t have time to complete everything one week, you can go back and do them at any time; they’re not going anywhere!
Families can also join at any time. There’s still six more weeks of fun coming up, plus all of the past posts to catch up on! If you’re interested, shoot us an email at ecocamp@happydancingturtle.org and we’ll send you the form to sign up for this donation-based program.