A grab bag of nature activities.

Editor's Note: The following activities appeared in The Nature Specialist: A Complete Guide to Program and Activities, by Lenore Miller. Published by ACA, the book is available through the ACt, Bookstore. Call 1-800-428-2267.

Sensory Experiences

Children should be encouraged to use all of their senses in their nature contacts. A session (or severaD can be devoted to feeling various objects, both in- and out-of-doors. Outdoors, feel bark, plant stems, leaves, rocks, animals. Have the children use their cheeks, the backs of their hands, even their toes at the lake.

For indoors or grassy lawn sessions, try these ideas: Sew little cloth bags, or use small paper bags. Put a few objects in each bag, and give each child one of his or her own. Try a bird feather, an acorn, a peanut, etc. Without looking into the bag, feel one object. Can it be identified just by touch? A similar activity involves using all of the senses to identify a specific individual of a group, i.e., your peanut, your pebble or rock, your feather or leaf. Give each child one. Have him or her examine it carefully, feel it, smell it, turn it over on all sides, rub it on his or her cheek. Then, collect and pool them and see if kids can pick out their own.

The message of this lesson is although there are distinguishing characteristics of a species (like peanuts, or even people), there are also variations within a population that makes one different from another. This is true of rocks and robins and is readily observed in humans.

Another variation: Work with the smells and/or the tastes of nature, using flowers, leaves, mushrooms, soil. (Note: tasting should be limited to known plants.)

Adopt-A-Tree

Adopt-A-Tree is an ongoing activity that would start the first week of camp and continue throughout the summer (and perhaps be picked up again the summer after). Write up an adoption certificate for each child's tree.

The camper can learn as much about the tree as possible. What kind is it? How tall is it? How big around? About how old? Who lives in it, on it, or near it? What does it give us (clean air, shade, coolness, moisture, oxygen, wind break, etc.)? What kind of seeds does it make?

Make rubbings of its bark and leaves. Draw its picture. Write a poem about it. Hug it. Listen to its inner stirrings. Love it. Make a booklet about it. Protect it from harm.

Finding the Evidence

Most animals shy away from people, but the sharp observer can find their traces if one knows where to look and what to look for. Children love to play detective and search for the clues animals leave behind. Capitalize on this; create an excitement about the search.

Materials: Variety of field guides, including track guide; lenses; paper and pencil. Optional: clipboards.

Procedure: Discuss what kinds of things you'll be looking for. Animals make their presence known by actual sightings, dropped feathers, food remains, droppings, holes in trees or ground, tracks, tree markings, ground markings. Campers are to find as many animal traces as possible. They may list them, or check them off on a prepared list - or you may hold a master list and check each off as you come to it.

    Things to look for:
  * Bark tracings - made by bark
beetles
  * Bird egg shells
  * Boring beetles - listen with
your ears against a tree trunk
  * Cicada castings, empty nymph
cases, emergence holes
  * Cocoons, empty or full
  * Earthworm tracks in mud
  * Eggs laid on leaves
  * Empty insect exoskeletons
-left when mature insect emerges
  * Galls
  * Holes in tree trunks, made by
different woodpeckers
  * Leaf miners' trails on leaves
  * Leaves on weedy plants which
have been eaten - by whom?
  * Leaves rolled by insects
  * Mouse trails (look in the grass
for tiny paths)
  * Mushrooms nibbled on
  * Old birds' nests - who made
them?
  * Recycled homes - mice using
wasps' nests, bees using mouse
nests, etc.
  * Remnants of mud wasps' nests
  * Sandy mounds - ant hills
(Watch out for stinging red
ants.)
  * Sawdust - carpenter ants
  * Snail or slug track (silvery line)
  * Soil removed and deposited
for tunnel home
  * Spider's web
  * Spittle bug's foamy home
(early in summer)
  * Squirrels' nests - big cluster
of leaves, high in trees
  * Tracks
  * Tree leaves partially eaten
- by whom?
  * Tunnels
  * Worm castings

A good camera with a close-up lens may be able to capture some of these for display or for a scrapbook.

Caution: Before starting the walk, the campers should be cautioned not to stick anything into a hole in the ground or in a tree. It may injure the occupant or the person on the other end. Bees, for instance, make nests underground and will sting when disturbed. Just look.

Questions of the Week Such ongoing and repetitive contests maintain interest in the nature program and encourage research and the seeking of knowledge. De-

pending on your budget and camper interest, prizes could be awarded every week, or points can accumulate and the person with the most points wins. The prize serves as a lasting reminder or souvenir.

Keep paper, pencil and answer box available outside the nature room/building, so that kids can participate even when you're not there.

Sample questions:

* Name three evergreen trees growing in camp.

* Name three nocturnal animals.

* Name three crested birds.

* Name three social insects.

* What local animal is a marsupial?

Suitable prizes: National Wildlife Federation stamps and stamp book; assorted nature coloring books; t-shirts imprinted with a nature 1ogo or conservationist slogan; natural items usable for art projects - pressed flowers in leaded glass, etc.

Pregnancy in Twenty Mammal Species

Reproduction is a source of endless fascination for all ages, and its discussion belongs in the nature shack with the nature specialist. Here are the number of days in the pregnancies of some mammals:

  640  African elephant
   560  Rhinoceros
   450  Giraffe
   360  Porpoise
   337  Horse
   280  Cow
   275  Orangutan
   267  Human being
   246  Reindeer
   240  Polar bear
   180  Honey badger
   93   Panther
   64   Cat
   64   Dog
   54   Fox
   40   Kangaroo
   31   Rabbit
   19   House Mouse
   16   Hamster
   13   Opossum

This list could be used in a variety of ways:

* List and post by itself

* List and post with pictures of animals obtained from nature magazines, or Safari cards

* Paste or draw picture of animal on card, put number on back to turn it into a guessing game

* Paste or draw picture of animal with lift-up card for display/game

* Write name of animal (or picture) on one index card, numbers on another. Have

* campers try to match, or arrange in ascending or descending order.

* Use as a starting point for discussion. How are numbers of days related to such factors as size? Which ones of the mammals are more highly developed at birth? Which ones are more dependent and/or undeveloped? Compare human's gestation period with the others.

A good time to carry out these activities would be if and when one of the small mammals you keep in the nature shack either shows signs of pregnancy or gives birth. If you keep mice, gerbils or hamsters, this is likely to happen during the camp season.