Adult-Child Program
Woodbury County Conservation Board
Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center
Nature Buddies
Campers: bring a parent, grandparent or your favorite adult to join you in the fun of camp. We’ll explore nature through outdoor activities, stories and much more. This will be a great introduction to our camp program.
Title: Baby Animals
Gathering: Kiss Mice
You need: 2 Hershey Kisses, Pink or red construction paper, pink yarn, small wiggle eyes, Tacky glue & scissors.
Cut a small heart shape out of the construction paper and glue it to the flat side of one Hershey Kiss, making sure the rounded ends of the heart stick above the Kiss. Cut about a 1 to 1 ½ inch length of yarn and glue it to the pointed end of the same Hershey Kiss. Now glue the two Kisses flat sides together. You will probably need to hold these together a few minutes for the glue to set. Finally, glue 2 wiggle eyes onto the rounded edge of the Kiss that doesn't have the tail on it. And you have a yummy mouse!
Circle:
Introductions to baby animals. Discuss animals that you might find in nearby parks. Show pictures of babies and the adult animals.
Read A Pinky is a Baby Mouse by Pam Munoz Ryan
Play Where’s My Mom? Memory game.
Use pictures or puppets to match baby to adult
Outdoors: Animal Search Hike
Go for a hike and encourage children to look for wild animals and there homes.
Craft: Heart Mice
Make a Mom and baby mouse. Cut 2 hearts, 1 larger than the other. Cut the smaller heart along the fold line. These will become the ears. Fold the larger heart. The point of this heart becomes the nose. Glue on the ears, eyes, tail, and whiskers. Use yarn for tail and whiskers.
KinderNature Note: See “Art Experiences in Early Childhood” for current information on Early Childhood Best Practices. Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children encourages the early childhood best practice of providing open ended art instead of crafts. It should be about the process not the product. Therefore, a modification to this craft would be to avoid a pattern and just provide art and craft materials (yarn, colored paper, wiggly eyes, etc.). This results in each project being different and unique.
Snack:
Mouse Cookies
1 cup creamy peanut butter ½ cup butter (no substitutes), softened
½ cup sugar ½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all purpose flour ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup peanut halves
2 tablespoons M&M miniature baking bits
4 tablespoons miniature chocolate chips
60-66 pieces red shoestring licorice (2 inches each)
In a large mixing bowl, cream peanut butter, butter, sugar and brown sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
Roll into 1-inch ball. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Pinch each ball at one end to taper. Insert 2 peanut halves in center of each ball for ears. Add one M&M baking bits for nose and 2 chocolate chips for eyes.
Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set. Gently insert one licorice piece into each warm cookie for tail. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: about 5 dozen.
From Woodbury County Conservation Board
Theresa Kruid, Naturalist & Camp Director
Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center
4500 Sioux River Road, Sioux City, IA 51109
www.woodburyparks.com
Age
3-6
Multiple Intelligences
Logical-mathematical
(numbers, reasoning)
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Gross motor or kinesthetic development (moving, running, moving your body, jumping)
Small motor or tactual development (blocks, puzzles, sensory)
Interpersonal
(understanding other people and social interactions)
Intrapersonal intelligence
(self knowledge)
Naturalist
(understanding of the physical world, nature)