Reconnecting Children with Nature: Growing Up WILD trainings

This workshop leads you out the door and provides hands on activities and resource materials to help you lead your own nature explorations. Growing Up WILD activities use age appropriate practices and concepts to build on children’s sense of wonder and invites them to explore nature and the world around them. Specially written for children 3-7, activities include sections to address many learning areas: math, science, language, literacy, health living, play, and creativity.

Saturday, April 11, 2015
8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Luther College, Valders Hall Room 379 East Wing (700 College Drive, Decorah)
Registration: Iowa Child Care Providers Training Registry— Click on Search Trainings, then search Reconnecting in the Title.
Registration Deadline: April 7, 2015
Registration Fee: $10 - your enrollment will be complete when payment is received: mail to Child Care Resource and Referral, 1111 Paine Street, Suite H, Hawkeye Plaza, Decorah, IA 52101

Saturday, April 11, 20159:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.Adair County Extension Office, Green Room (154 Public Square, Greenfield)
Registration: Iowa Child Care Providers Training Registry— Click on Search Trainings, then search Reconnecting in the Title.
Registration Deadline: April 5, 2015
Registration Fee: $10 - your enrollment will be complete when payment is received: mail to ISU Extension, Dallas County, 28059 Fairground Road, Greenfield, IA 50849

Saturday, May 9, 20158:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Webster County Conservation Nature Center (1415 Nelson Ave, Fort Dodge)
Registration: Iowa Child Care Providers Training Registry— Click on Search Trainings, then search Reconnecting in the Title.
Registration Deadline: April 25, 2015

Spring Themed Nature Games

Keep your students active this spring with these fun spring themed games.

Robin’s Egg

Select 1 student to be the robin. Have the robin sit with his/her back to the other students, at least ten feet away. Place a plastic egg behind the robin. The robin needs to protect the egg. The remaining students take turns sneaking up behind the robin and try to steal the egg. If the robin hears the person sneaking up, he/she will “call” and then turn around. If the robin catches a student, that student becomes the new robin. If there is no student when the robin “calls,” the robin remains the robin and the game starts again.

Flower Power

Students pretend to be pollinators traveling from flower to flower. Scatter hula hoops across the play area (fewer hula hoops than students). Place a card with a shape inside each hula hoop (flower). Give each student a card with a shape. Students must travel around the play area, matching their card to one inside a flower. When they find a match, they stand inside the flower. Only one student can be inside each flower. If a student doesn’t “pollinate” a flower, they are out. Remove a flower (hula hoop) after each round.

Build a Nest

Students are robins building their nests. Divide the students into two relay teams. Each team stands single file behind the starting line. Place 2 buckets of wet mud (1 for each team) and the end of the course. Place 2 small containers (1 for each team) at the starting line. Give each student a plastic spoon. The first student “flies” to the bucket of mud, scoops up a spoonful of mud, flies back to the starting line, and empties their spoon of mud into the container (nest). Continue until all students have helped build the nest.