Animal Adaptations 2-28-16

Animal Adaptations 2-28-16

Our 2016 Winter Programs ended on a high note this past Sunday, with an enthusiastic and very prepared group of girls ready to explore, get dirty, play games, and talk animal adaptations! As girls arrived, we warmed up our senses playing "Camera", meeting and greeting each other and the plants around us. We were so lucky to have a lively volunteer, Michelle, with us for the day.

Our day of adventure began in the woods near Hoags Pond, where we gathered, snacked, and looked for clues of animal and plant adaptations around us. We found the remains of a squirrels fir cone feast, discussed the amazing defense mechanism of fir trees against fire, felt the soft fur of a real, once live coyote, and talked about which animals we would want to be like and why.

Before setting off on our journey, we chose trail buddies and reviewed our S.T.O.P safety procedures, then hit the muddy trail towards Fairhaven Park.

We found plenty of HQM (High Quality Mud!), saw signs of "animal restaurants" in snags and decaying logs, and heard ravens and robins in the trees above as we meandered our way through the forest.

The trees danced in the wind and despite the ominous sky above, the sun broke through the clouds just as we entered a clearing in the forest. Packs were off and lunches out in no time at all as we transitioned into games, lunching, nature drawing, and free play in the sunshine. We had a great conversation about what it means to be brave, since one of the mentors mentioned that she thought it was brave of these girls to come on this EC outing with a bunch of girls and grown-ups they didn't know. The questions to the group was, "Do you FEEL brave? Or ARE you brave", We processed that around the group a bit with the girls chiming in their personal definition of brave. What one girl definition was, "Being brave means feeling scared about doing something (especially if it's new), and doing it anyway". Indeed. 

Some girls bravely "stretched their edge" and discovered for the first time what to do when "nature calls", exemplifying environmental adaptation at its finest! We waved goodbye to our sunny lunch spot and chose new leaders to guide us down the trail. The gusty wind had picked up enough to warrant a quicker pace out of the forest and different pick up plan. Thanks to our volunteer on-call volunteer who contacted parents! The group stuck together, "collaborating and compromising" whenever we reached a fork in the road to decide which route to take.

After navigating our way through the Hundred Acre Wood, we arrived at Fairhaven Park, where we got into adaptation mode once again. We broke into three groups, transforming ourselves into jays, robins, and ravens as Holly led a few fun rounds of worm hunting with different colored pipe cleaners. After all "worms" were located by each group of birds, we discussed the adaptations of various birds and worms, the significance of animals' color, and the different adaptations of predators versus prey in various environments. We all agreed that if we were worms, it would be much safer to be brown colored, rather than bright red!

The remainder of our afternoon was spent running around playing tag, building our own animal restaurants, digging in logs to find bugs (and bug poop!), and finally sitting in still and quiet for Peaceful Place.

We concluded our day with a thoughtful Closing Circle, and each girl shared an Attitude of Gratitude for someone else in the group, and for something they did, learned, or appreciated that day. We broke our circle yelling out our very fitting words of the day: "Wind, trees, mud, worms, and new friends! "

You can view the full album of the day here.