On Saturday, In a Child’s Path kids and their families joined In a Child’s Path staff at Cindy’s family farm in Boring, Oregon. We started off the afternoon with a fun game of “walking farm bingo” where children actively searched for items around the farm and marked off what they discovered on a bingo card. During the game, children also had an opportunity to feed the chickens, goats and Indy (the cutest miniature horse in the world). After that, we all gathered in the barn and sang songs including “I am singing in the rain,” and “Baby shark”. Song time was followed by some delicious snacks that everyone brought. Once our tummies were full, we formed two groups and went on a Woodland Pond Walk where there were 6 stations set up for an incredible learning adventure.
Each station began with an introduction, something to see or do and then the children got to take away an object. There was a wildflower station where kids got to see and hear about many kinds of flowers including foxgloves, tiger lilies and trilliums. They got touch foxglove petals and leave with a packet of seeds to plant at home. There was also a tree ring station where we talked about the colors and spacing of the rings on the inside of trees. We then counted rings to see how old the trees were and wrote our own names on wood cookie necklaces. There was a pond station where we talked about ferns and newts. There were real live newts to measure and the take away was a miniature sticky newt. There was a bird nest station where we stood inside a preschooler-made nest and closely examined 3 birds’ nests. The children got to take away shells. At the log station, we learned that fallen, decomposing trees provide animals with homes, with water to drink and also a place for plants to grow. Each kiddo got a sticker of an animal- such as a deer or squirrel. The last station was about trees and oxygen. We talked about what living trees do for us and for the animals and specifically about Sitka Spruce trees. The children got to take away a Sitka Spruce seedling to plant somewhere special.
It was a fun-filled nature day. We all had a blast. Pictures from the event above.