Green & Blue learned about the rain forest and created rain sticks. Red & Purple played a game to learn about biomagnification. Some of the students were worms, and they ate “plankton.” Some of the students were fish and ate worms, and one of the students was an osprey and ate the fish. Once the game was over students discovered that some of the plankton had been contaminated by DDT, and so the poison had moved up the food chain (biomagnification).The osprey is eating the fish.The worms are eating plankton. The Black & White group played a game to learn how energy is transferred up the food chain. These cups represent the producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers and top consumers. The water represents energy. All…

Our Ocean Institute Naturalist helps us measure the juvenile Gray Whale’s length.Baleen.Using combs to simulate baleen.Anther Ocean Institute Naturalist shows us some marine mammal bones. Here she is holding a dolphin skull.Searching for intertidal animals in the harbor rocks.Listening to a story about the sea.This Naturalist showed us the length of a squid using the rope!

Turquoise & Burgundy made wetland dioramas!Red & Purple made “Oceans in a Jar.” I’m sure glad I saved all those jars!Black & White played a mysterious game in the Redwood Forest.Turquoise & Burgundy made 3D tidepool creatures!Blue & Green made ocean collages.Kathy teaching the kids about jellyfish.Kate taking the Yellow & Orange kids for a hike to a secret spot for story time.Crazy hat day winners!

The Black & White Group play Wet n’ Wild Jeopardy. Yellow and Orange made sea star art! The Purple and Red Groups made Fish Print Tee Shirts. Animator Brandon Strathman (from Family Guy) shows campers how to illustrate ocean animals. The Purple & Red Groups made crayfish after seeing and touching the real thing. Turquoise and Burgundy made banks out of cat food cans. Turquoise & Burgundy played the Bird Beak Game to learn about bird adaptations for catching food with their beaks. Blue & Green played a game with our Beanie Babies (above), and created 3D fish collages using old magazines (below).

What can you do with those stale bagels? Give them to the birds! Spread Peanut Butter and coat with native seeds to make a yummy treat for your feathered friends. Tashi & Jane got a promotion to Camp Teacher status for the day – they ran a teaching station using recycled toilet paper rolls and bottle caps to make a “cup and ball” game. It was a HUGE hit! Way to go with the leadership skills, ladies! Cindy & Frank helped the kids decorate their bags -generously donated from Mother’s Market. Jeanine & Leslie showed the campers how to create Furoshiki, the Japanese Art of gift wrapping. It’s a neat way to wrap gifts and have something you can re-use rather than throw away. They…

Red & Purple made hummingbird feeders out of recycled water bottles! Here we have Red & Purple playing charades. Blue & Green learned about extinct species, and created “fossil footprints.” Black & White learned about tidepool creatures! Junior Naturalist Julia reads a story about insects at the Marsh. Turgundy went on an endangered species scavenger hunt, then played a game to learn about the difference between threatened, endangered and extinct species. Blue & Green played a Giant Board Game to learn about habitat.

OK, well, maybe there weren’t any BEARS, but things got a little “fishy” today at the Nature Center!The Blue & Green group practiced the Japanese art of Gyotaku, or “fish printing.” Gyotaku (gyo=fish, taku=rubbing) was invented in the early 1800’s in Japan by the fishermen to record their catch. This was their livelihood (not sport fishing as we have today) and they could document the size and types of fish caught and still take it back to be sold or eaten. Also, certain fish in Japan are revered and they would take rubbings of these fish and then place them back in the water. The Black & White group caught crayfish in the pond, and discussed the negative effects of non-native species on an ecosystem….

They say knowledge is power. Our habitat helpers learned all about the animals and plants in their habitats today. In the photo above, the Black & White group explore the aquatic creatures that live in our Muddy Pond. Invasive, non-native species are the second greatest threat to endangered species, after habitat destruction. Turgundy learned about the threats of exotic plants, then removed invasive, non-native grasses from the Channel Islands ecosystem in the Center. After removing the grasses they planted Golden Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium californicum) – a native wetland species. Mr. Dan taught the Green Group all about owls – an important top predator – then they created owls out of recycled TP rolls!Ms. Kathy taught the blue group all about Birds of Prey, which are…

Today the ENC Nature Campers visited the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano!The Folks at the EC were kind enought to provide organic, locally grown oranges for snack! They also gave us yummy organic animal crackers.Who says kids don’t like to eat fruit!?We recycled all of our cans and cups!Max gave us a tour of their historic building – the oldest wooden building in San Juan, at 130 years old! Wood for the building was brought from the redwood forest. Foundation stones came from ruins of the San Juan Mission (the FIRST Mission in San Juan was destroyed in the 1812 earthquake). When the house was built there was only ONE building visible from the building’s porch.Evan told as all about the gardens – the…

Making coffee filter butterflies.Learning about and making compost.Creating our own bandannas.Hiking through the tickle ferns.This dragonfly flew by during a hike to search for arthropods!Using magnifying lenses to search for arthropods.Checking on the Monarch caterpillars – they’re getting huge!

ENC Campers show off their re-usable water bottles. Plastic water bottles produced for U.S. consumption take 1.5 million barrels of oil per year (USA Today). That much energy could power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year.In roughly the last 10 years, the amount of plastic bottles being recycled increased from about 775 million pounds in 1995 to about 1,170 million in 2005, according to the Container Recycling Institute. But during the same time period, the amount of PET bottles going into landfills skyrocketed from 1,175 million to 3,900 million pounds. Water bottles are a big part of that problem. Singing about bubble gum at the log area during snack. Turgundy made baskets out of recycled paper bags. Most of the kids thought…

During Naturama Day, Campers rotate between 5 stations, where they spend time with each of the Camp Teachers & participate in fun activities!Meghan & Jeanine taught the kids about scat, then the kids made edible owl pellets! Looking at Bear Scat.Making edible owl pellets. Sama tells a hummingbird legend and Mark helps the kids make hummingbirds our of old corks! Frank & Cindi taught the kids how to make kites! David told the kids about his adventures spelunking, while Leslie told them about creatures that live in caves – namely bats!Dave is wearing an “old fashioned” cave hat with a reflective dish and a candle holder. He is showing the kids a modern helmet.In the “bat cave.” One last song in the log area. 🙁…