May 27th-30th: The Eagles Have Landed!

Tremendous trees and wonderful wildflowers were greeted by exceptional Eagles last week in the mountains.  We “met” and identified evergreens and aspens, built shelters, found raccoon tracks at the beaver ponds, did some bouldering, bird watching and listening, discovered insects, made natural string, and played many games including a whole lot of Capture the Flag. From shelter building and learning about biomimicry, to flower pressing and hiking to the pools at Deer Creek, the Eagles had a tremendous time!

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Thursday, August 8th: Hyde State Park!

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Today was the last day of Mountain Kids for this summer. Before heading out, the kids began with some playing tag while others created tree art.  We all learned about the different components of a tree by creating a giant, living tree out of all of us!!

After a snack, we drove up to Norski Trail for hiking and shelter building, but found that when we arrived it was simply too cold!  We headed back down the mountain to Hyde State Park, where we quickly warmed back up while eating our lunches in the campground at Group Shelter #2.

The Bobcats went with Jeremy and Ashley on short hike to a waterfall. They learned to identify spruce, fir, and ponderosa pine trees. Along the way, they saw a black widow spider eating a moth. Everyone learned some Spanish from Carmela and Nico today.  Thanks to the Venezuelans and their cousins for teaching us, and making us realize the importance of learning a second language!

The Otters played Frog Detective, Freeze Tag and Meet a Tree (They go out in pairs. One is blindfold and the other guides them to a tree. The blindfolded one must get to know the tree – by touch and smell. Then the pair walks to where they started, the blindfold is taken off and the child must go find the tree they had just met without seeing). Wrapping up the time in the woods, the kids all had the chance to paint or draw a leaf they had gathered or what they had seen during the day.

Thursday was the last day of Mountain Kids for the summer. We are sorry to see it end, yet delighted that another year of Mountain Kids camp has taken place with much magic, play, learning and sharing.

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Monday August 5th: The Big Tesuque

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The first day of the last week of camp was wonderful! We started the day meeting our buddies and playing games with one another. Then we headed up the mountain to the trail.

The Bobcats went off on a hike to a shelter and a beautiful lunch spot where they played games (team building games and ‘meet a tree’) and learned about the different trees and wildflowers.

The Otters played in the river and then hiked to a nice spot in the shade for story time. After our story we talked about trees and split into teams to build shelters and look at the various big shelters already built with the aspens. We reflected on our trip and then ended the day working together as a group to learn a camp song called ‘a-mia.  We then split into buddies to play and then headed home for the day. Looking forward to another wonderful day tomorrow!

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Wednesday, July 31st, 2013: Leonora Curtin Preserve

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Today we played tree tag at the Children’s Museum and then had a circle where we talked about how trees are used by people. We examined various products to show how trees are used in so many different ways.

Our adventure today was to the Leonora Curtin Nature Preserve, a 35-acre property owned by Santa Fe Botanical Gardens. It is located on the I-25 frontage road south of Santa Fe. We had a wonderful tour guide named Susan who showed us around and pointed out various flowers and trees including Lemon Verbena, Cat tails, Cottonwoods, Russian Olives, and Yerba Mansa.

We did pastel drawings of flowers and plants that we liked, we read books about trees, and we went on a beautiful hike to a pond. At the pond there were dozens (literally dozens) of frogs! Since this was so exciting for the kids, we played games like Frog Detective and What Time is it Mr. Frog? It was such a treat to be there and to see the wetlands.  Thank you to Susan and the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens for showing us around this beautiful treasure!

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Tuesday, July 30th, 2013: Ski Basin

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Mountain Kids went to the Ski Basin today for the theme of ‘seeing and being aware.’ We spent much of our time at the river. Throughout the day we also paid particular attention to safety, learning and practicing the acronym S.A.F.E.R. which is about how to stay safe on a hike (Stop and stay put if you get lost, Tell and Adult where you are going, go with a Friend, bring an Equipment kit, make sure you Rest).

We played different games that focused on observation and awareness. We tried to remember what our friends were wearing as a practice for observing our surroundings, and a great tool in case someone gets lost.  We focused on staying still in order to observe all the tiny creatures that we can find in nature, such as spiders and caterpillars. We also worked on paying attention to where we put our feet so we do not accidentally hurt our little friends!

We did a group activity called Build a Tree where we learned all the parts of a tree and how they work – from their hearts to their roots.

Of course, we had much stomping about in the cool stream waters. It was a very fun day of learning and playing in the mountains!

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