Food, Water, Shelter, Space
Habitat is my kind of place!
We learned what kind of food, water, shelter, and space the forested areas around Camp Seymour had and wondered if Sasquatch would live here. So we went on a hike to find out!
S reading about food and shelter on the trail
At the end of the hike, Sasquatch jumped out of the bushes! I missed it because being hugely pregnant and hauling a toddler and a 4 year old slowed me way down...to the end of the line. Some of the kids screamed, but no one believed it was actually Sasquatch....unless he wears tennis shoes. IJ whispered to me that he knew all along that it was, "a guy in a monkey suit." S told me he thought it was real for just a second. F said, "Monkey!"
Sasquatch!
The second half of the day we explored Monster Squid! This was the most absolute fun I have ever had at Camp Seymour! But that is because I'm a science nerd and I've always loved hands-on activities like this. Each kid got their very own squid to dissect! Before the dissection, we talked about how scientists do things... they don't scream, "Ew!" or "Gross!" They stoke their chins and say, "Hmmm...interesting," or "Cool!"
S setting up his work station
I wondered how the camp would manage a dissection with large numbers of kids of varying ages and I was impressed! The tables were covered in butcher paper. Each kid drew their work space on the paper with crayons: a large rectangle for the squid, a small rectangle to keep their tools, and a circle for discarded parts. The crayon wax helped keep the squid juice from soaking through the paper. No wax trays, no scalpels, nothing extra to get in the way.
E meeting her squid for the first time
The kids learned the difference between tentacles and arms, looked at the beak, pulled out the brain, cut open the mantle, determined gender, looked at the gills, and talked about the different functions for the parts.
S pulling out the squid's brain
They learned about the classification of squid as a mollusk and cephlapod and found that the squid has a shell!
IJ with the squid's pen (or shell)
After they found the pen, they got to find the ink sack and make a squid ink pen. They dipped the pen into the ink and were allowed to color on the table or on their hands. My daughter, Mini-Me, did both. But she did something that the leaders have never seen before...
