WISE Kids-The Next Generation.

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, we are so lucky to live so close to a wonderful state park with such great programs!  For years the boys attended Nature Story Time with Naturalist Julie, and as each one has outgrown the program, they have moved on to WISE Kids.  Today was the start of the 2014 edition of WISE, with Charlie being the last of my boys left in the program.  

Today the kids hiked on Horizon Rock Trail...

...down Tallus Slope Trail

 and onto Meadow Valley Trail, with a stop at "The Squeeze" and a little rock humor.

"The Squeeze" is simply a narrow rock passageway, fun to squeeze through for kids and adults alike.

 And here Charlie is picking the nose of a rock formation. Always time for gross humor on a hike!

 

Another successful WISE Kids adventure!

Surface Tension and Macroinvertebrates...or...Bubbles And Bugs On The St. Croix

Nature study this morning was a huge hit!  Will and Charlie's summer hiking group, WISE Kids spent a couple hours playing and investigating at the St. Croix National Riverway Center. 

Park Ranger April first led the kids through a scavenger hunt indoors to get acquainted with different animals and features of the river habitat, and then we watched a film about the St. Croix and Namekagan Rivers, with narration by local park rangers we all know and love.  

Next, we headed outdoors into the August heat and humidity to talk about, look at and hold different creatures that live in the river, including a crayfish, scuds, predatory beetles and a leech. 

The kids thought it would be cool to feed one of the insect specimens to the predatory beetles, but April didn't go for it. 

April  also talked about the special ability of Water Striders to walk on water, and how surface tension plays into that.  

Then, expanding on the surface tension idea, the kids had fun making giant bubbles with home made bubble soap.  I got lucky and snapped this cool shot of Charlie and Ranger April:

And here's Will looking like a pro.  I love how the River is in the background here. 

Just one week left of WISE Kids fun this summer.  I can hardly believe it.  The time flies so quickly...

A Familiar Landscape

Will's most recent unit in his science curriculum, Elemental Science- Biology for the Logic Stage, focuses on habitats.  The hands-on element for this topic is the creation of a diorama of one of the habitats in the study.  Rather than doing the ol' shoebox and construction paper project we're all so familiar with, Will expressed a desire to make a more elaborate landscape box, depicting an area of our favorite local state park. He remembered his brother doing a similar project years back, and wanted his chance to do it, too. 

 The area he chose is a view of the St. Croix River gorge.  

 More than 10,000 years ago, great glaciers covered much of the northern United States, including most of Wisconsin. As the glaciers melted, forming glacial Lake Duluth and overflowing its banks, torrents of water tore through the river valley carving out the gorge we see here today. 

 Dalles of the St. Croix River, formed by the meltwaters of the Wisconsin glacial period.

To make the landscape, Will started with a 12x16 disposable roaster pan which we purchased at our local grocery.  Other ideas we considered were building a wooden frame/box or using a low-sided cardboard box.  The roaster seemed like our best bet  because it was easily movable and moisture-proof.

After deciding on the container, Will went out to the yard and took up a portion of sod/top soil and sub soil to fit his container. First he put in the sub soil to support his landscape.  He cut his river gorge down the middle of his land, and lined it with large basalt rocks. Basalt is the dominant rock in our area, and it lines the Dalles of the St. Croix.

To make the river water, Will melted some paraffin wax in a coffee can set into a pan of water.  He wanted his water to be have a blue tint, so he laid a piece of blue cloth down before he poured the wax in between the rock walls.  He also added a few "boulders" to the wax before it cooled to add interest to the water.  

Then he added the top soil and sod to the sub soil, and trimmed down the grasses and weeds.

 

He then collected cuttings from pine trees to line the river.  

As part of his project he also reviewed facts about animals found in our area, and sculpted a few for his landscape from modeling clay. 

Adult Deer

Fawn

Fox

Squirrel

The Animals in their "Kitchen Table Habitat"

 I love the creativity that came with this project, and the fact that Will chose it himself makes it that much more enjoyable. 

Some Things Are Worth The Effort

With the temp near 100 degrees F. and the heat index at 110 today, it was very tempting to hide out in the air-conditioned comfort for like the billionth day in a row, but Will's second meeting of the summer for the WISE Kids group was this morning.  If you read the blog on a regular basis you know how much time we spend up at our local state park taking advantage of their great programs, and no matter what the weather, it is hard to stay away!

This week, instead of our usual hike, our Fearless Leader Julie took us down to the lake and the kids (and Moms) had a great time playing in the water and learning a thing or two about water use and conservation.

The morning started out listening to a short story about a pioneer family and their weekly bathtime.  In our lives of convenience it is so easy to turn on a faucet whenever we need water, and not be accountable for how much of it we are using.  Leave the tap on while brushing teeth?  Two gallons of water, easy, down the drain.  Ten minute shower without a water-saving head?  Fifty gallons, down the drain. Yikes.  

To demonstrate how much water one might have to fetch and carry for their family's use, such as a pioneer would have to do, Julie set the kids up with buckets for a water carrying relay.  

The kids had to scoop and carry buckets enough to fill their team's own 25 gallon barrels waiting up the hill from the beach.  The kids realized it was hard work, even with a team backing them up!  Lesson learned? We certainly would pay more attention to what we did with our water if we had to refill our buckets several times a day...every day.  I know I'll certainly be paying more attention to the length of showers around here!

Then, just for fun (as if it hadn't been fun so far), Julie brought out The Rubber Ducks.  The kids raced their own ducks first with air power, then with white water wave action and then again with a "no wake" technique.  

Air-powered Ducks!

Whitewater Splashy-action Ducks!

Then they just started pelting each other with the ducks and doing what kids do best...playing in the water.

We ended the morning with a "pond" study...

...and afterwards went back to our respective air-conditioned hovels, happy for having had another fun-filled morning at the park.

And as a side-note:  Have I mentioned that I'm going to see U2 on Saturday?!  Yeeeehaaaw!!!

Walking On Snow With Shoes

We added something new to our family's winter repertoire this year...snowshoeing!  Charlie is just big enough now to fit the kid-size snowshoe bindings and just energetic enough to do an easy trail...well, mostly!

Our first outing was for the Interstate Park Candlelight Night back around Valentine's day.  The temp was about 44 degrees that night which made for a fun and comfortable walk, aside from the sweating anyway.

Just recently we were invited to snowshoe again at a gathering of William's WISE Kids group.  This trek was a little colder, it was snowing like crazy, and we had a chance to hike off the trails and do a bit of sledding as well.  I took pictures with the naturalist's camera, not my own, so I have only a couple shots that she sent to me.  Perhaps a few more will come along soon.  In the meantime...

Here are Steve and Charlie happily marching along at the start of our journey...

.....and here they are again as we neared the end of the first leg of the walk.  If you can't tell, Steve is pulling Charlie on a sled.  He just needed a little break, ya know?  This actually worked really, really well.  After he rested up for awhile, he was able to trek the way back again.  Of course the promise of chili dogs and a hot cocoa waiting back at the education center did wonders  for motivation!

We took a quick break and detour at an (unofficial) sledding hill in the park before heading back.  Ben looks like he wants to be pulled on a sled too.  Just a little. 

Wish I had more pics!  I know I snapped photos of many of the kids and parents with us in the group, but I guess I'm not sure if I even got one of Will, because he and a friend were hiking at a quick clip, non-stop, at the head of the pack.  Way too into it to be photographed!  Rest assured a good time was had by all!

A Special Nature Storytime

After visiting Naturalist Nancy's llama farm, the WISE kids had yet another chance to take part in some llama drama.  Naturalist Julie presents a fun and educational nature program for preschoolers every Thursday at the park with stories, crafts and often there are guest critter visitors. Guess what the focus of this last installment of the summer program was?  Yep.  Llamas. 

The story for this week was Is Your Mama a Llama? and the Wise Kids each took the role of one of the baby animals in the book and helped to present it to the crowd.  We arrived about an hour before story time so the kids could learn their parts.  

Here's a little rehearsal shot:

It was a gorgeous morning and can I just say that I love being in that park!  Love it!  Anyway....

Down at the Camp Interstate shelter, the story timers began to arrive and Julie began with the story, all the while keeping mum about the special animal visitor that would be making an appearance.

  The kids did great with reading their parts and there was lots of audience participation as well.  After the story Julie talked a little about what the WISE kids group was and the special field trip they had taken the day before.  She really talked up how cute the llamas were and then told the group that if they would like to meet a llama, that they should slowly and quietly turn around in their seats and take a look.

This is the what they saw coming across the field behind them:

It's Nancy and Countach!

It was really quite a dramatic moment for all the kids and parents as well.  Nancy talked about some llama basics, including the bad reputation they have for spitting.  She emphasized that they are very gentle animals and spitting is simply a natural defense for them usually against other animals, not people. So stop all the llama hatin'!

Everyone had a chance to come up and meet Countach and feed him a little grain.  He was a perfect gentleman.

It was a great way to wrap up summer Nature Story Time and the WISE Kids, who participated in the program themselves for so long, were pretty proud to have a hand in it.

Welcome To Shangri Llama

The WISE Kids took a field trip this week!  Now usually the familiar stompin' ground of Interstate Park is a field trip in itself, but the opportunity came up to do something a little different today.  Naturalist Nancy Frank, who led the WISE hike to Eagle Peak a few weeks back, invited the group to come visit her at her farm about an hour drive from the park.  Nancy not only has the regular sorts of animals you might see on a farm like chickens, sheep, cows and friendly dogs; she also keeps several llamas and a single alpaca! Llamas and alpacas are park of the camelid family (related to camels). I did not know that!  Did you?


This is Countach.  A very friendly, very personable guy.  The WISE kids met him first, along with his  doppelganger whose name escapes me.  Let's call him Carl.

As we made our way across the farm, we soon met the female llamas.  This is Annie.  Annie was beyond what you might call a social butterfly and mingled with the crowd giving out llama kisses and willingly accepting offerings of grain.

Charlie gets a kiss.

 Me and Annie.

 William feeding Annie.

Llamas are cute.  No argument there.  But baby llamas are even cuter!  This is Lexus with her six week old baby Sebring.

Another mama llama and her baby.

Towards the end of our tour of the farm we met the lone alpaca, Stanley.  Alpacas are like cousins to llamas.  They are typically smaller than llamas and perhaps a little less willing to be touched or pet.  Naturalist Nancy said although Stanley is very sweet, he is a little more anxious around crowds.  He did just fine with our group of children though.

Nancy and Stanley.

 

It was a gorgeous day to be out in the country, and everyone enjoyed feeding and visiting with the llamas.  I was surprised at how calm and friendly they were as we walked in their pastures with them.  At the end of our time at the farm everyone was reluctant to leave, but the WISE kids and Nancy had some surprises up their sleeves for  Nature Story Time at the park the following day.  Our adventures with the llamas were not quite over yet!  Stay tuned!

Smart Children In The Park

It's time again for the  W.I.S.E. (Wisconsin Interstate Scout Explorers) Kids program at our favorite state park.  WISE Kids is an older kids version of Nature Story Time. This is the group we piloted two years ago.  A sort of "No Child Left Inside" program. Julie, resident naturalist, has provided a program for the kids that includes some hiking off trail in the park, canoeing, nature journaling, and listening to a portion of a read-aloud each week. 

We started out the program day with a trip into the woods to check out the Great Blue Heron rookery.  All but a few young have fledged at this point. 

We talked about some of the work done by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  

"In the Wisconsin Interstate Park the C.C.C. developed, under the direction of the technical staff of the National Park Service (NPS), a survey of the park and a master plan for trails and rustic shelters. All buildings were built from stone that came from a quarry in the park following the guidelines of Albert Good, an architect noted for his rustic designs. The C.C.C. boys cleared a trail along the St. Croix River by removing rocks using a variety of methods, such as crowbars, block and tackle, and even the "Indian method" of "fire and water." Rocks were heated for several hours or even days. Once heated through, cold water was poured on top to crack and shatter them. In 1937, the first camp razed the old bathhouses in the park, brought in new sand for a beach on the river, and built a trailside shelter, and a log restroom. The second CCC camp completed a new bathhouse, a shelter along Horizon Rock trail, a park office, a picnic shelter by the beach, as well as picnicking and parking areas."

Here Julie tells the kids how to identify white pines by the number of needles they have per cluster.  there are five, same as the number of letters in the word white.

One of the kids happened upon this teeny tree frog in the grass.

The kids hiked around Lake of the Dalles,

stopped at Romance Isle to enjoy the scenery and a story,

and continued up to Ravine Trail.  An especially difficult portion of this trail has been under reconstruction for several weeks now by a group of young conservationists.  They are finally done with their project and we were some of the very first visitors to test out their work of art.  All the work was done by hand, as the C.C.C. boys did back in the '30s. This is the top of the "staircase" on Ravine Trail.  Here the kids ham it up with the conservationists,

and hear about how all this hard work was accomplished.

I've it time and time again; we are so lucky to have such a wonderful park so near our home.  I can't think of a better way to have spent the first three hours of my day.