August 2008
We only had two weeks to get outdoors and enjoy the end of the summer. We managed to squeeze in a lot of fun experiences!
Since August is the active time of summer for the monarch catepillars who morph into butteflies and prepare for their long journey to Mexico, each GO club had the opportunity learn about monarchs and to explore a local green space in search of catepillars, eggs and butterflies.
Several children were able to take home catepillars they found and to care for them by picking fresh milkweed each day until the catepillars formed their cacoons.
Once the cacoons hatched, the butteflies were released for their trip south this fall.
Joel Dunette, volunteer at a local nature center and active member of the Audubon Society, came again to talk about the monarchs to show the children how to tag and release them.
We also enjoyed canoeing again.
We did some archery, thanks to Scott Kobbs, the local PE teacher who brought all of the equipment and targets out to the City Park and taught us some archery basics.
And a campfire cookout with hotdogs!
We will kickoff our school year programs the first week of October, so stay tuned for more updates and photos!
July 2008
This month we spent a lot of time getting familiar with MN waters and the sport of fishing. We worked closely with the MN DNR MinnAqua program. Through games and hands-on activities, a MinnAqua Intern taught Project GO kids about water food chains, the water cycle, fish senses, fishing safety and angling basics.
Using real fish, we caught an up close look at the anatomy of these critters and explored the different senses that fish use to survive under the water. Then we were able to paint the fish and make fish prints.
We collected critters from the local stream and learned about what fish eat and how to mimic those things when fishing. We compared some of the critters we found to lures, flies and baits in a tackle box.
We all practiced casting regular rods into targets and kids had the opportunity to try casting a fly rod.
We also had beach time and did some hiking.
