Forces of Nature Camper Portal
Welcome to summer camp! You’ll spend the next four weeks exploring your neighborhoods and parks, becoming a nature explorer, and learning all kinds of things about the wildlife around you. We’re SO excited!
Adults helping campers: be sure to read our “tips for making camp awesome” at the bottom of this page.
Nature Kit Downloads
If you’re in our Super Explorer’s Club you already have these materials in your Nature Kit.
Crane Behavior Guide (Thanks, International Crane Foundation!)
Meet the educators
Meet Carolyn
Carolyn is Madison Audubon’s director of education. She loves hanging out with kids outside, especially when microscopes, binoculars, or magnifying glasses are involved. Her favorite animals are birds, and the Gray Catbird always makes her smile.
Carolyn wants to learn more about dragonflies and butterflies this summer. She’s most excited about playing predator-prey tag with you!
Meet Milcah
Milcah joined Madison Audubon as an education intern in 2020. You might have seen her short videos here! She's also a student at UW-Madison, a volunteer at Dane County Humane Society's Wildlife Center, and an adventurer and artist. Her favorite bird is the Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker.
For Parents: Tips for making camp awesome
These lessons are FUN. They’re ones we have been using with classrooms and community centers for years: kid tested, kid approved. We’ve made a few adjustments so that they’ll work in a virtual and family setting, but the bones of the lessons are solid. One thing we know about these lessons is that they’ll be the most fun if the adult leading them is engaged too. Your enthusiasm, encouragement, and curiosity will set the tone for your kids.
This camp is designed to be a go-at-your-own-pace and choose-your-own-adventure. The lessons we provide for each day are suggestions only. Choose your favorites, change the plan, or do them all! We encourage you to push your child to try new things and explore new topics... but if your kid hates sit spots or thinks birds are boring (what?!) just skip those parts.
Adjusting lessons to fit your kids
These lessons are great for kids in elementary and middle school. Our educators adjust lessons slightly depending on the age of the kids and their knowledge base. The lessons are the same, but we tailor the way we present the information and the questions we ask to fit the kids. You can do this too!
Making things easier:
If your kids are younger or don’t know much about the topic, focus on making observations and asking questions. For example, during bird week, focus on the easy ones if your kids are new to identifying birds. Cardinal, robin, blue jay and chickadee might be enough for them. You could focus more on bird behavior than identifying: ask them what they think the bird is doing, what it might be looking for, or why you’re not finding many birds that day. Spend time drawing pictures in their nature journal. You could also take and print photographs of them doing each day’s activity, and glue them into the journal with a caption.
Making things harder:
If your kids are older or already know a lot about the topic, focus on the details. Push your kids to ask questions, and then help them find the answers - either in a field guide, online, or by making observations. For example, during bird week if your child can already identify common neighborhood birds: try to find birds they don’t recognize, or common birds that look different (ie: juvenile robins, birds missing/molting feathers, male vs female nuthatches). You could also focus more on collecting data: writing and drawing more in their nature journals, or keeping lists of things they see and hear. Make a game out of it!
Screen time:
We know screen time comes with mixed feelings these days: maybe you use it to catch a quick break and answer some emails or maybe you’re trying to avoid it after a school year filled with screens. Your kids don’t need to watch the videos we list here, they’re just really fun and we wanted you to be aware of them. If you need to just hit play and let your kids watch while you do something else, we get it! If you can watch with them, pause occasionally and talk about what you’re seeing or exclaim over how cool something is, that’s great too.
Send us an email if you’re having trouble adjusting lessons to fit your kid! education@madisonaudubon.org
Header photo by Madison Audubon
