Fairy Houses and Gnome Homes (AM) 

This week, our morning preschool camp spent their days pretending to be fairies and gnomes and keeping cool in the hot weather. Everyday, campers have been taking care of the swallowtail butterfly that we have in the barn, and it has been so much fun. Campers made a worm farm early in the week where they collected tons of worms by themselves and put them all together in some mud.

Tuesday morning, we hiked down to the Clubhouse and watched Mark's Bird Banding program. We got to see several different types of birds, and even saw him releasing them back into their habitats. We went for a nature walk and collected raspberries and used the fire we made to make our very own raspberry tea. Wednesday, we built some fairy houses in the woods made out of leaves, dirt, sticks and more of our surroundings. They came out great, and will serve as great homes for all the fairies! It was a yummy treat for all, and we got to make it all on our own.

One day, we did a very special activity where we released a monarch butterfly that changed from a caterpillar over a couple of weeks. A camp earlier in the summer found a caterpillar and decided to keep it until it hatched out, which it did this week. We all enjoyed seeing the butterfly up close and releasing it into its natural habitat. 

Of course, we spent much of our time cooling down by the water spots around Audubon, like Beaver Pond and the Sherman Hollow Brook. We made sure to drink lots and lots of water along the way, and had so much fun immersing ourselves into the lives of fairies and gnomes! 

It's Not Easy Being Green (PM) 

This weeks afternoon camp is all about things in nature that are green, all kinds of animals, leaves, trees and everything else surrounding us! Even though it was super hot and humid throughout the week, that didn't stop us from exploring all things green at Audubon. Campers added onto the worm farm that the morning group had started, and had fun searching for worms in the dirt. Campers also had fun taking care of the swallowtail butterfly that is living in the barn currently.

We did lots of hiking around, making sure to drink lots of water and spend time at the river, pond and stream. On Tuesday, we went to Beaver Pond and met up with the older kids at ecology camp and all enjoyed our time together. We created a leech farm, in which we captured many leeches from the pond and brought them to a seperate area of water to see what we caught. We even saw a baby snapping turtle and caught some giant water bugs in our cups.

Later today, we will make frog masks and find out what it's like to be a frog! The rest of the week is going to be just as hot as the first part, so we will continue to take advantage of the shade and water that we have here at Audubon.