K-3 hands-on project

http://www.forestinfo.org/Teachers/lesson_plans/finished_plans/LifeCycleofTrees.pdf

tree costume; trees require air, water, nutrients and light.

I am new to blogging but thought a shared blog might help us give feedback to improve school tours. One thing that comes to mind is that we need to remember that the focus of our tour/discussion has to be the kids first (not parents, adults). Also if schools pay, this puts more onus on the tour...punctuality, quality, etc. People approached for interpreting say that want to have a good lesson plan in hand so that they can prepare themselves. We are attempting to do this and hope that we can learn & improve the station lesson plans each time. Ultimately we need to think how the learning can be more hands-on and experiential as opposed to question/answer discussion. Is this possible? So far, I think we have a mix of activities. Hands-on activities (such as a pond study & examining insects etc. by telescope is one idea). This kind of activity will require more time  but can worth it. One idea an interpreter was to have students identify certain birds, etc. It could be a paper with pictures of basic insects/waterfowl, etc. that students could "hunt" for during the tour (& are likely to see). Eagle, hawk, Canada Goose, mallard Duck, honey bee, butterfly (specific), hummingbird (specific), Red wing blackbird, etc.