May 19, 2025 • 19 mins
There is so much young children can learn from being in nature and exploring all it offers. Luckily, nature can be found in every environment. Join Cindy and Alison for a discussion about nature activities in cities, the suburbs, and rural areas.
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- Learn more about Cindy's work, including professional development, family education, and consulting opportunities: https://hihello.com/hi/cindyterebush-RXMBKA
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is Alison Kentto's I am an early childhood educator.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And this is Cindy terror Bush. I am an early
childhood consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This podcast is for parents and early childhood professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let our experience and research based knowledge become your guide.
Hi preschool peeps, Hi pee, Welcome back to the podcast
where we are going to shout out some of the
places where people are listening. But before we do that,
I want you all to know that we recorded a
quick video that we put on Facebook of what we
(00:38):
do before we record these episodes. If you are not
connected to our Facebook page, go find us How Preschool
Teachers Do It Podcast on Facebook and you will see
the video.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I think it's fun and funny. I think it's fun.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
We mostly are just having fun here.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We are no well, spreading knowledge. Yes, yeah, it's what
we do. It is what we do.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, all right, we're shouting out Singapore today, which like,
come on Singapore, like that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
It is. It is truly amazing. And if you're in
Singapore listening to us or watching us on YouTube, please
tell your friends in Singapore.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Phoenix, Arizona. I have a cousin who spends part of
the you're in Arizona. I don't think it's Phoenix. I
could be wrong. I could be if you're listening right now,
my cousin, and I'm wrong about that. Sorry, but I
don't think it's Phoenix. It might not be. That's pretty like.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I feel like if you're going to go there part
of the year, it's not going to be in a
city necessarily. Maybe it's because there's so many.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
My family loves cities, so I'm not sure. You grew
up in the city. I grew up in the city. Yeah,
we love the cities. Yeah, yeah, So I'm not sure.
And speaking of different environments, oh my god, good one,
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Not even planned. We never planned this stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, speaking of different environments, we're here today to talk
about how you can find nature no matter your environment,
No matter where you are early child to program, or
family are, whether you are in a rural, suburban, inner
city area, it doesn't matter. You can still find nature.
And the question is what different sorts of things can
(02:15):
we see. I think no matter where you are, what
we're going to talk about today you can find where
you are.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, you can find something in there.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And this information was inspired by an article in National.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Geographic, which I you know, as a science y kind
of person, I'm on their teacher I don't know, like
I could take classes through National Geographic and they said, yeah,
and you can get classes that you could share with students,
like see how this one says like great, It was
like grade levels on it, so like, and some of
them are for like the preschool years, and some of
(02:49):
them are for like older kids. And it'll give you
like different things that you could do, Like you can
put it on like a smartboard at a school or
something and do it with them.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, it's cool. That's good to me. It's really amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
You just had to sign up through their website, so
shouting out National Geographic because they're awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
You're just sign up on their website.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I took a lot of the classes during COVID and
you would learn like different things. And then now I'm
on their mailing list and they send me like all
sorts of articles all the time, and this is one
of them about finding urban nature.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
But these are things you can find anywhere. I thank
you for that. Shout out for National Geographic. We'll have
to tag that. Yeah, but I also feel like I
did not know that, yeah, and I should. So is
it professional development?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
The professional do they give you.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Like certificates and all.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I think I did give a I haven't done it
in a while, but I think I did give a certificate.
But they also have classes for like students, like you
as a teacher or you as a parent could go
on and be like, we're watching whales, you know, like
it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, it's really, it's good to know. Thank you. So
we're going to share maybe some of our own ideas,
some ideas that were inspired by this article from National Geographic,
and we will link the article on our website. It
will be there by the time you get this episode. Yes, okay,
So a couple of the ideas that we thought were
really good and that we could even some of these
(04:04):
you can actually create on your property from your early
childhood program. So the information from National Geographic is not
specifically aimed at early childhood. It's actually a little older.
But we can early childhood it. We can early childhood
anything that's good. Okay, that's true. So the first the
first idea that's in this article that I think we
can early childhood up. Oh yeah, is to volunteer at
(04:27):
a community garden.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I directed an early childhood program on the property of
a faith based building where they had a community garden. Yes, yes,
we had. One year we had big, big b problems.
We went out there, we could not bring the children
because of the bee problems and the potential for allergies.
(04:51):
But when we didn't have those be problems, we would
take the children over to the community garden and we
would look at what's growing there and talk about it
and experience it. And they had even their own little
section of it.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah. At my school currently, I'm the one that is
in charge of the school garden, which is a good
and a bad thing because when it when it's successful,
it's successful. But when it is not, it is not.
But even when it's not, I bring the children out
there and be like, why do you think this isn't working?
And I usually am like in their little three year
(05:26):
old minds are like, oh, it didn't get enough water
or you know, but it's good. Like then it gives
them ways to problem solve natural little things that could happen,
and it shows the growth, you know, so like they
planted the seed and then they saw it grow, and
then they saw the tomatoes grow or whatever it was
out there.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So like it's cool, don't you feel Like more and
more areas in cities have community gardens. Yes, you may
have to arrange a visit with someone I think you.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Do, or you can arrange to have a plot in
the community. I know somebody that I know somebody who
lives up by me. There is a large community garden
in one of the towns, and she has a plot there,
but you have to apply for it, and then she
goes and she tends to her plot. She plants whatever
she wants, but then she often gives some of the
(06:12):
vegetables away to people who need them.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So if you don't have a community garden nearby, you
can create your own school community garden. Yes, right, you
could create a community garden for the area in which
your program is and invite other people. You can create
your own just for your school. But yeah, a lot
of the city's community gardens. Check that out. Yeah, that's
a great thing if you don't already.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
We can also document some of the things that we see,
Like we can document things about the weather. Yes, And
that idea comes from what's in the article, which talks
about documenting things about the seasons seasons, because I think
weather is great.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
But no matter where you live, seasons and weather are happening, right, so,
like there's no getting around it. That's that's nature, right.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Like, so unless you're like in San Diego where it's
beautiful all year.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
The weather still happening though it's just beautiful weather.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It is, right, So maybe you might have to be like,
how sunny is it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Today in San Diego versus how like you could look
at the sunniness.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
But still it's beautiful. Yeah, but it's still weather, you know, happening.
A lot of early childhood programs will do things like
collect the rainfall, look at thermometers. Although I was talking
to a group one time and I said, if I'm
going to talk about the weather with young children, I
do it outside. Yeah, they need to feel it and
smell it. I love to take children out when it's
(07:36):
going to rain and you can like smell the rain. Yeah,
so they do need to be feeling it as we're
talking about things like temperature. And I said, oh, and
you should bring a thermometer out there, and I'm always
surprised by how many people go, oh, I never thought
about that. Why wouldn't yeah, bring a thermometer out there,
get a weather thermometer, bring it out there, talk about
(07:58):
how does it feel to does it feel warm, does
it feel hot, does it feel cool, does it feel cold?
And that's where that is on the thermometer. Yeah, and
then you can mark, if you have the right kind
of thermometer, you can mark where the temperature was today
and where the temperature is another day, and talk about
it going up and going down. Yep. Right, absolutely, you
can do that no matter where your program is.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So that's another thing. And you can mark things about
the seasons, like what do I observe when it's winter,
What do I observe when it's fall, What do I
observe when it's summer and spring? Which is particularly good
in the area we're in because we get all four.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Seasons, four seasons and that's yeah, because and we have
a lot of trees here, so we can do that.
But I think one of the ideas they had in
that article was pick a spot, two spots in your area.
One could be like right outside your house, and one
could be at a park and what looks different like
go there at the same time or whatever. What looks
different in winter here than here, because there's going to
(08:57):
be differences, like outside your house is different than what
a park might have.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
That's a really nice hands on activity to send home
to families, to say, take your child outside and talk,
document what your child says about how the weather looks
where you live, and then we're going to talk about
it at school. I think that's a great thing because
it's a hands on, active thing, which is what we
want families to do. We don't want families doing worksheets.
We want families doing active things, just like we're supposed
(09:22):
to do in our classrooms. Yes, another idea which was
a particular favorite of mine, which I'm fascinated by birds,
and I actually, as many of you know, I have
two parakeets who continually entertain and fascinate me. Mostly entertain
they're very funny little things. But another idea was to
(09:45):
set up a bird cam. And again you can set
up bird cams anywhere. You can be looking at pigeons
in a city. You could be looking at seagulls near
the water right, you could be looking at robins in springtime. Yeah,
and talking about the weather and the birds. I love
the idea of a bird cam and you know, today
(10:06):
cameras are so easy to set up and get and record,
you know, when I think about even like ring cameras
might catch something.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yes, there's also although a little pricey, because I thought
about getting it for myself just because I thought it
was cool. Is there is a bird feeder that you
could buy that has a camera.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Built into it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Oh, you would love this. So you can see them
land and then it'll record them and then you can
kind of like track like what birds are coming at
what time. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
That is cool.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
It is really cool, but a little pricey, so I
understand that. But if you can't afford to put a
camera or I don't have the means, you can go
on a lot of like zoo websites, I would say,
maybe even sanctuary websites that have bird cameras set.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Up and you can just watch them. Yeah, you can
go on like the Eagle site, and yeah, you can
go online and look at birds hams. But I think
it's I think it's even better to set up your
own if you can.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It is cool because you'll get to see the migration
even like not all birds are going to be there
all the time, right, so like you can start tracking
like when is this one here? When did he leave?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Like when that's a thing. You know, there are certain
birds that might catch your attention. Like for example, I
have woods out behind where I live, and we we
will get woodpeckers out here.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I just watched an amazing documentary about woodpeckers. Amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
We do get. We get woodpeckers, we get, we get
you know, the typical sorts of birds, but also sometimes
different ones, and we get hummingbirds and like all sorts
of things. So yeah, I think bird cam fun fun.
Of course in the woods back here, we could just
set up cam cam and we would catch we would catch,
we would catch like squirrels, skunks, raccoons, everything.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
But that's culture too, that's cinture too, you know, that's
all good stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah. Another great idea I think she likes. It's it's
a flower pot tour. It's it's cute, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So like if you're in an area that there are
no gardens and there's not really parks, but people will
plant in flower pots and put them on.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Their porch or they're stoop.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Then you can go around and do a little flower
pot neighborhood tour and even like be like, oh today
this is just green, and then three weeks from now,
oh look there's a flower Like there's just like and
it's easy.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
One of these days, I'm gonna take you on a walk,
yeah in this neighborhood, Yeah, where there's someone's home who's
like you wouldn't know they're there. They're in the back
of like a building, right, and they have it looks
like a plant store. It really looks like a plant store.
It's amazing. I'll take you on a walk one day
like so, but looking around neighborhoods, you will you will
(12:53):
find that people have plants. You know, it isn't true
that if just because you're in a more city area
that there's no plants. There are plants. People have them.
People will grow vegetables on their terraces and and you
know that sort of thing. So it's sort of like
playing if we were gonna preschool this up. It's sort
(13:13):
of like playing I spy, yes, right, yes, what plants
do you spy? As we go outside and we look
around and maybe go on a nature walk because a
nature walk is not restricted to urb, suburban or rural areas.
People in cities can also go on nature walks and
look for what natural nature things do we see? By
(13:34):
looking around at what's near the buildings.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Around those flower pots, you're going to find things like insects, bees,
hummingbirds sometimes like things that maybe you wouldn't normally see,
but they're going to be surrounding that. Butterflies, Yeah, like
those things are going to be around if people have
flower pots on their porch.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I also really encourage you to encourage photography on these
nature walks, right, So if you can get some child
fris cameras like they still sell the disposable ones, I think, right, so, yeah,
so if you get some child friendly cameras like that,
give it to the children and let them photograph the
(14:10):
nature they're seeing. That can be a very cool experience
for this summer, yeah, which is coming up once this
episode releases. That's true, right, you should be in pretty
good weather wherever you are right now listening hopefully. Yeah,
And I would encourage you to think about going on
walks at different times of day, yes, because you will
(14:30):
see here and smell different things in the morning than
you would in the afternoon. Yes, so even thinking about
how can we vary our time? Yeah, right, go on
a nature walk at another time of day. And you
can also really focus in on the sky.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Oh yeah, that's actually a really good idea. And I
think especially if you're going to combine the photography with
the sky thing, like you could take a picture of
the same sky every day and.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It would be different. Yeah, and that would be kind
of cool, and you could talk about then the clouds
and the moon of the clouds and.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
The sunset or the sunrise or whatever time you're at. Like,
I think that's a really good idea.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
You can encourage families to do that sort of thing
at home too, because it'll be a different view there.
I remember where I am anyway, when I was younger,
seeing way more stars than we see now. There's too
much light.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
There's a lot more light now, Yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Too much light. You really have to be in a
very Yeah, you have to be in an area where
there's less opportunity for light in order to see the
sort of stars that we saw when we were children.
But if you can get the children to somewhere where
they can see stars, yeah, that would be awesome, because
it's awesome. Yeah, where they can see like a sky
(15:41):
full of stars like when I was young. Yeah, like
I said, I don't really see that anymore unless you're
like an a wooded area. Yeah, it's a shame. Really,
let's see. So wildlife exists everywhere everywhere. Children love to observe.
Insects are easy to me.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
That's easy, like because even just finding an ant on
the on the ground, you can watch that, right, and
that's those are those.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Kind of things are everywhere, you know. Yeah, if you
have access to botanical gardens, an aquarium, an arboretum, an arboretum,
an aquarium, a zoo, zoo that is kind to the animals, yes, yes,
thank you. I honestly am surprised sometimes when I go
(16:32):
and it's like animals and cages and I'm like, no,
little zoo. No. But if you can go to a
like you know, for example, the Bronx Zoo does conservation,
they do, so you know, if you have access to
a really good place that has animals, see life plants
(16:56):
that you can go visit, that's a really worthy field trips. Yeah.
I work with or have worked with a program that
is near the Bronx Zoo near enough anyway, And once
a year they take a school trip with the preschoolers
to the Bronx Zoo and they get to walk around
(17:18):
the zoo and see different areas in different animals, and
it's just a really cool thing. And it's not even
like those children, by the way, those children living in
that area, like they go there with their families. Yeah,
and there are days at the Bronx Zoo that are free,
so that no matter your income, you can go. And
these children have ordinarily been to that zoo already when
you talk to them. But still it's an awesome school trip.
(17:39):
So don't think like, you know, we live near the arboretum,
everybody goes to the arbor, or we live near the
botanical gardens, everybody goes there. Going there with you makes
it in an entirely different experience. So I really encourage
that too. I hope this inspires you to think about,
no matter where you are, how can we approach being
in nature and how what are some new ideas, Like
(17:59):
maybe you're sick of the same nature walk, what are
some new ideas for exposing children to knowledge about nature? Right?
And speaking of knowledge, folks behind Allison's head is something
on YouTube. It's a QR code. If you don't know
why that's there or what you would get, come to YouTube,
use your camera to scan it, or you know, go
(18:20):
back an episode or two. You must have missed an
episode or two. If you don't know why this QR
code is there, go back and listen to us talk
about it a few episodes several I think several episodes ago.
Check to see when it's first in the background, and
we talk about it in more detail. If you can
think of more nature ideas, please send them, or any
topic you'd like us to talk about. We are open
(18:42):
to topics. If we've already spoken about it, we will
simply send you the episode number, but if we haven't,
we will include it. So we hope that you will
contact us, that QR code gets you to where you can,
and we will catch you next time on the podcast
by Fool
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is Alison Kentto's I am an early childhood educator.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And this is Cindy terror Bush. I am an early
childhood consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This podcast is for parents and early childhood professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let our experience and research based knowledge become your guide.
Hi preschool peeps, Hi pee, Welcome back to the podcast
where we are going to shout out some of the
places where people are listening. But before we do that,
I want you all to know that we recorded a
quick video that we put on Facebook of what we
(00:38):
do before we record these episodes. If you are not
connected to our Facebook page, go find us How Preschool
Teachers Do It Podcast on Facebook and you will see
the video.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I think it's fun and funny. I think it's fun.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
We mostly are just having fun here.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We are no well, spreading knowledge. Yes, yeah, it's what
we do. It is what we do.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, all right, we're shouting out Singapore today, which like,
come on Singapore, like that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
It is. It is truly amazing. And if you're in
Singapore listening to us or watching us on YouTube, please
tell your friends in Singapore.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Phoenix, Arizona. I have a cousin who spends part of
the you're in Arizona. I don't think it's Phoenix. I
could be wrong. I could be if you're listening right now,
my cousin, and I'm wrong about that. Sorry, but I
don't think it's Phoenix. It might not be. That's pretty like.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I feel like if you're going to go there part
of the year, it's not going to be in a
city necessarily. Maybe it's because there's so many.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
My family loves cities, so I'm not sure. You grew
up in the city. I grew up in the city. Yeah,
we love the cities. Yeah, yeah, So I'm not sure.
And speaking of different environments, oh my god, good one,
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Not even planned. We never planned this stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, speaking of different environments, we're here today to talk
about how you can find nature no matter your environment,
No matter where you are early child to program, or
family are, whether you are in a rural, suburban, inner
city area, it doesn't matter. You can still find nature.
And the question is what different sorts of things can
(02:15):
we see. I think no matter where you are, what
we're going to talk about today you can find where
you are.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, you can find something in there.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And this information was inspired by an article in National.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Geographic, which I you know, as a science y kind
of person, I'm on their teacher I don't know, like
I could take classes through National Geographic and they said, yeah,
and you can get classes that you could share with students,
like see how this one says like great, It was
like grade levels on it, so like, and some of
them are for like the preschool years, and some of
(02:49):
them are for like older kids. And it'll give you
like different things that you could do, Like you can
put it on like a smartboard at a school or
something and do it with them.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, it's cool. That's good to me. It's really amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
You just had to sign up through their website, so
shouting out National Geographic because they're awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
You're just sign up on their website.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I took a lot of the classes during COVID and
you would learn like different things. And then now I'm
on their mailing list and they send me like all
sorts of articles all the time, and this is one
of them about finding urban nature.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
But these are things you can find anywhere. I thank
you for that. Shout out for National Geographic. We'll have
to tag that. Yeah, but I also feel like I
did not know that, yeah, and I should. So is
it professional development?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
The professional do they give you.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Like certificates and all.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I think I did give a I haven't done it
in a while, but I think I did give a certificate.
But they also have classes for like students, like you
as a teacher or you as a parent could go
on and be like, we're watching whales, you know, like
it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, it's really, it's good to know. Thank you. So
we're going to share maybe some of our own ideas,
some ideas that were inspired by this article from National Geographic,
and we will link the article on our website. It
will be there by the time you get this episode. Yes, okay,
So a couple of the ideas that we thought were
really good and that we could even some of these
(04:04):
you can actually create on your property from your early
childhood program. So the information from National Geographic is not
specifically aimed at early childhood. It's actually a little older.
But we can early childhood it. We can early childhood
anything that's good. Okay, that's true. So the first the
first idea that's in this article that I think we
can early childhood up. Oh yeah, is to volunteer at
(04:27):
a community garden.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I directed an early childhood program on the property of
a faith based building where they had a community garden. Yes, yes,
we had. One year we had big, big b problems.
We went out there, we could not bring the children
because of the bee problems and the potential for allergies.
(04:51):
But when we didn't have those be problems, we would
take the children over to the community garden and we
would look at what's growing there and talk about it
and experience it. And they had even their own little
section of it.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah. At my school currently, I'm the one that is
in charge of the school garden, which is a good
and a bad thing because when it when it's successful,
it's successful. But when it is not, it is not.
But even when it's not, I bring the children out
there and be like, why do you think this isn't working?
And I usually am like in their little three year
(05:26):
old minds are like, oh, it didn't get enough water
or you know, but it's good. Like then it gives
them ways to problem solve natural little things that could happen,
and it shows the growth, you know, so like they
planted the seed and then they saw it grow, and
then they saw the tomatoes grow or whatever it was
out there.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So like it's cool, don't you feel Like more and
more areas in cities have community gardens. Yes, you may
have to arrange a visit with someone I think you.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Do, or you can arrange to have a plot in
the community. I know somebody that I know somebody who
lives up by me. There is a large community garden
in one of the towns, and she has a plot there,
but you have to apply for it, and then she
goes and she tends to her plot. She plants whatever
she wants, but then she often gives some of the
(06:12):
vegetables away to people who need them.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So if you don't have a community garden nearby, you
can create your own school community garden. Yes, right, you
could create a community garden for the area in which
your program is and invite other people. You can create
your own just for your school. But yeah, a lot
of the city's community gardens. Check that out. Yeah, that's
a great thing if you don't already.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
We can also document some of the things that we see,
Like we can document things about the weather. Yes, And
that idea comes from what's in the article, which talks
about documenting things about the seasons seasons, because I think
weather is great.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
But no matter where you live, seasons and weather are happening, right, so,
like there's no getting around it. That's that's nature, right.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Like, so unless you're like in San Diego where it's
beautiful all year.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
The weather still happening though it's just beautiful weather.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It is, right, So maybe you might have to be like,
how sunny is it.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Today in San Diego versus how like you could look
at the sunniness.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
But still it's beautiful. Yeah, but it's still weather, you know, happening.
A lot of early childhood programs will do things like
collect the rainfall, look at thermometers. Although I was talking
to a group one time and I said, if I'm
going to talk about the weather with young children, I
do it outside. Yeah, they need to feel it and
smell it. I love to take children out when it's
(07:36):
going to rain and you can like smell the rain. Yeah,
so they do need to be feeling it as we're
talking about things like temperature. And I said, oh, and
you should bring a thermometer out there, and I'm always
surprised by how many people go, oh, I never thought
about that. Why wouldn't yeah, bring a thermometer out there,
get a weather thermometer, bring it out there, talk about
(07:58):
how does it feel to does it feel warm, does
it feel hot, does it feel cool, does it feel cold?
And that's where that is on the thermometer. Yeah, and
then you can mark, if you have the right kind
of thermometer, you can mark where the temperature was today
and where the temperature is another day, and talk about
it going up and going down. Yep. Right, absolutely, you
can do that no matter where your program is.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So that's another thing. And you can mark things about
the seasons, like what do I observe when it's winter,
What do I observe when it's fall, What do I
observe when it's summer and spring? Which is particularly good
in the area we're in because we get all four.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Seasons, four seasons and that's yeah, because and we have
a lot of trees here, so we can do that.
But I think one of the ideas they had in
that article was pick a spot, two spots in your area.
One could be like right outside your house, and one
could be at a park and what looks different like
go there at the same time or whatever. What looks
different in winter here than here, because there's going to
(08:57):
be differences, like outside your house is different than what
a park might have.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
That's a really nice hands on activity to send home
to families, to say, take your child outside and talk,
document what your child says about how the weather looks
where you live, and then we're going to talk about
it at school. I think that's a great thing because
it's a hands on, active thing, which is what we
want families to do. We don't want families doing worksheets.
We want families doing active things, just like we're supposed
(09:22):
to do in our classrooms. Yes, another idea which was
a particular favorite of mine, which I'm fascinated by birds,
and I actually, as many of you know, I have
two parakeets who continually entertain and fascinate me. Mostly entertain
they're very funny little things. But another idea was to
(09:45):
set up a bird cam. And again you can set
up bird cams anywhere. You can be looking at pigeons
in a city. You could be looking at seagulls near
the water right, you could be looking at robins in springtime. Yeah,
and talking about the weather and the birds. I love
the idea of a bird cam and you know, today
(10:06):
cameras are so easy to set up and get and record,
you know, when I think about even like ring cameras
might catch something.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yes, there's also although a little pricey, because I thought
about getting it for myself just because I thought it
was cool. Is there is a bird feeder that you
could buy that has a camera.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Built into it.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Oh, you would love this. So you can see them
land and then it'll record them and then you can
kind of like track like what birds are coming at
what time. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
That is cool.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
It is really cool, but a little pricey, so I
understand that. But if you can't afford to put a
camera or I don't have the means, you can go
on a lot of like zoo websites, I would say,
maybe even sanctuary websites that have bird cameras set.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Up and you can just watch them. Yeah, you can
go on like the Eagle site, and yeah, you can
go online and look at birds hams. But I think
it's I think it's even better to set up your
own if you can.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It is cool because you'll get to see the migration
even like not all birds are going to be there
all the time, right, so like you can start tracking
like when is this one here? When did he leave?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Like when that's a thing. You know, there are certain
birds that might catch your attention. Like for example, I
have woods out behind where I live, and we we
will get woodpeckers out here.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I just watched an amazing documentary about woodpeckers. Amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
We do get. We get woodpeckers, we get, we get
you know, the typical sorts of birds, but also sometimes
different ones, and we get hummingbirds and like all sorts
of things. So yeah, I think bird cam fun fun.
Of course in the woods back here, we could just
set up cam cam and we would catch we would catch,
we would catch like squirrels, skunks, raccoons, everything.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
But that's culture too, that's cinture too, you know, that's
all good stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah. Another great idea I think she likes. It's it's
a flower pot tour. It's it's cute, okay.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So like if you're in an area that there are
no gardens and there's not really parks, but people will
plant in flower pots and put them on.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Their porch or they're stoop.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Then you can go around and do a little flower
pot neighborhood tour and even like be like, oh today
this is just green, and then three weeks from now,
oh look there's a flower Like there's just like and
it's easy.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
One of these days, I'm gonna take you on a walk,
yeah in this neighborhood, Yeah, where there's someone's home who's
like you wouldn't know they're there. They're in the back
of like a building, right, and they have it looks
like a plant store. It really looks like a plant store.
It's amazing. I'll take you on a walk one day
like so, but looking around neighborhoods, you will you will
(12:53):
find that people have plants. You know, it isn't true
that if just because you're in a more city area
that there's no plants. There are plants. People have them.
People will grow vegetables on their terraces and and you
know that sort of thing. So it's sort of like
playing if we were gonna preschool this up. It's sort
(13:13):
of like playing I spy, yes, right, yes, what plants
do you spy? As we go outside and we look
around and maybe go on a nature walk because a
nature walk is not restricted to urb, suburban or rural areas.
People in cities can also go on nature walks and
look for what natural nature things do we see? By
(13:34):
looking around at what's near the buildings.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Around those flower pots, you're going to find things like insects, bees,
hummingbirds sometimes like things that maybe you wouldn't normally see,
but they're going to be surrounding that. Butterflies, Yeah, like
those things are going to be around if people have
flower pots on their porch.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I also really encourage you to encourage photography on these
nature walks, right, So if you can get some child
fris cameras like they still sell the disposable ones, I think, right, so, yeah,
so if you get some child friendly cameras like that,
give it to the children and let them photograph the
(14:10):
nature they're seeing. That can be a very cool experience
for this summer, yeah, which is coming up once this
episode releases. That's true, right, you should be in pretty
good weather wherever you are right now listening hopefully. Yeah,
And I would encourage you to think about going on
walks at different times of day, yes, because you will
(14:30):
see here and smell different things in the morning than
you would in the afternoon. Yes, so even thinking about
how can we vary our time? Yeah, right, go on
a nature walk at another time of day. And you
can also really focus in on the sky.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Oh yeah, that's actually a really good idea. And I
think especially if you're going to combine the photography with
the sky thing, like you could take a picture of
the same sky every day and.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
It would be different. Yeah, and that would be kind
of cool, and you could talk about then the clouds
and the moon of the clouds and.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
The sunset or the sunrise or whatever time you're at. Like,
I think that's a really good idea.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
You can encourage families to do that sort of thing
at home too, because it'll be a different view there.
I remember where I am anyway, when I was younger,
seeing way more stars than we see now. There's too
much light.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
There's a lot more light now, Yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Too much light. You really have to be in a
very Yeah, you have to be in an area where
there's less opportunity for light in order to see the
sort of stars that we saw when we were children.
But if you can get the children to somewhere where
they can see stars, yeah, that would be awesome, because
it's awesome. Yeah, where they can see like a sky
(15:41):
full of stars like when I was young. Yeah, like
I said, I don't really see that anymore unless you're
like an a wooded area. Yeah, it's a shame. Really,
let's see. So wildlife exists everywhere everywhere. Children love to observe.
Insects are easy to me.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
That's easy, like because even just finding an ant on
the on the ground, you can watch that, right, and
that's those are those.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Kind of things are everywhere, you know. Yeah, if you
have access to botanical gardens, an aquarium, an arboretum, an arboretum,
an aquarium, a zoo, zoo that is kind to the animals, yes, yes,
thank you. I honestly am surprised sometimes when I go
(16:32):
and it's like animals and cages and I'm like, no,
little zoo. No. But if you can go to a
like you know, for example, the Bronx Zoo does conservation,
they do, so you know, if you have access to
a really good place that has animals, see life plants
(16:56):
that you can go visit, that's a really worthy field trips. Yeah.
I work with or have worked with a program that
is near the Bronx Zoo near enough anyway, And once
a year they take a school trip with the preschoolers
to the Bronx Zoo and they get to walk around
(17:18):
the zoo and see different areas in different animals, and
it's just a really cool thing. And it's not even
like those children, by the way, those children living in
that area, like they go there with their families. Yeah,
and there are days at the Bronx Zoo that are free,
so that no matter your income, you can go. And
these children have ordinarily been to that zoo already when
you talk to them. But still it's an awesome school trip.
(17:39):
So don't think like, you know, we live near the arboretum,
everybody goes to the arbor, or we live near the
botanical gardens, everybody goes there. Going there with you makes
it in an entirely different experience. So I really encourage
that too. I hope this inspires you to think about,
no matter where you are, how can we approach being
in nature and how what are some new ideas, Like
(17:59):
maybe you're sick of the same nature walk, what are
some new ideas for exposing children to knowledge about nature? Right?
And speaking of knowledge, folks behind Allison's head is something
on YouTube. It's a QR code. If you don't know
why that's there or what you would get, come to YouTube,
use your camera to scan it, or you know, go
(18:20):
back an episode or two. You must have missed an
episode or two. If you don't know why this QR
code is there, go back and listen to us talk
about it a few episodes several I think several episodes ago.
Check to see when it's first in the background, and
we talk about it in more detail. If you can
think of more nature ideas, please send them, or any
topic you'd like us to talk about. We are open
(18:42):
to topics. If we've already spoken about it, we will
simply send you the episode number, but if we haven't,
we will include it. So we hope that you will
contact us, that QR code gets you to where you can,
and we will catch you next time on the podcast
by Fool
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