Winter Camp in July!

The past two weeks I have had the pleasure and excitement of putting together a winter camp for my students since they are on winter break right now.  We decided that our topics would focus on eco-regions and animals here in Paraguay since many of the students have not ever been outside the community, much less thinking about other animals that can be found in other parts of the country.  We spent some time going through a powerpoint that I put together with each of the eco-regions of Paraguay and pictures associated with each.  We also spent one entire class period talking about the Pantanal and looked at many of the photos I took during my journey last Nov/Dec.  Each of the students made their own nature collage that we covered in masking tape so they could hang it up at home and we had a lot of fun cutting out pictures from the Missouri Department of Conservation magazine.  During class times we also watched Planet Earth to see some of the other eco-systems worldwide.  We ended the class and celebrated by making a wonderful chocolate and beet cake and watched The Lorax which was a great movie to help tie together some of the conservation issues here in Paraguay that we have been talking about.  We ended up having a lot of fun together two mornings a week and did a variety of activities, some of which you can see below.

The first class period we talked about the classification of animals and talked about birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, and amphibians.  So in order to see if they learned some of the material at the end I had a habitat poster with ten different animals labeled and they had to match up the correct classification win the animal.  

Students working on their nature collages.

On one of the Monday’s during winter break I was able to take two of the students to a regional environmental camp.  So they had a great time going into Caaguazu (only the second time they have ever been) and we had a good breakfast and played in the plaza at the park for while waiting for the bus to come.  We also took out picture in front of one of the statues in the plaza.  

Once we traveled about 30 minutes outside of Caaguazu we arrived at the location for the regional camp and started out with a fun ice breaker activity.

This was one of my favorite activities for the students to do.  There was a large piece of paper with tree stumps drawn on and we used popcorn as the living trees.  We started out giving about half the kid’s cards representing different occupations: house wife, carpenter, farmer, etc.  and they each went around and “cut down” each of the trees they would need over a one year time and they had to explain what they would be used for- firewood, construction material, etc.  We then talked a little bit about natural regeneration and that only about 10 new trees each year grow.  So we kept going in the circle and them cutting down the trees and explaining what they use each of them for.  We also had a few new families move into the community thus requiring wood for the houses.  At the end the students were just able to see how easy and quickly it is for deforestation to occur, especially in our rural communities where the trees are cut down for firewood, construction material, etc.  We then went on to talk about tree planting so we ended on a positive note!

The students and I with our new poster talking about tree planting that we have brought back and hung up in our classroom!

The last day of class we had a little celebration and made wonderful chocolate beet cake so this was just us preparing all of the ingredients!  Notice the dog in the corner trying to stay warm in his dog house/box.

The students eating the warm cake as we watched The Lorax which was the first time any of them had ever seen the movie.  After the movie we had a quick discussion about the main environmental problem but how simple it is for one child to make a difference.

The students with their certificates and nature collages.

Another picture but one with me in it, there you go mom!

Life here has just been cool and rainy lately but perfect gardening weather and stay tuned for some more blog posts about birthday celebrations and a trip to Argentina which is planned for next week!

Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods, wash it in the creek, and turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion…

In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy; a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace.

~Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods