Naturally Wild

 It is finally here, the coveted fall season! We wake to cooler mornings as the blistering heat of the summer has come to a simmer. Trees are illuminating red,
orange and yellow and this my friends is undoubtedly the best weather to go frolicking outdoors! We recently started a new program at the Greenville Zoo called Home school Hikes. It has quickly grown to be one of my favorite programs. The weekday offering of this hike accommodates the homeschooler schedule. The October hike was focused on edible plants we find here in the South. It was such a fun hike that I wanted to share the information we went over.

The idea of searching for edible food out in the wild may have you thinking, “is this really edible?” Some of my co-workers have even commented, “but squirrels eat that!” Yes, there is edible food found in the wild. Only recently we, as a society, have engaged in factory farming and scientifically modifying our food. Before that, we would hunt for plants and meat in the wild. With that said, not every plant we come across is safe to eat. There is important information to have handy to make sure we have the safest and most enjoyable time trying new foods right outside our door!

For our hike, we put together six key points to take into consideration when looking for the edible plants:

1.    What is it?

Make sure you know how to identify the plant with 100% certainty. Know what plants may look similar to the one you are looking for, and whether they would be dangerous to eat. Some dangerous plants can look just like the safe ones, so it is crucial to know which one you are looking at.   

2.   What part of it is edible?

          This note was the one that I had least thought about. However, not every part of the plant is edible. There are leaves, nuts, roots, flowers, berries, and stems to take into consideration.  

3.    What time of year is it edible?

Most fruits are tastier when they are fully ripe. The same goes with other wild plants; they are more enjoyable in their season. Some plants, however, are not just sour tasting in their off-season, they can be dangerous as well. Make sure you know when it is the best time to indulge.

4.   How does it need to be prepared to be edible?

Some wild plants are fine when eaten raw but others could use some preparation. Preparing your food can be a fun process! Take acorns for an example, when raw they can be very bitter from tannins. However, when boiled and cooked they can be a tasty snack. 

5.   How much of it is safe to eat?

Some plants are only safe to eat in small portions. Sourwood is one of those plants. It is a great plant to quench thirst but if eaten in large portions it can make you feel sick.

6.    What are the environmental conditions around it?

          If it is near a road, farm, or area with a lot of runoff, it might have chemicals from the cars or pollution. In addition, if you are searching within city limits, it may be treated with some sort of weed control chemical. For an example, Kudzu is edible when prepared right but here in Greenville it is also an invasive plant. So, in most of the city limits it is not safe to eat, because it has been treated with chemicals to try to eliminate it.

Most of our knowledge comes from books on edible plants. These books are very helpful in identifying, not only which plants are edible, but also which poisonous plants look similar. There are also some neat recipes on how to cook the various plants you find. You can find the exact books we used below:

Here is a recipe that is not found in the books above, but is the one we used to candy our acorns.

What You Need:

1. White Oak acorns

2. A hammer 

3. Two Large Pots

4. Large Pan 

5. Butter Knive 

6. Strainer 

7. Sugar 

8. Cinnamon

9. Butter or Water 

After you have gathered your acorns, you will need to rinse them off with water. Next, fill a pot with water and pour the acorns in. Remove any floating acorns as those are the rotten ones that typically have worms. Next you want to rinse them again and leave them to soak for about an hour. Then drain and pat dry with a towel. Shell the acorns with a clean hammer. Sometimes the second layer is harder to remove so using a butter knife helps to scrape it away. Bring two large pots of water to a boil. Pour the acorns into one pot and let it boil for about 15 minutes or until the water has changed to a brownish color. Next strain the acorns and pour into the second pot of boiling water for another 15 minutes. Refill the first pot with water and bring to a boil again. Repeat this process until the water is clear. Once the water stays clear drain the acorns and let sit for about 10 minutes to cool off.

Next, you can add either water or butter to a skillet on medium heat. Then add as much sugar as you please to the acorns continually stirring so they don’t stick to the pan.  Add cinnamon or any spices you’d like and continue to cook until the mixture has become sticky and carmalized. Remove from skillet and place on a hard surface to cool. Once cooled they are ready to eat!

I hope this blog inspired you to get outdoors and try something new. Happy fall ya’ll!

Nature Play at the Greenville Zoo - Part 2

Welcome back to the series, where we talk about nature play at the Greenville Zoo. This entry will be about how to implement nature play indoors if you do not have the outdoor space. I will also share tips from the Brookfield Zoo on how to interact and guide the children through the activities. 

To pick up from the last blog, nature play is all about connecting kids to nature. 

The ultimate goal is to get kids outdoors interacting with natural materials. 

However, not everyone has the outdoor space available. Not to worry though, because nature can simply be brought indoors. The key components to include in your indoor nature play is natural materials. Seed pods, rocks, seashells, sticks and dirt are only a few examples of the diverse array of natural materials you could choose from. The ideas you can create with these materials are endless and there is always something for everybody. 

Sensory bins are a great way to bring nature to a kid’s level. I have done several nature play activities with just sensory bins. These bins are usually about a foot or two off the ground or simply placed on the ground. The purpose is to have the materials right at the child’s eye level, so the height will depend on the age.

Now filling your bins is the fun part. Keeping in mind the age of your child. You could fill it with one single substance for introductory purposes or you could add multiple parts to engage and nurture creativity. Rice, sand, or corn kernels paired with funnels, cups or seed pods are great for fine motor skills. The children have the opportunity to pour, fill or scoop with the materials provided. For the older kids I like to enable habitat building or an “extreme” sensory bin. With the building of habitats I will provide grass and sand sensory items to represent different habitats. I will include sticks, rocks, seed pods and plastic animals that correspond with the different habitats. The extreme sensory bin is a chance for kids to get some hands on experience with a natural material that they may not usually come across. I recently facilitated  a mud bug hunt, where I filled the bin with wet mud and hid plastic bugs for the kids to find. They were pleasantly surprised by the texture and the freedom to get elbow deep in mud. 

Art with nature can also be accomplished inside and there are many ways to include art into your nature play. Bark or leaf rubbings, nature sketches, or painting with natural materials are a few ways. I have also had the children make nature bracelets with masking tape. We simply wrap the tape around their wrists sticky side facing out, so they can attach leaves or other natural materials to their bracelet.

The “physical” aspect of nature play may be limited to the space you have but it is possible. Building with blocks can be an indoor activity. It is most effective when you use wooden blocks with natural edges to challenge the builder to practice balancing and engineering skills. Math can also be implemented in your indoor nature play. Counting or comparing patterns can be done with various natural items such as pine cones, and seashells.

Now that we have covered some activities you could easily implement indoors, let’s talk about some ideas presented by the Brookfield Zoo on the best way to 

guide your child through nature play. The Brookfield Zoo has a very special counterpart dedicated to just children and nature play, called the Hamill Family Play Zoo.  Here is where they practice the theories of nature play on a daily basis. They talked about when interacting with the child through play it is important to not let your opinions or ideas overtake the progression of the play. We should let the child blossom with their own ideas. The best way to make sure you are not taking over the activity is by limiting your physical and vocal involvement. Phrases like and similar to, “I like what you created” or “That’s really cool” are objective enough to encourage the child to continue building or playing how you want them to. It subconsciously makes them look for your approval and encouragement rather than having full confidence in themselves. The trainers at the Brookfield Zoo have great tips on how to avoid this outcome. The phrases they suggest start with “I see” or “I noticed”. You could continue the sentence like, “I see you used shells to create your structure”, or “I noticed that you used a lot of blue in your drawing”. This language is called “mirroring language”, which reflects back to the child what they are doing and saying. Noticing what the child is doing, provides rich vocabulary associated with the play and invites conversation with the child. This helps supports the child’s learning by focusing on what they are really interested in. 

Well, I hope these tips and ideas help you engage with your kids at home and inspire you to bring nature to them no matter what the circumstances!

Photo credits: http://www.playathomemomllc.com/2013/04/50-sensory-bin-ideas/  

http://www.earlyyears.co.uk/inspiration/8-dinosaur-small-world-play-ideas/ 

 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/246642517069723760/?lp=true 

Nature Play at the Greenville Zoo - Part 1

On a regular warm weekday, walking through the zoo you may see me sitting in the mulch with rocks, sticks and some animal figurines. Many people have inquired as to what exactly am I doing with the children. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the little known world of nature play that I forget how odd I must look, being a zoo employee, playing in the dirt. I am Kait Otero and I am the Nature Play Coordinator at the Greenville Zoo. My job is to facilitate nature based activities out on the zoo campus. If you have been following this blog you know I provide resources and ideas for nature based activities and crafts. However, I have never fully explained the theory of Nature Play. To answer those questions I will create a series of blogs to explain the importance of nature play, how a child can learn through play and how the Greenville Zoo is involved. 

Let’s start with the premise of this movement, Nature Play is a nature based “curriculum” focused on early childhood development. It is a growing movement with the help of zoos, aquariums, nature centers and other child orientated organizations across the nation. The main focus of Nature Play is pretty self-explanatory, getting children to play in nature. While they play, they are developing skills that meet classroom criteria in a more “natural” environment. There have been many articles written on the benefits and values of letting our kids play outdoors. One of the main benefits the Greenville Zoo focuses on is playing outdoors creates empathy for nature. This empathy gives them a base for becoming a more environmentally aware citizen. With all this talk about playing in nature and nature play programs, the idea may not be clear on how we actually play in nature. To some it may be a surprise that we do have boundaries as far as what meets the criteria. At first it can be confusing, you may be thinking “don’t you just let the children play?”. We definitely allow free choice in our nature play programs because the ideas and materials are mostly open ended. However there is more to just setting them free outdoors.

I recently attended a Nature Start conference at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. This conference was all about how to get nature play started at your zoo. They went over what is and what is not considered nature play, as well as how to guide children through their play. 

To start, it helps to have a dedicated nature play space but it is not necessary. You can bring nature into the classroom, which is a great introductory to nature play. To better emphasize the key points of a natural space, we look at the different playgrounds we would normally come across at our local parks and compare them with natural spaces. 

Most generic playgrounds are constructed from plastic and don’t allow much varied play. If you look at a basic playground, there are usually one way routes, and one ultimate goal of climbing up and sliding down. Now if you take a look at the nature based playground, you will see open spaces, different textured terrain to dig in and rocks or logs to climb on. With this space there are inherently more options for play. A child could dig, climb, balance, dance, jump, and create many worlds with their imagination. 

The third playground shown is our Nature Nook at the Greenville Zoo. We did not have a lot of available space but we made it work with adding a wooden balance beam, tree stumps, a chalk board, two xylophones and outdoor building blocks. This space has natural textures to enhance play as well as many different play options. The children can dig, jump, balance, create music, build and draw with chalk. Adding loose parts is one way to enhance these nature playgrounds or to incorporate in your classroom. Loose parts can be anything that allows manipulation by the child. These parts do not have to be expensive, they can be recycled items, things found in a backyard, or created from natural materials. Loose parts I frequently use are recycled boxes, old tires, sticks/branches, seed pods, and water. The goal is to get the children to use their imagination with natural materials. While they are engulfed in an imaginary world, they are learning and enhancing skills like social engagement, independent thinking, problem solving and motor functions. The big take away I see as a wildlife enthusiast, is the empathy they are creating for the nature around them. They are creating memories and special moments outdoors that will last a lifetime. These memories will help them become more environmentally aware citizens down the road and advocate the well-being of local habitats.  

The Greenville Zoo has been able to create the Nature Nook with the help of AZA and Walt Disney. These two organizations created a grant called, ‘Nature Play Begins at Your Zoo and Aquarium’. This grant enabled organizations to buy materials, build nature spaces, and even create job positions to improve and grow their Nature Play programs. We have been very lucky to receive this grant three years in a row. With our grants we have created the Nature Nook, started a family nature play club, built a water wall, hosts training opportunities for other local school teachers, and fund my part time position. Needless to say, this grant has fostered the movement and has opened doors for endless growth, for which we are grateful. I hope I have answered the question as to what is Nature Play! In the next blog we will be talking about how to facilitate nature play if you don’t have outdoor space and more tips from the Brookfield Zoo on how to guide children during play.   

Happy playing! 

Giving Back

This week we are talking about giving back to the earth. As consumers we buy items that take a lot of resources from the earth. However we often don’t think about how to replenish these resources. This issue is actually the main problem when it comes to any environmental issue. We take and consume from the earth but we don’t take the action to replenish the source for future use.  However as I have mentioned before we don’t want to bombard our little ones with the negativity of human related issues that they cannot grasp. Instead we should teach them how to love and be compassionate to our earth. Let’s teach them to show compassion by “giving back”. Giving back will hopefully teach them the basis for future understanding that we must replace our resources and not to take advantage of the precious land around us. Nature play is easy to implement in these types of activities. We are getting into nature in order to give back, so each encounter gets us outside directly with hands on.

Taking Action

You can take action by giving back in many different ways. Put something out that the animals can directly consume like bird feeders or squirrel snacks. Or sharing your space by making toad abodes or bug hotels is also beneficial. There are plenty of ideas, just use your imagination. Try some of these ideas at home with your children.

1.    Squirrel Snacks

I see a lot of squirrels and birds eating unnatural foods and carrying unnecessary body fat because of the food scrapes we leave behind. If we are going to contribute to squirrels’ diet, why not provide something healthy. This a great way to show our kids what is an appropriate diet for different animals. You can simply string hemp, rope or craft string with rings of fruits and vegetables. In the picture above they used left over orange peels for seed “holders”.

2.   Sharing Spaces

Sharing the space we have with the surrounding wildlife is also a great way to give back. There are several ways you can share your space. Toad abodes are simple and versatile. They are made with plant pots or any cup shaped tool and you dig the pot half into the dirt creating a little hidey house.

Bug hotels are another nifty home for insects and maybe some small reptiles. The idea with bug hotels is to create a space with lots of different “pockets” for the insects to hide in. This project is also very versatile to your imagination.

3.    Planting For Friends

There are also many plants you can bring into your home garden to encourage the flourishment of the environment. Planting native plants, whether flowers or vegetables can provide a habitat for different insects, birds, or small mammals. Here are some beneficial and native plants to add to your garden:

1.     Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea: This beautiful purple flower in the garden attracts bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

2.    Cardinal Flower, Lobelia cardinalis  The bright red flowers lasting from July to October make Cardinal Flower a favorite for attracting hummingbirds. 

3.     Beauty Berry, Callicarpa americana is a coarse textured shrub with opposite leaves and small light lavender sessile flowers which are fragrant and attractive to beneficial insects.

4.   Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa is a bushy perennial

with bright orange flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

These are just a few ideas that can help you teach your little one how easy it is to care for and nourish our local environment right outside the back door. Sending creative vibes your way!

Photo Sources

Squirrel feeders; http://sherisilver.com 

Girl with toad abode;  http://www.learn2grow.com 

Bug Hotel; http://vintagewithlaces.blogspot.com/

Butterfly Milkweed; http://monarchbutterflygarden.net/milkweed-plant-seed-resources/asclepias-tuberosa-butterfly-weed/ 

New Year, New You

The start of a new year is always full of promises and inspiration for a “new me.” We plan to take steps  to become greener, work out more, or eat healthier. Most of us do not think about getting back to nature as a New Year goal. Yet, spending time in nature is just as powerful and beneficial as working out or eating healthier. As adults, we spend a lot of time worrying about our children and what we teach them. However, it can be helpful to indulge in some “adult nature play.” Studies have shown that spending time outdoors improves our mood, cognitive thinking and sleep patterns. Even the tiniest exposure to nature or greenery has a positive effect on us.

Simple Ideas

Making connections to the greener world is easier than you may think. Here are a few ideas for some “adult nature play.” 

1.     Bringing greenery into the office is probably the simplest idea. Personally, I have a coworker who has a mini garden at her desk and just being exposed to the plants has helped calm my nerves on busy days. I find myself frequently looking over at her desk when I’m brainstorming or in need of boost. Moving your desk to face the window so you can see outside to, hopefully, a green environment could also do the trick.

2.    There are some theories that conclude that simply looking at landscape photos can give us a peaceful mind or boost our creative juices. Hanging photos around your workspace, home, or setting your computer background photos to reflect natural environments could help you achieve a little bit of serenity.

3.     Making time in your day to get outside could drastically improve your work performance and patience. As studies have shown, taking a short walk surrounded by greenery has improved memory and creativity. Picnicking outside for lunch or going for a jog through the park during lunch are great ideas for a mid-day break.

4.    You could try joining an outdoor club to help you make time for outdoor play. The app “Meetup” has helped me make new connections to my community. They have tons of hiking clubs, outdoor yoga, biking clubs and so much more! 

These are just a few things for you to try. The ideas are really endless! However, finding time to make nature a part of your day is what really matters. So let’s get started on a new you through the natural environment around you.

Sending good vibes and tranquil thoughts!