Spring Quest

Three or four weeks ago Madie came home and did something I thought at the time was a miracle: went to the bathroom, took less than 30 minutes in there, came out and EMPTIED HER BACKPACK. All without being reminded. It turned out it was less of a miracle and more of a desire. She ran up to me with a flyer she had been given at school from the community college with the title, "Spring Quest" printed across the top. 

"I really want to do this," she said as she brought it to me. I was surprised she was so proactive about it. She generally isn't that way even about things she's interested in. I looked through it and told her I'd talk to Dad about it. 

Spring Quest is a program run by the (very) small elementary education majors at College of the Atlantic here in Bar Harbor. There were four of them this year. It runs for the last week of May as an after-school program. We decided to send Madie, with the only concern being the possibility she'd be grumpy when she got home at 5:30. We told her she would have to go to bed early every night that week to make up for it. She wasn't thrilled about that, but she was excited to go. 

Day 1: They started out with a bang! They visited the college's touch-tank to learn about all sorts of sea creatures. They talked about whales, and measured the distance between two buildings in "Minke whale" lengths (17 ft.). They talked about similarities between humans and whales, how baleen whales eat, and passed around a piece of baleen and krill. They even put together a baby Minke whale skeleton! She still brings that up.

Day 2: This was the "wonders of the land" day. They made garden wraps for a snack. They talked about the parts of plants involved in their snacks and that all of the vegetables started out as seeds. Then they dissected a bean seed and drew the different parts of them. They planted mini gardens to bring home. 

Day 3: Thursday they focused on wonders of the sky--and were blessed with a thunderstorm to accompany them! Really! They started out with bird and bat foods for snack. They had fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and cheddar bunnies. (Hahaha! I love that one.) They talked about owls and the rodents they eat. They looked at owl pellets (lucky them). They talked about how high up the sky goes and whether they can touch it or not. They talked about how rain is formed and the common names of clouds.

Day 4: The last day of Spring Quest. This was the day they focused on how humans impact the natural environment. They talked about what a landscape would look like if there were no humans in it. They went on a scavenger hunt to look at things around campus people are doing to lower their impact on the environment (solar panels, composting, electric cars, etc.) They used peanut butter chocolate chip cookies to talk about plants and animals they really like and want to preserve and different ways to do that. (This is my kind of lesson!)

All in all, I think it was a very positive experience for Miss Madie. She enjoyed her teachers and the other kids, and she loves hands-on things like this. I hope her other extra-curricular activities will be as enjoyable for her as this first one has.