YN Fall 2021 Spring 2022

 Recap since Fall 2021 

10/13 Fayetteville: Fantastic Fall Foliage:  Selection of leaves was minimal outside due to mowing the grass. The participants  really enjoyed making leaf rubbings, they enjoyed the experiment but chromatography takes an hour so no immediate results, let them know they can do it at home! Put out books about leaves from library- great! Kids took some of them out :) Question for them -  Does rain have an effect on leaf color? (4 students)

 

10/16 Petit: Fantastic Fall Foliage: The student who came was younger than the audience I was expecting (about 3 or 4 years old) so the experiment wasn’t really understood, but the leaf rubbings went well, next time for Petit adapt lesson for younger kids, more hands on activities! (1participant, 1 intern / training) 

 

11/11 Liverpool: Fantastic Fall Foliage : This lesson went very well, there was a mix of younger and older kids with the youngest being around 6 and the oldest around 12, all of their parents stayed as well. It was helpful during the lesson to hand out leaves to each student to look at while I was teaching about pigments. When I taught them the pigment carotenoid, one of the kids brought up that it sounded like karate, and that’s a good way to remember it and was also pretty funny. Mrs. Jo also raked a big pile of leaves for the kids to jump into at the end which was super fun! It allowed the kids to interact with what they were learning and have fun. They also really enjoyed the leaf rubbings and the experiment which I told them they could also do at home. (15 students, and 2 interns)

 

11/13 Petit: Brilliant Bears. They all loved watching National Geographic and they knew a lot about animals such as bears. I was able to go through a slideshow of bear pictures on my laptop and discuss with them the different features of the bears and how they helped them live where they live. They also all enjoyed making the paper plate bear craft, which I would do again with younger kids. (4 participants / 2 interns)

 

12/8 Fayetteville: Brilliant Bears: This was a fun lesson, I accidentally forgot my printed lesson plan so it was totally unscripted which actually made it better! We had a discussion about polar, grizzly, and black bears and what adaptations they have that help them survive in different habitats. The learners had a lot of input on how these bears had different paws, fur color, and different diets. Their favorite was the grizzly bear. After our discussion they each drew a bear and their habitat, all of them picked the grizzly and drew fish, trees, birds, water, and berries. Next time I would want to make the lesson more outdoor based, although the program is at 4:15 which is about when it starts to get dark out this time of year. It would also be fun to include an activity to get the learners moving, we finished with about 15 extra minutes.  (5 students) 

 

12/11 Petit: Incredible Insects: Nate and Tanner planned this lesson, it was super fun! The kids were really engaged in the pictures of insects displayed on the laptop and had a lot of fun playing a game “insect or not” identifying if a picture was an insect or not. The kids were all a younger age group, around pre-k to 2nd grade so they benefit from a more activity and craft based lesson and are very talkative and open to sharing which is awesome for discussion based learning. (10 participants ; 2 interns)

 

1/20 Fayetteville: Winter Wildlife: This was a zoom lesson due to the rising covid numbers in the area. We took a virtual adventure where we got out of our seats and moved around to find different animal tracks in the snow, describe what we saw, and guess what could have made the track! Then we drew some tracks and we shared what we created. I ended the lesson with animal sounds and we played “guess that sound”.  (2 partipants)

 

2/24 Fayetteville: Frozen Feathered Friends: No participants ; maybe due to COVID, But… 30 make your own birdfeeder kits were taken from the library

 

2/26 Liverpool: Frozen Feathered Friends. We learned some winter birds that live in Syracuse, what they look like and the sounds they make. Then we went outside to observe some birds near the library. We saw some American tree sparrows and black-capped chickadees at the birdfeeders! Then we made our own recycled birdfeeders out of toilet paper rolls, vegetable shortening and birdseed! (9 participants)

 

To make your own recycled bird feeder:

Supplies:

-       One toilet paper roll

-       One arm’s length piece of yarn

-       About 2 tablespoons of peanut butter or vegetable shortening

-       About 2 tablespoons of birdseed

-       Optional: a popsicle stick

How to make:

-       Spread vegetable shortening or peanut butter onto outside of toilet paper roll with a popsicle stick or your fingers

-       Sprinkle bird seed onto a paper plate, newspaper, or other surface that can get messy and roll your toilet paper roll in the bird seed so that it sticks to and covers the outside

-       Tie a piece of yarn through the toilet paper roll so you can hang your bird feeder on a tree branch or anywhere outside your house!

-       Watch some winter birds fly up for a snack! 



3/24 Fayetteville: Marvelous mosses and lichen: We learned what moss and lichen are, where they grow, and why they are important. Then we went on an adventure outside the library with our magnifying glasses and looked at some moss and lichen up close, we found some really cool moss growing on a stump! Then we came back inside and made moss terrariums and looked at some of the moss we found under a microscope camera at the library! (9 participants) 

 

3/26 Petit: Marvelous mosses and lichens:  Once again we learned what a moss and lichen are, where they grow, and why they are important. We talked a lot about tardigrades (water bears) that live in moss! Then we explored outside the library in the rainy weather and found some cool moss and lichens to look at up close and touch! Then we came back in and made terrariums adding some cool moss we found! (6 kids, 4 adult parents who also participated :)

 

3/31 Liverpool: Marvelous mosses and lichens. One more time, we learned what mosses and lichens are, where they grow, and why they are important. A lot of us saw moss before growing on trees, rocks, and even the stairs outside our house! Then we suited up and looked for mosses and lichens outside in the rainy weather, we found some growing on the ground, sticks, and even on the side of the library! Then we came back inside and made terrariums adding some gnomes and fairies for decoration courtesy of Ms. Jo, Liverpool’s amazing children’s librarian! (15 participants)

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