For the first day of Ice Age camp, Little Explorers learned about the different mammals from the Ice Age. First we learned about what a mammal was since there were so many megafauna or large animals during the Ice Age and lots of them were mammals. We got to be Ice Age detectives and figure out how so many of these mammals stayed warm in cold temperatures by experimenting with ice water and crisco. Little Explorers created their very own Ice Age scenes with mammals from the Ice Age.
Tuesday:
Today was all about mammoths and mastodons! Little Explorers learned the differences between the two large proboscideans by visiting them in the museum! The mastodons on the second floor even show us how humans and mastodons interacted and the Bristle mammoth on the fourth floor gives us clues about how humans would refrigerate their food before refrigerators were invented! We even got to touch the teeth of both creatures. Little Explorers got to take a special trip to the planetarium where we read and watched Wild and Woolly Mammoths. We ended the day by making handprint mastodons that went home on Thursday.
Wednesday: Ice Age camp got messy today! Little Explorers learned a lot about sabertooth cats today by reading a story and making their very own sabertooth masks. We learned how sabertooth cats catch their prey and we pretended to be cats stalking mastodons. While wearing our masks, we got to take a trip to the Smilodon, a specific kind of sabertooth cat. After snack, we learned about how many sabertooth cats have been found in California - in tar pits! We played with animals sinking in tar pit oobleck (equal parts cornstarch and water with some black paint), which is why some Little Explorers came home with black or grey hands! We had a great time!
Today Little Explorers learned all about first people. We read a story called The First Drawing and made our own mural showing Ice Age animals together. We finished up some necklaces with handmade clay beads that we had been working on for a few days. Little Explorers even painted their own cave art to be sent home on Friday. We spent time excavating skulls and small fossils from a kinetic sand dig box before taking home some of our
finds.
Friday:
On the last day of camp, Little Explorers played with ice and snow! With some snow oobleck-like substance, kids played with Ice Age animals before a short tour of some of the Ice Age dioramas on the second floor. During snack, we excavated an animal from ice to use in our own dioramas that we made. To end the day, we went outside early and painted scenes with water colors on ice blocks. We've had a great week and we hope everyone has a wonderful end of summer!
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