Summer RE Programming

It is in the single digits outside and there is a layer of snow everywhere. I'm sitting here looking out onto the frozen cul-de-sac across the street while I'm stuck here at home with Little J who has the flu and bronchitis. What better time is there to work on summer RE programming.

Last year our church voted to become a Green Sanctuary church. With that in mind, the RE curriculum committee is preparing a nature awareness curriculum for this coming summer's grade K-6 RE program. We are using the book Hands-On Nature: Information and Activities for Exploring the Environment with Children by the Vermont Institute of Natural Science. This is a lot of fun.

Today I am working on a couple of lessons about birds. Maybe I'll have a class meet outside on our campus and try to identify the different birds in the trees. That would be fun. Right now I'm imagining the cool green grass and the sun shining down in mid-July. We have lots of trees around our campus and I imagine them full of all kinds of birds. I wonder if I can get my hands on some binoculars.

We're also supposed to do a lesson about birds of prey (specifically owls). Even though it's a reality, I'm less excited about that one. Maybe I'll look for mythical owl stories to share with the kids. I know owls pop up a lot in mythical tales. 5yo D just came up and asked me, "Mom, why do owls have to eat mouses?" :-) Maybe that'd be a good discussion topic for the K-3 class.

Here only a couple of weeks ago I was complaining about how warm it still was, but now I can't wait for summer. I'm not a fan of the cold.