Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Friday, September 25, 2020
Mysterious Mushrooms!
Ever wonder about mushrooms? Learn how some are vital to decomposing, some are parasites, and some work with tree roots, helping them communicate and get more nutrition.
In Person: October 10th, 10 - 11:30 a.m. at Blackstone Park Conservancy. Meet at the Blackstone Park kiosk, by Parkside Road & East Orchard Avenue, Providence, RI 02906. Mushroom collecting is not allowed, but stay on the trails to see what you find! We’ll have laminated guides to borrow and Melissa on hand to identify photos sent by text. Kids can make clay mushrooms to take home. Masks, social distancing, and Registration required.
Virtual: October 21st, 6:30 p.m.
Register in advance for this meeting here.
Both are FREE, but donations always appreciated. Use the Donate button on our home page! More programs in the link (top right).
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Friday, August 7, 2020
The Insect Orchestra Family Day
"Join the Insect Orchestra!" August 15th 10-11:30 at Blackstone Field. Registration and masks required. Limited to 12 participants!
Buzz, whir, click, chirp! It's summer, and the trees, fields, and warm nights are full of sounds! They sound like machinery, but they're actually insects! Learn how insects make sounds, then make your own instruments with your family using our kit. Watch the Insect Orchestra here: https://youtu.be/1lTRC86Q7QI or see it on tour at the Rhode Island Museum of Art and Science (rimosa.org) in August and the RI Natural History Survey (rinhs.org) in September. Part of the "Art and Science at the Park" series with 15 Minute Field Trips.
Friday, October 18, 2019
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Fall Events
We have lots of fun events coming up! Check out our flyer for school and youth group visits and birthday parties!
September 22nd Rocks and Fossils 11:30-1 at the RWP Botanical Center
September 28th Fish Kites at Colt State Park and many more activities along the East Bay Bike Path 12-3
October 5th Spooky Spiders 10-12 at Blackstone Park
October 8th and 22nd, 2-4, Recycled Jewelry at HeArtSpot.
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Workshops and More!
WORKSHOPS with 15 Minute Field Trips™
Contact Melissa at 15minutefieldtrips@gmail.com
Most workshops two hours at $5/participant. Includes materials, set-up, running activity, and clean up. We come to you! Other options include guided hikes at various locations and custom-made STEAM activities tied to NGSS.
Download resources at
15 Minute Field Trips
WEBSITE: 15minutefieldtrips.blogspot.com
Fish Kites (Koi Nobori)
The Japanese celebrate the strength of their children by flying colorful carp streamers or kites in May. Celebrate your strength: physically, emotionally, and mentally, by building and decorating a rectangular prism "wind sock". We'll also look at patterns in local Rhode Island fish, from tiny golden shiners to long Northern pikes, pumpkinseeds, rainbow trout, and more!
Rock Stars (additional $15 charge per workshop on top of $5/participant)
Three rotating stations:
1. Explore rocks and fossils and do a fossil texture rub with crayon.
2. Use rocks (colored chalk) to tell a story (Mastery journey?) in the style of Anasazi petroglyphs (black paper and/or outside on sidewalk).
3. Paint "GOALS" or "Inspirational messages) on rocks to leave in public places or have at home.
Self-Defense Strategies
Learn how animals defend themselves through armor, speed, and camouflage. Create a chimera (mixed-up animal) with defenses of their choice. Includes many visuals, crayons, colored pencils, markers, paper, and a live pill bug petting zoo.
Frog vs. Toad Slime Wars
Learn about the 10 frog and toad species in RI, design a game card, and get ready for battle trivia as we pit frog against toad for the best survival skills! Winning team gets to pick the color of the slime, which we'll make after the battle. Includes blank cards and colored pencils, visuals, audio samples to learn frog and toad calls, and zip lock bags to take home slime.
Eyes on Owls
Learn about local owls in a guided drawing lesson, an owl detective game, and dissecting owl pellets! Helps build vocabulary and analyze clues through shapes, colors, and patterns. Requires 2 weeks advance booking for supplies. Additional $4 per owl pellet, which can be one per participant or one per group of four.
Bugeball
Gotta catch those bugs! Learn about the orders of insects and what jobs they do while drawing from real preserved specimens. Take this learning outside by catching insects and identifying them with field guides. This program is offered spring, summer, and fall and requires advanced booking if done at a site different from your own.
Ant Detective
Look closely! Ants are everywhere and we hardly notice! Using hoops and string, we’ll look from an ant’s point of view and tally up behaviors we observe. We’ll then create an underground treasure map with tunnels, worms, and more hidden underground.
Trash Turtles
Bring in clean “trash” to repurpose into turtles while learning how trash affects oceans and streams. Get inspired by the shell patterns of local species!
Ban the Bag
Create a “ripple” effect by painting a reusable bag in the style of Huichol yarn paintings, with ocean or freshwater animals with lots of water ripples. Use this bag proudly whenever you shop and avoid single-use plastic. Get tips on more ways to reduce single use plastics, one step at a time! Bags and other materials provided.
Climate Change Kachina
Learn about climate change and weather through a fun card game and Kachina spirit guides, such as wise Mongwu the owl, Badger the plant and medicine expert, Crow Mother who shares resources, and Cold-Bringing Woman who saves water for spring by turning it into snow. Create your own Kachina with repurposed materials.
Fish Frenzy
Learn about local fresh and salt-water fish. Create fish prints (Gyotaku) using repurposed, post-consumer Styrofoam trays and ink.
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Come Join Us!
We have lots of new adventures planned and I've been too busy to blog here. But STUFF IS HAPPENING!!!!
Check out our FB and Instagram pages under 15 Minute Field Trips for more updates.
Visit THIS site for access to resources, as well as the 15 Minute Field Trips shop.
May 18th we'll be at Roger Williams Park Zoo from 10-3 making art and discussing how to protect frogs and the American burying beetle.
Starting in July, we'll have FREE art activities followed by guided park explorations at 10 a.m. the first Saturday of the month at the Blackstone Park in Providence, RI. See flyer below.
Check out our FB and Instagram pages under 15 Minute Field Trips for more updates.
Visit THIS site for access to resources, as well as the 15 Minute Field Trips shop.
May 18th we'll be at Roger Williams Park Zoo from 10-3 making art and discussing how to protect frogs and the American burying beetle.
Starting in July, we'll have FREE art activities followed by guided park explorations at 10 a.m. the first Saturday of the month at the Blackstone Park in Providence, RI. See flyer below.
Monday, February 12, 2018
Caratunk By Night and Day
My daughter and I attended an owl prowl with ASRI a few weeks back. The evening was cold and my ten year old was not especially enthused about being out in the dark. With these walks, sometimes there's an owl, and sometimes there isn't.
My daughter was quite animated talking on her cell phone to a classmate about expanding her business of making putty. There are three classmates in her company. They talked about cost of supplies, what to sell items for, and how to promote their business. She warned her friend that they couldn't use a drawing for their logo that had been copied from a comic book because if they became "famous", that would be "copyright". I listened amazed at all the details she had thought of, having successfully had a selling gum business after having a mock society business selling used toys for "town money" last year.
We got to the site, missing it at first in the dark. I carried her coat until I could get her to wear it. we saw some familiar faces there. We followed our guide Marina, learning about the best places to look for roosting turkeys and where in the trees certain owl species might be. We found rabbit tracks, but our group of a dozen found little else. The children soon tired and the cold got deeper. My daughter made it through to the end, and we went home.
I decided to go back the next weekend during the day. I tried to get my partner and daughter to join me, but they were tired and uninterested. So I went alone.
I don't often hike alone. I prepared my backpack carefully and dressed in layers. I was very comfortable and had my camera. It was mid-forties and there were many birds, like these mourning doves. Without the leaves of oak and maple, it was easy to find nests, like this squirrel one.
The ice made artistic brush strokes across objects in the water. I looked for ducks, but found none.
Some seeds still hung on, perhaps as food. A paper wasp nest hung dormant in the sky.
Much of the water and earth were still, with just the wind and the crunch of my own shoes making sound.
Would deer or other animals be interested in this fungus, looking like melting frosting?
Many hollows and snags, but still so quiet.
Then a familiar tap, tap, tap. I followed it until I found the downy woodpecker.
Going across fields and uphill, I sometimes crossed paths with other hiker groups. We nodded and went on.
The hill had pudding stone and lots of lichen and moss.
Where were the animals here?
Shiny silver paper near a path detour. I did four of the five trails. It was worth photographing the map, because the path disappeared under leaves at one point. Then on a side trail, I wasn't immediately sure how to get back on the perimeter trail. Brief pauses, but being alone, I was able to check the map on my phone.
This was on the Hemlock trail. From afar, I hoped it was a bee hive. But it appears to be a burl of some sort.
Getting back on the Perimeter trail, an overturned tree blocked the path. Past that, the boardwalks were underwater and covered in ice...
Luckily, I had just purchased micro-spikes at Job lot for $5. I slippd them over my hiking shoes and they made all the difference. I put my camera away and took my time. It was worth it.
Upon crossing the water and entering mud, I took off the spikes and rebalanced my pack. Had I gotten my camera out sooner, perhaps I could have shown the three does and baby white tailed deer that raced across the hill before me right at that moment. The photo below was too late. But had I not braved the ice, I would have missed the deer entirely.
It was getting late, getting dark. I still had about a mile and a half to go.
I saw more birds near another pond with scrub, forest, and field nearby. Many habitats here.
A beaver home, perhaps? No chewed trees in sight. Muskrat?
A more unique nest hanging above the pond. I continued on the trail, but the melting ice was flooding it. I saw a three foot impasse I tried to navigate by jumping to an exposed root, but I slipped and soaked my right foot. I brought extra socks, but the trail wasn't over. It got still more impassable, so I slipped into the woods, heading in the general direction of the fields that would take me back to my car. I remembered this area from the night hike. In the woods, off-trail, I found white-tailed deer pellets.
And again...
Then some walnuts. Do the deer eat these?
Back at my car, I changed my socks. I thought of the deer and other discoveries I made, just from being a little bit brave and a whole lot prepared. I called my partner to tell him I was coming home.
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