My work with the Dunwoody Nature Center has been an enlightening experience overall. I mainly helped them prepare for their programs in terms of organization. I also helped during field trips and the Fairytale Forest Festival. The most satisfying experience was removing knots from bird houses in preparation for the festival. Holly wanted the bird houses to look more like fairy houses, so she also widened their doors with a small saw.
The most shocking experience was witnessing the behavior of five-year-olds during a recent field trip. While I know that kids fight each other for no particular reason, I was still shocked when they did so during one of our field trips. This was a filed trip for kids around five years of age (basically, babies). There was an indoors component where the kids colored cut-outs of snakes and played with toys. The outdoors portion was more or less a hike because there was no educational component, it was full of site-seeing and playing “The Floor is Lava”. I was not interested in playing “The Floor is Lava”, but the kids kept yelling at me out of concern that I was standing in lava, so I started to play along. At some point we made it to the Tarzan swing that had a platform on either side. The kids stood in line waiting for their turns, but one kid skipped line which caused a fight to break out and the kids started pushing each other. This made me nervous because anyone could have fallen off the platform and gotten extremely hurt. The teacher did not seem phased with their behavior. Besides that incident, I witnessed the kids bullying each other and one even got bitten. It is important to state that all the kids were sweet, even the ones that were fighting. Out of the thirteen kids, only two caused trouble, and one of them had just turned five.
I do believe that I played a part on furthering Dunwoody Nature Center’s mission. Not only did I help prepare for programs, I also gave Holly feedback on how to improve them next year. I also believe that the final project will be useful to the organization because they can use our product to enhance their advertisements.
Hey, Raihaanah, it was crazy to hear about the fight breaking out between the children, especially since it was during their field trip. With them being outside and on elevated ground, it was good to hear that nobody got hurt. Besides that, I’m glad to hear that you’ve had a satisfying time at the Dunwoody Nature Center, and feel that you were able to contribute to your partner. I’m looking forward to hearing your presentation.
Hi Raihannah,
Loved to read about your final wrap up with the Dunwoody Nature Center! It sounds like the Fairytale festival was a well thought and planned out festival. I am sorry to hear about the wild story regarding the 5-year-olds! I know kids have a lot of energy and can be quite overwhelming at times! The floor is lava game can be very entertaining and active regarding every person playing the game. However all of the kids are young so its probably normal behavior for them on a weekly basis which may be why the teacher wasn’t so phased! I would be nervous as a teacher if I saw kids hopping around consistently though! That’s great that you helped the nature center further develop their mission and create a solution for their future!
Best,
Kelly