April 1-7, 2003

Let’s Get the Kids Outdoors to Enjoy the Spring Weather!

Many of our classrooms are involved in testing this month so we are offering a wonderful respite from all of that intense ‘brain work’ – let’s get the kids out in the open air and observing nature around them. From the clouds above, to the tiniest bug in the grass – we invite our Camp Internet students to study nature and then write us a poem about the beauty they discover. The poetry or essays on what they observe – or reports on the nature literature they read, can be posted in the CAMPWIDE FIELD REPORT (http://chat.rain.org/cgi-bin/nph-camp-fr ) room all month . If they have a GPS and want to do a science report, then they can post their nature observations and GPS readings using the online report at (http://www.rain.org/campinternet/gis/fieldreportform_GPS_test.html ) and then copy/paste the report ( it will feedback a copy after submitting) in the GPS/GIS FIELD REPORT ROOM ( http://chat.rain.org/cgi-bin/nph-gis-fr ). We also welcome scanned nature art work sent as a digital file be email and will add those to the group showcase! Digital nature photos welcome too!! Send images to camp@campinternet.net.

Class that submits the MOST student works will win a John Muir video tape  as this is John Muir’s Birthday Month! All student entries will also be sent to the Sierra Club who have requested copies of our student’s work!

For academic resources on nature and poetry, please take the students online to see:

The great John Muir story about a night he spent in a tree ‘riding’ through a storm

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/muir-wild-ride.html

John Muir’s first experiences in the Sierras

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/muir/muir-outdoor.html

Mark Twain exploring the Lake Tahoe wilderness

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/twain/twain-backcountryadventures.html

A Miwok story on how Half Dome was formed

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/story_bc_half_dome.html

Joaquin Miller on the California Poppy

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/miller-cup-of-gold.html

and on Yosemite

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/miller-yosemite.html

Robert Louis Stevenson on the Petrified Forest of California

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/stevenson/stevenson-petrified.html

Jack London on California Poppies

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/london/jl-poppies.html 

in the Sierras

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/london/jl-all-gold-canyon.html

at Monterey

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/london/jl-valley-of-moon.html

in a mountain forest with flowers

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/humanities/london/jl-burning-daylight.html

Robinson Jeffers on man and nature

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/weeklies/jeffers_poem.html

The Rainbow Bridge story from the Chumash

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/channelhistory/stories/narainbow.html

 

Art, Nature and Islands Digs - bring the students online!

Campers - all month long we are offering two interesting and challenging INTERNET DIGS on Heroic Artists who painted and photographed the natural landscape - often in physically dangerous and culturally challenging situations.

See these new DIGS in the Southwest and Backcountry Dig Rooms. They include short biographies, examples of artists works, links to more resources, and ask the students to THINK about what they see and to WRITE about what they are seeing. This is all right in line with our new READING and WRITING ABOUT NATURE project also going on in the Camp Wide FIELD REPORT room this month.

And over in the ISLANDS DIG ROOM is the explorations of Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands - both the human and prehistoric histories of these remote islands is explored through April 14th.

Come DIG the Internet !