Throughout the summer, the Four Winds Strafford County NH Team partnered up with local libraries, inviting families to enjoy a storytime, a craft or scavenger hunt, and lots of mud kitchen and loose parts exploration. Under the summer reading program theme, “Color Your World,” families participated in activities such as using natural materials to paint with, decorating wood cookies, finding colors in nature scavenger hunts, and more!
Families were also invited to let their imagination run wild with our mud kitchen. This simply consisted of buckets of sand, containers/squirt bottles of water, and various pots/pans/utensils/trays. We also provided loose parts such as acorns, sticks, and a variety of little toy animals. Children enjoyed creating “soups” or “potions,” hiding/finding animals in the mud, creating habitats, and more. It was wonderful to observe children building so many different skills: teamwork, communication, cooperation, problem solving, and inclusiveness. With generous funding from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s CLH Fund for Environmental Education, the Strafford County team looks forward to facilitating more of these programs that nurture a love of nature in our community!
Here are the books read at the various programs:
