Counselor Ben tells everyone at Camp Adventure a story about finding treasures in nature. Plus a sing-along, a scavenger hunt, bird calls, and nature journals!
Counselor Ben tells everyone at Camp Adventure a story about finding treasures in nature. Plus a sing-along, a scavenger hunt, bird calls, and nature journals!
We’d love to feature you and your fellow campers on our next episode. Share your camp space and your new camp flag for Camp Adventure on social media using #AKBAsummer or write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com.
Camp Adventure: A Kids Summer Camp Podcast
S1 E4 “Treasure Everywhere”
[INTRODUCTION]
Ari: Welcome to Camp Adventure! Camp is in your living room. Camp is in your car on the way to the store. Camp is under your blanket fort. Camp is everywhere. And Camp Adventure is for everyone, no matter where in the world you are. And camp counselors Ben and Hannah are ready to welcome you.
It’s week number 4 at camp, and this week we’re talking about finding treasures in the world around us and seeing nature in a new way. AND, we’re going to hear a story about how to collect all of those treasures, so you can keep them and give them away to people you love. Did you know that great treasures are living and moving all around you, even right now?
I’m camp counselor Ari, and I’m so excited to welcome you back to camp. It’s a beautiful day at Camp Adventure. Let’s say to hello the fantastic Counselor Ben to kick things off.
Ben: Hello. Hello. And thank you, Ari. Yes, I'm Counselor Ben and this is our fourth week of camp. And I've been thinking about you campers. I do often, and I have been wondering how your weekly challenges are going. Did you have fun making your camp flag? How about the raft building experiment? Did you get anything to float?
Oh man. I'd love to see your pictures if you send them in. And I would love to see if you built the castle last week, too. That'd be so cool. I hope you're having fun with this Camp Adventure and I want to thank you. Thank you for joining. Thank you for listening and participating. You campers are very good and I'm very thankful for you and all of our counselors are thankful for you.
My friend, Hannah, whom you already know, you know her because she makes the music and she brings the good grooves and the funky beats. And Hannah invites us every week to sing our camp song. And you have noticed how sometimes she changes it up a bit. You know? Every week there's a little twist. That's because she's creative, like you and me, and she loves new things, adventurous things like happy campers do.
So she helps us become happy campers, if you think about it. Yeah, that's good. And that means it is time to welcome our brave and gifted music. The one who wears sunglasses at night and always ties her shoes with a double knot. The woman who watches cartoons on Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings. The one and only. The Camp Adventure musician of musicians.
My good friend, Hannah Glavor.
[CAMP SONG]
Hannah: Thank you, thank you - That’s right Counselor Ben, I do indeed wear sunglasses at night especially if I am watching cartoons.
Campers --- my sweet- sweet camper friends --- as you already know it is week number four.
And by now so many of you already know our Camp Adventure song - so if you do know it, I want you to sing it extra loud this week with extra exuberant toe wiggling and shoulder shimmies - And if you don’t know it yet, my friends… that exactly what I’m here for…
So lets get ready to do some singing … Maybe some wiggling … maybe a little dancing? Come on now, join in with me when you catch on -- let’s have a little musical adventure
Adventure
We venture
Together with courage
We learn and grow STRONG
We learn from
Eachother
So let's discover and uncover
Great adventures bright and new
Hannah: That sounded great!
When I was a kid, I lived in the forest and my dad was a park ranger- and a musician.
And he loved telling stories and singing songs - just like me!
One thing he taught me was to always look at the world with wonder.
Every day could be an adventure!
Have you ever looked up in the clouds to find a friendly crocodile
or when you stopped to smell the roses, a honey bee just made you smile
So much wonder all around us so much life to be explored
When you fight to find the good you will discover Hope restored
Hannah: I don’t know about you, but this song is starting to get stuck in my head, which is a good thing!! I find myself humming it and singing it out loud sometimes when I’m out in the woods or making dinner, which reminds me of being at camp with all of you!
Now - it is time for that special moment each week where we get to hear from YOU and read what you and other campers are sending in …. So, let’s get that drumroll going because its time foooooorrrrr MAILBAG!!
[MAIL BAG]
AKBA Counselor: Hi everyone! I’m Camp Counselor Nakita and I’m here with the Mail Bag. It’s where we keep all the mail we receive for our campers.
Let me just open up the bag here and see what we’ve got this week!
Oh, amazing! It’s a gopher! On a raft! Let me just check the note here… Oh this is not just any gopher! Its Goldy Gopher, mascot of Minnesota University. This was sent in by Inga and Marin and it looks like they not only made a raft that floats, but Goldy Gopher looks quite comfortable, too! Amazing what you can do with some plastic bottles and strong tape! Very clever.
This was from the challenge in our “Determination” episode and I’m wondering how many of you also made rafts. Did they work out? Did they float? Were your passengers safe?
Well, we’d love to know about your camp experiences, whether it’s listening to the show, building a fort, constructing a raft, or any other summer fun you and your fellow campers are getting into. So to ALLLLLL of our Camp Adventure campers and families and friends, send us photos and videos and mail to listen@akidspodcastabout.com or on social media using #AKBAsummer. We’ll share as many things as we can from our Mail Bag each week.
That’s listen@akidspodcastabout.com or on social media using #AKBAsummer.
And that’s all I have! Have a great day at camp!
[BIRD CALLS]
Aimee: Hi Campers! I’m Camp Counselor Aimee. And when I’m not helping to run camp, I teach general music at an elementary school.
Music is all around us, and so I thought it might be fun to teach you about some specific songs you can hear and discover outside. And these songs come from one of my favorite animals: birds!
Did you know that you can identify a bird by it’s song or call? Depending on where in the world you live, there are different birds in your neighborhood and those birds all have different calls or songs.
One bird that I hear outside is an American Goldfinch. American Goldfinches are found all across North America. The male goldfinches are bright yellow birds with black wings and a black head. The females have more of a brown coat. Chances are you’ve seen a finch in your part of the world before.
When the American Goldfinch calls, it sounds like it’s saying “potato chip”
Their song call sounds like po-tato-chip po-tato-chip.
Here. Let’s listen together!
Try it with me! Po-tato-chip. Po-tato-chip
Great job! It sounds like a forest full of birds! I wonder what the birds sound like where you live?
I’ll be back in a few weeks with more bird song calls. Bye!
[SCAVENGER HUNT]
Matthew: Heeeeeeey Campers! It’s Camp Counselor Matthew, Games Director at Camp Adventure and today our game is Scavenger Hunt!. I heard such great feedback from you about last week’s Scavenger Hunt that I’m bringing it back again this week.
Let me quickly review the rules and then we’ll get started.
A scavenger hunt is a game where the leader says a handful of objects and the first person to return with said objects is declared the winner.
We’re all doing camp in different places which adds a special twist to this challenge, doesn’t it? Bedroom, family room, backyard, basement, bowling alley? Hey… you never know. No matter where you are, try to get as many of these items as you can.
Aaannnd, through the magic of podcasts, we won’t have to wait for everyone to finish their scavenger hunt. That’s right! We’ll all finish at the EXACT SAME TIME! Wait and see.
Okay, so I’m going to tell you the five items you’re going to try and bring back to me today. Feel free to compete against a grownup, a sibling or friend, or just race against the clock to see if you can get the fastest time. Be careful moving about your space, of course.
After I tell you the five items, pause the show when you hear the ticking clock. If you’re the first person to return with all the items, unpause. You can also set a timer if you want to limit the length of your scavenger hunt.
All set?
Alright!
The five items I’d like you to find today are: a piece of fruit, a crayon or colored pencil, something that makes noise, something soft, and finally something cold.
One item per category, so you should have five things total.
Here are the items one more time. Find a piece of fruit, a crayon or colored pencil, something that makes noise, something soft, and finally something cold.
Good luck! Cue the timer and you pause the show!
Time’s up! How many things were you able to find? What surprising finds! You really got creative this week!
Nice job!
I’ll be back next week with more games. In fact, next week is one of my FAVORITE games. See ya!
Ari: All right campers, after this break we’re going to hear a story from Camp Counselor Ben, and I promise, you won’t want to miss it!
[BREAK]
Ari: Okay, we’re back, and it’s storytime! Are you excited? Me too!
So, let’s get ready for this week’s story! Let’s do some stretches. Let’s do some somersaults! Let’s do the SPLITS! Mmm okay, maybe not that last part. But, let’s DO get cozy.
Take a second and make sure the volume is the just right. Now let’s find our perfect listening spot. Let’s pause and get ready in 3, 2, 1 GO! You there? Where did you settle in? This week I made a blanket fort to listen in. What about you? Are listening in a sand pit at the beach? Or in a tree? On a swing? Wherever you are, get comfy!
Are you ready, Counselor Ben?
[STORYTIME]
Ben: Oh, thank you so much, Ari. I appreciate you. And yes, Counselor Ben is always up for stories and that wonderful time of the week has arrived. And I have to tell you, before we start, this is not a scary, dangerous story, like week #2 with the raft, a story on the Fox River. If you haven't heard that one, do go back and listen to it. And it's not like last week's story, which was very chocolatey if you remember.
No, this story has treasure and it's about a little girl named Annabelle who discovered great treasure on the windowsill in her kitchen. And then even more treasure in her very own backyard. And you just got to know that is part of good adventure: learning how to find treasures. It happens a lot when you're on a good adventure.
So our story begins with a seven year old girl named Annabelle, and she wanted to give her dad a really good birthday. Not just any present, a good present, like really, really. She wanted to give him something he would treasure, but there was a problem. All the big treasures in this world are way too expensive for kids to be buying well.
She tried as hard as she could. She worked her chores and she saved her money all through the summer. But even by the end of the summer, she didn't have nearly enough money to get a real treasure. And so guess what? She felt really sad and she felt small. Kind of like she had no power. Have you ever felt unhappy, I wonder, campers? Have you ever felt sad or small because you couldn't have something that you really wanted to have, or maybe like Annabelle. There was a time when you wanted to give a great present, but you just couldn't think of what to give or you couldn't afford it. Well, listen to what happened here.
Summer ended and that meant Annabelle had to go back to school and she was entering into the fourth grade and her new teacher was Mrs. True. And when it came time for their very first science class, Mrs. True had a huge smile as she walked around the classroom and she handed each student a mysterious black book, plopping one after another down on the desks, as she walked by there were no words on the cover, not the front or the back, just blank black cover. And the fourth graders quickly flipped through the pages to discover what was inside the books. But they were shocked to pages were totally blank. No pictures, no words. Just blank. White pages.
“Well, this is going to be an easy assignment,” Annabelle thought. “Blank books can't be that hard to read after all.” But she was wrong.
It was not an easy assignment at all. “Students,” Ms. True said, “We are going to start a nature journal. You get to use your markers and colored pencils.” That sounded good. “And your crayons and your pens.” Okay. This is sounding okay. “And you're going to fill these books up with beautiful things, drawing and writing whatever you want to on the pages.”
“Yeah!” Annabelle blurted out. “Anything?”
“Well, kind of,” her teacher said . “Scientists and explorers keep journals: books that they fill up with pictures and observations they have when they're studying nature and exploring. So you can fill the book up with anything that you want, but it has to be stuff that you actually see in your real world.”
Okay.
“Oh,” she said, “one more thing. I want you to do at least one entry per day.
“One entry per day? This is going to be a tough challenge,” Annabelle thought. And she was right. The next day, she did not have any fun with her nature journal at all. She was quickly looking around. She was trying to find something to observe. “I'll draw this flower,” she said. “Nah, it's not good enough. Oh, I'll draw this Fern plant. Nah, it's just too plain. Boring, not cool enough.”
Nothing seemed cool enough when she was looking quickly. She walked around for hours, but nothing was interesting enough to make a picture of. “Fine,” she said. “Whatever! I give up.” And she sat down at the picnic table, but by sitting down and stopping, now she had to look carefully. And guess what? She noticed a spider at the edge of the picnic table. And she saw that it had in its web, a little yellow hornet. And this was very interesting, the way that it moved its wings and it's tiny little legs. So Annabelle turned to the first page of her nature journal and she drew a picture of the hornet with her black and yellow colored pencils. And then she wrote three observations.
Now, do you know what an observation is? Think about seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, hearing. When you're doing that, you're observing. So that's the second part of a nature journal. The first part is to draw whatever you're looking at. And the second part is to write observations.
So here were the three observations that she actually wrote.
Number one: I saw a hornet in a spiderweb.
Number two. It made no sound.
See, she was listening!
And number three, it was yellow.
Huh? That's a good observation about it. But when she was done, she was unhappy. “This page looks silly,” she thought. “I did not do a good job.” But when her grownups checked it out, they said the exact opposite.
Wow. Annabelle. That is awesome. And Mrs. True said this is so charming Annabelle and that put a big smile on her face. Now she felt a lot more encouraged and she wanted to write and draw about something else.
On the next day, she drew a picture of the regular old maple tree in her backyard. But by observing it carefully, she found three small white and orange bugs. So she drew a picture of them. And on the page she wrote, “I found a strange bug. It is related to box elder bugs and it was bright orange and yellow.”
Ah, good observations.
The next day she found a tiny little orange spider in the middle of a spider web by the flowers in the back. And it was just hanging out. So she stopped. She observed it carefully. And then she drew a blue spider web hanging from a brown branch and there was a yellow and orange spider smack dab in the middle. And she wrote her observations.
Number one, the spider was orange and yellow.
Number two…
She listened to it. And guess what? He made no noise.
So this went on: Annabelle learning to think and look very carefully. And day after day, something started to happen. She started seeing things that she had never noticed before, right in the yard that she had played in a million times. It's almost like they used to be invisible, but now she could see them because she was observing them carefully.
One day she was eating her Cheerios with extra sugar sprinkled on top, always wise, and she saw a small fly on the kitchen window sill. And you might say, “Well, who cares? It's just a fly!” But when she observed it carefully, she saw that it had magical eyes, shiny, sparkling green and purple and red eyes. It was crazy.
And guess what she did? I think, you know! She busted out her nature journal right away and she sat and she drew a picture and she added observations.
And then another day Annabelle's mom was throwing old weeds out in the compost. Now, seriously, who cares about old weeds? You just throw them out in the compost! But Annabelle noticed a puff of little yellow flowers, and she decided to dry one in her nature journal. And I just have to ask, have you ever just looked very carefully at a yellow flower? You've gotta be able to find one, guess what? It works with white flowers and red flowers and any color of flower.
The next time you see one, do it. Just, just do it. I can't encourage you strongly enough. Campers. Sit down, draw a picture of it. Write down what you see. And you will discover so much.
Annabelle was looking so closely. She wanted to taste the flower and she asked her grown-up. Now, always, if you're going to taste it, you got to ask your grownup first if you can put it in your mouth. Okay? So she asked her mom, mom said it was okay, and guess what? It was filled with the sweet nectar, this flower, it tasted almost like honey. She said so under her beautiful picture, she wrote that observation down.
Number one, the pedals are yellow.
Number two it's nectar tastes sweet.
Now Annabelle was finding treasures everywhere she went.
And I have to ask you, my fellow campers, what kinds of things would you be able to discover in your own world? You think there's treasure right around you anywhere? I know for a fact that there is. Have you ever just lifted up to see if there are any worms under it?
Annabelle did that all the time and she found shiny little brown centipedes with hundreds of legs and little round silver pill bugs. She found lots of those slimy pink worms. You guys like worms? She found a lot of them and she drew pictures of them in her nature journal. Have you ever sat and just watched regular black ants doing their thing and the crack of the sidewalk? Oh, that's amazing.
Well, you know, long ago, somebody actually said that you can become wise by watching ants. Huh? It's true. Sit down and just watch the ants working and you'll learn things.
They were treasures and she collected pictures of all of these things in her nature journal.
The truth is my fellow campers. If you open your eyes and observe, you will find beautiful pieces of living artwork to observe and experience and enjoy our whole world as a treasure.
Campers, hear that carefully: our entire world is a treasure and we get to live in it.
Well, eventually Annabelle finished her fourth grade and that meant summer break came back, which meant that it was time for another birthday party for her dad. “Oh no!,” she said. “I have not saved nearly enough money to get a big present. I wanted to get something awesome.”
She started feeling sad again and small again, until she had an idea. The perfect idea. Anybody. Guess what it was? Yeah, it was heavy and rectangular. It was about the size of a book. Huh? Can you guess now? And then when her dad opened the present, he pulled out…duh duh duh duuuuuh! ...a big black book and he plopped it down on the table, but the pages were no longer blank.
He paged through and he gasped for air. “Oh, Annabelle. Are you kidding me?” He carefully looked at every picture and he read every observation and Annabelle had never seen her dad smile so big. He loved his present. “Annabelle,” he said to her, “this is the greatest. I will treasure this for the rest of my life. It's the best thing you could have possibly given to me.” And he meant it.
Annabelle did not need big money to find big tricks. She learned to find it everywhere that she went, she felt stronger and she felt better. And by collecting all those treasures into one cool nature journal, now her dad could keep it forever.
And you didn't want to know a secret. Here's a big secret, campers. I wonder if any of you picked up the secret already?
Annabelle is my daughter.
It's true. I'm the dad. That means that I'm the one who got the nature journal for a present. And it was true. It was the greatest gift she had ever given me. And you're not going to believe this. I still have that nature journal. I'm holding it right here in my hands. And I want you to see it, too. And I'm always going to treasure it.
So guess what, I'm going to take pictures of the nature journal that Annabelle made, and I'm going to post them in the same place that you can post pictures and videos and anything that you're doing for camp.
I'll post the pictures online and I'll use the hashtag that says #AKBAsummer. And then, with your grownup supervision, you can see Annabelle's nature journal, too. And I think you should. It's really cool!
And then maybe you could make your own nature journal like that sometime, but if you do make it the way that you like to. I'll show you pictures of how she did it, but you make one on your own.
And actually now, if you think about it, We're really coming to the end of our fourth week of camp. And that means it's time for something.
What do you suppose? It's time for campers, huh? Huh? Yeah. It's time for our weekly challenge. And I think I've got a really good challenge for you this week. And I think that you might already be able to guess what the challenge is going to be. So just hold on. I will be right back with the weekly challenge.
[WEEKLY CAMP CHALLENGE]
Ben: Okay. Okay. Okay. Campers. It is time for our weekly challenge and this week's challenge is very scientific. So if you're interested in science, I think you're going to love this one.
The challenge this week is for you to begin your own nature journal. Okay? And I think some of you probably already guessed that that's what I was going to say.
Now, I want to make a few important statements here. You don't have to complete it in one week. That is not, that is not the challenge. In fact, I do not want you to try to complete it in one week. The challenge is to do. Begin your nature journal.
Remember how Annabel used her nature journal all year long and just wrote new observations each day. That's more of what a journal is. You keep reading new things into it over a long period of time.
So here's my challenge. Start a new nature journal. And if you can, this week try to make five entries. A different observation each day, if you can't make five. Absolutely no problem. Just try to. And then after this week, my hope is that you would keep adding more and more.
Who knows? Maybe one day you'll build out a nature journal that you too can give as a gift to somebody that you love. And I promise you this: they will treasure it forever. And it doesn't cost much money at all. You probably have most of the stuff you need at your house.
The most important thing you need is a blank book or a blank notebook or anything that can keep blank pages together. And I prefer blank, not with lines, but if all you have is blank paper that also has the blue lines on it. No problem. You can still draw great pictures and make observations on that. Really any blank papers going to work.
Then gathered together your favorite drawing and painting tools. You can use paints or markers, pens, pencils. You know, I like colored pencils myself. I'll dabble with crayons once in awhile.
And then you've got to check your kitchen window sill. All right. And you got to go out and look under a rock or two in the kitchen window. So you're bound to find a good flyer too, and then go outside and look under a rock and maybe explore or under the bushes or the flower beds. Go up to the bark of a tree and just observe it very closely. You'll find bugs and cool stuff there. Checking the flowerpots where you'll both find cool bugs, usually in the dirt. And you'll also find really cool flowers there sometimes.
You could draw the trees and the birds, and sometimes campers will ask, “Can I count pets? Can I draw a picture of my kitty or my puppy dog?” Yeah.
And I say, absolutely. And if you have an aquarium with lizards or fish draw. Those are alive and in nature.
And then I want you to follow Mrs. True’s two instructions for putting things in your nature journal or for making entries. Okay?
You might remember. Am I saying most of you probably right. Do it's fairly simple. The two things for each page are this: first draw a picture of what you see. And then write about anything that you can observe. And remember that means what does it look like or sound like or smell like or taste like? What does it feel like when you touch? All of those things.
Also, remember if you're going to taste, talk to your grownup first. Okay? Don't just go put any old flower or berry in your mouth. That can get very dangerous. Okay?
So always make sure you talk to grownups before you taste it. But as Annabel discovered, by trying out that little yellow flower, she found out it was kind of, I think it might've been called a honey.
Well, once you've made your first journal entry, please do send me a picture. I would love to see it. And, like I mentioned, I'm going to post pictures of Annabelle's real nature journal, the actual journal that the whole story was truly about. So you can actually see her example and. I don't think you have to make yours like hers.
You can just see an example and then you send me a picture of your own example, the way you make it. Okay. So there it is my friends from Annabelle and from your Camp Counselor Ben. We say this week, get out there and explore and discover and uncover. Create a nature journal that you can share with campers. And maybe one day you can give your great treasure, your collection of treasures, to somebody that you really care about.
It's a beautiful gift to give. That sound good? I think it does.
And I cannot wait to see you next week. I can't wait.
So Ari, let's go back to you. And could you please remind the campers about how to send their pictures and how to see all the other pictures that campers are sending in? Okay.
[CLOSING]
Ari: Thanks, Ben! I’ll absolutely tell them about that, right now.
All right, campers, we would love to feature you and your fellow campers on our next episode. Share your camp space and all of your weekly camp challenge creations on social media using #AKBAsummer or write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com.
Thank you, campers, so much for joining us at Camp Adventure this week.
Camp Adventure is written by Ben Tertin with help from the A Kids Podcast About team. Original music is by Hannah Glavor. Check out Hannah’s albums at https://hannahglavor.bandcamp.com.
The show is edited and produced by Matthew Winner with help from me, Ari Mathae.
Audio production is by Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Listen to other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsbookabout.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out Ben’s book, A Kids Book About Adventure.
See you back at Camp Adventure next week!