Exploring Local Wildlife with 7 & 8-Year-Old Campers
At the heart of every session of Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Summer Camp is the goal to have fun and foster a love for nature. While all sessions share this same goal, they’re tailored specifically to the campers’ age. For our 7 to 8-year-old campers, we use nature as our “classroom” while we explore and observe the unique spaces, plants, and animals found throughout Lincoln Park and around the Nature Museum! Mixing real world experiences, living and preserved items from the Museum’s collections, group games, creative activities, and projects fills every day of summer camp with learning and fun.
Hands-on, real world investigations are at the core of what we do at Nature Museum Summer Camp. Our 7 to 8-year-old campers look for animal evidence near North Pond or explore the plants in our prairie. We really immerse ourselves in the natural world right here! In addition to the real things outside, we check out the amazing living animals and preserved items in the Museum’s collection inside. Did you know that only 5% of our collection is on display? Our campers get a special opportunity to experience even more of these objects at camp!
Games are always a favorite with 7 and 8-year-old summer campers. We put a new twist on old camp favorites like tag, telephone, or relay races by integrating bigger, more in-depth topics—from animal adaptations to our unique, local ecosystems. These high energy, high engagement games help campers learn in more hands-on, accessible ways! Games and group activities facilitate cooperation and collaborative problem solving. This teamwork at camp helps set the stage for success at school and in other group settings, too!
Kids love expressing their creativity. That’s why we give our 7 and 8-year-old campers opportunities to create art projects, draw, and sing songs. Not only are they fun, they’re also designed to help campers process new learning and make rich connections with their camp experiences.
All of these elements work together to help teach our campers about the world around them. And our Summer Camp Daily Parent Pages give caregivers an overview of daily activities so they can ask questions and encourage their camper to keep exploring the day’s topic at home!
Studies have shown that teaching children about nature from a young age helps them develop a sense of responsibility for the world around them. Through these activities and more, we’re helping build those connections and foster that relationship to the natural world!
Want to enroll your 7 to 8-year-old camper in Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum Summer Camp? Click here.
Nicole Juppe & Rebecca Brokaw
Camp Directors
