April 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 55

says program creator Jody Walker.
What " makes us unique is that we
teach and learn outdoors, in nature,
covering at least a mile - moving from
place to place. All Nature Tykes lessons
are centered around things in nature -
the plants and animals that we find at the
Wetlands Park. "
Like many other metropolitan areas,
Las Vegas is a dense urban city where
more than a third of school-aged children are overweight or obese. Located
on the east side of the valley, the Clark
County Wetlands Park was once a
dumping ground and homeless camp.
Conservation efforts have transformed
the area into a wetlands and urban river environment - attracting a host of
wildlife.
For Liz Bickmore, program administrator at the Clark County Wetlands
Park, it's about creating quality programming with limited resources. " We
are very careful about how we budget
our resources so that we can maintain a
high level of standards without sacrificing quality. We have been extremely fortunate to attract and maintain dedicated
and talented staff and volunteers that
work at the Wetlands Park, because they
love the place and they love sharing their
experience with others. "
For program creators Jody Walker and
Nancy Gyori, taking children outside
seemed natural. " We were both raised
in a time that outdoor play was just part
of growing up, " says Walker. " We had
the freedom to roam, to explore and to
imagine. We wanted to share that with
the smallest children and their parents. "
It was important for the Nature Tykes
program to be set in the outdoors for all
classes - 100 percent of the time. Walker says, " We all connect to the earth in
different ways, but if you're not in it, it's
hard to learn to appreciate and ultimate-

Photo courtesy of Jody Hiatt Walker

Preschoolers wave flags they made while
participating in the Nature Tykes program.

ly protect and preserve it. "
The push for outdoor education programs has been gaining momentum, and
in the past decade, a multitude of programs have erupted, from outdoor classrooms among the trees of the Washington Botanical Gardens to the beach
classrooms of San Diego. What they all
have in common is a significant portion
of their entire day is spent outdoors.
" Learning is fun. Through all sorts
of adventures and activities, we learn
what happens in nature - we count
insect legs, build nests, pretend to be

hunting owls, make cat-tail puppets, design prints of real fish, scavenger hunt
for tortoise eggs, taste leaves, make
maps, design birds, play freeze-bird tag
and discover that a lizard doesn't have
a belly button - and that is awesome! "
exclaims Walker.
" For supplies, I think it's important not
to have 'stuff.' " Our projects are usually
re-purposed materials or we use items in the
park that occur naturally. I like to imagine
what it was like for people long ago without
all those purchased toys and educational
materials. It's amazing what you can do

W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N . O R G | A P R I L 2 0 1 8 |

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April 2018 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2018 - Parks & Recreation

April 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 1
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