Children soared like eagles and used their senses while reading on the trail at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton to celebrate Earth Day on April 22.
“It’s Earth Day so it’s really nice to see the kids outside,” said Erin Brown, Director of Education at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, who likes that the event was lead by local author Kathy Miller and features the Chippy Chipmunk books. “I like that it connects kids with reading and literacy and also with nature. Going out and exploring, using full body motions… and they’re reading together.”
Brown said many of the critters featured in the book can be found at the Sanctuary. Their hope is to encourage more children to explore nature at the Sanctuary at a younger age.
Almost as soon as the group walked outside, they began learning about conservation efforts at the Sanctuary when they encountered Bloodroot Flowers along the walking path and were told not to pick the flowers.
“Because we’re a sanctuary, everything here is protected,” said Brown, explaining that nothing can be taken or moved and people pack out what they brought in. “We leave it the way that we found it so that we’re preserving what’s here.”
Her favorite part of the day was seeing the children outside in nature, disconnected from technology and learning through sensory experiences.
“Earth Day has been around a long time. We say go out and do things on Earth Day,” said Brown. “We try to say that Earth Day is everyday and we’re trying to get people out into nature and up here in the Sanctuary learning about raptors and learning about Appalachian forest ecology everyday.”
Earth Day serves as a means to get that message out.
“To us, everyday is Earth Day,” said Brown.
Award-winning author and photographer Kathy Miller, New Ringgold, read her picture book “Chippy Chipmunk Feels Empathy.” StoryWalk(R) – Reading on the Trail is a project of the Schuylkill County Reading Council, of which Miller is President. The Council created the StoryWalk(R) to promote literacy and walking in nature.
“StoryWalk is the idea of reading the story as you walk in nature,” said Miller. Her picture book depicts her own photographs taken of nature and the story centers around a chipmunk named Chippy. “We’re starting with a book that I donated but it can be used with any book.”
Pages of the book were posted on signs throughout the route. Miller lead the small group of children ages 4 to 10 in wiggling like worms, scurrying like spiders, blinking like a firefly, fluttering like butterflies and soaring like eagles from page to page along the trail.
Miller encouraged participants to use their senses to describe their surroundings, listen to the critters scurry in the crunchy leaves, feel the moss on the ground, smell a tree and observe two broad-winged hawks soar overhead, “We’re so visually dominant but stopping to listen for things or to feel the texture of things.”
The concept of empathy was incorporated into the walk as children learned to imagine themselves as the wildlife or elements of nature they encountered.
“I think that through the story, I’m showing Chippy as a character that they know going through understanding what empathy is, so I hope through showing that process of trying to imagine how somebody else is feeling or what it’s like to be them that they can glean from that, they can apply that in their own life,” said Miller.
Michelle and Jason Vanluvanee from Bernville brought their children Joshua and Audrey, ages 3 and 5, to the StoryWalk. Members of the Sanctuary, they attend many of the events.
“Walking in nature and observing everything around them,” said Michelle about what she hopes their children gained from the experience.
The event concluded with the children creating their own story page, placing a sticker of Chippy Chipmunk on a blank paper and drawing a picture to tell a story. The Council gave each child the book “Daniel Finds a Poem” by Micha Archer.
StoryWalk(R) – Reading on the Trail is a project of the Schuylkill County Reading Council, of which Kathy Miller is President. The Council created the StoryWalk(R) to promote literacy and walking in nature. It can be used with any book.
The Schuylkill County Reading Council (SCRC) provides this StoryWalk(R) for use within Schuylkill County. SCRC is a volunteer organization whose mission is to promote literacy and provide professional development. It is an affiliate of the International Literacy Association.
The StoryWalk(R) Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. StoryWalk(R) is a registered service mark owned by Ferguson.
