Reflecting

Three years ago we were planning Urban Rangers for the first time: nature and art, outdoors and inside, and focus on inspiring active, rich learning experiences for a multi-age group of city kids.

2013-2015 Urban Rangers in the Courtyard = pure magic!

 Hope you are all excited for summer and observing and noticing our city nature treasures everywhere you go!

Everywhere

Calling for chickadees...chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee..along the banks of Mother Brook

Spring is slooooowly arriving here in the Boston area--yes, these cold days are daunting and depressing, but it's coming.  We are seeing spring more than feeling spring, but nature never lets us down and spring is on its way!

A surprise snowstorm can't keep our Urban Rangers from birding and nature journaling with snowmen!

Skunk cabbage buried in snow.

Skunk cabbage one week later!

 

This wild goose chase led us to find.....

Red-breasted robin tracks in the snow!

 

Warm, salty breezes forced us to make an unexpected stop to walk the glistening beach and chatter with anticipation of the long, summer days ahead!

Stay tuned for more of our sightings as we search for spring EVERYWHERE and follow us on Instagram at urbanrangers4!

We have spotted rabbits all over Admiral's Hill in Chelsea.  WILD RABBITS in CHELSEA????  We saw three all together hopping around the bushes!  I have also heard from Chelsea residents that wild rabbits have been spotted around the Soldier's home area.  This is quite a treat to the Urban Ranger, who would never expect RABBITS on the loose!

Ranger Update

 
Urban Rangers Update

We are so pleased to announce  the Urban Rangers have been awarded a grant from Celebrate Urban Birds in association with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology!!!
(see link below)

http://celebrateurbanbirds.org/community/minigrants/2016-mini-grant-winners/ 

We are in the process of planning a special Urban Ranger event for this coming spring so check back for updates!

Welcome to the Urban Rangers online headquarters!

Invitation

If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!
–Shel Silverstein

We are city dwellers with a deep appreciation for the natural world and creative pursuits--both in and outside the city!  We are working towards expanding our summer nature/art program so stay tuned here for further updates!

We can also be found on Instagram at urbanrangers4 

Clouds

We have spent some time looking up this week and here's a bit of what we saw from our roof:

Can you see the crescent moon?

So if you've done your research, you should be able to identify these!  If not, try using this chart:

Our educated guess?  Stratus, stratocumulus, and altostratus.  What did you predict?

We never did see thunderstorms this week, but that sticky hot humidity went away!  Weather is a rich topic--which means there are many, many interesting aspects to explore, and ways to explore them!

Michael saw a guy on a surf board in this cloud.  What do you see?

A few minutes later, the surfer dude had moved and morphed into something else.  What do you see here?

Our interesting aspect of weather was "clouds" this week, and we observed them by watching them, sketching them, and thinking about them.  There are some great cloud experiments you can try at home--ALWAYS check with your parents/adults before experimenting!!!  Here are a couple links to try!

Cloud Science

More on clouds

We tried both at home and both worked!  Have fun!

Challenge #4

Welcome to Challenge #4!

Happy Monday!  It's hot out there today--hope you are finding creative ways to cool off!!  I remember (as a kid in the summer) the relief that usually came after a hot day in the form of thunderstorms--but sometimes, the storm just makes things worse! Hotter, more humid, and so so sticky!

Do you know why?  WHY is a question scientists and artists ask all the time--they wonder about everything.  In today's world, there are lots of ways to find answers to our questions, and it's especially important to remember to seek many answers, because there is rarely just one right answer to anything.  In science, something that is "right" or widely believed as true, can change over time as more is learned and more ways to find things out are created.  In art, "right" is when you create something unique--something that is yours, and because it's yours, it should tell a little something about who YOU are.

I'm not sure if we'll see thunderstorms today, but I am hoping for less sticky weather soon!

Challenge #4

This week, let's keep our eyes on the sky and observe clouds!  Clouds tell us a lot about the weather.  

Here is a cool link for answers to some of 

the "why's" about clouds:

http://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-clouds/

Check it out for some background info, then take your nature journal outside for at least 4-5 consecutive days and really observe the clouds you see--and make note when you don't see them too!  Be sure to record the date, time of day, temperature, and some info describing the weather in words.

Take a long look at the clouds above, sketch and describe them in your journal.  After 4 days, look back on your entries--were there any patterns you notice?  can you make connections with the info online--or info you found somewhere else? how did the day's weather relate to the clouds you observed?

We will be doing this challenge too and will post what we discover--please post what you find too!

Check back on Wednesday for an update and a fun, easy science experiment you can try at home.  Have fun!!!

Session 2: The End

This season of UR has certainly had it's ups & downs, but by far, the GREATS hold all the weight!  Last day is always bittersweet.  We wish we could have more time, and are amazed by all we did.  Wonderful groups of Rangers this year--an honor to work with all of you!  Families--we can't thank you enough for supporting this program, and especially for allowing us to borrow your precious kiddos.

Final highlights below from our last day.  Please enter your email to the right in order to receive updates on new posts.  We will be working on the blog and updating challenges all summer, so please check in!

Our days begin in the cafeteria as everyone arrives and some eat breakfast.  This has been a very chatty group--they love sharing stories and making connections to each other.  This pre-meeting gives us all time to transition to the "work" of Urban Rangers on a positive note.

Rangers from last week--we miss you!!!

chatting

Pokemon talk

kumihimo on their own--we couldn't love these Rangers more!!!

sharing a special find--possum bones!

UR homework--bracelet AND hair extensions--so creative!!!

our daily meeting--these Rangers could spend an hour sharing stories!  

Today was ALL courtyard...

mud painting

weaving our fence

centipede
**UR challenge:  what does the root word "centi-" mean and where did it originate? Hint: It's Greek or Latin!

planting marigolds

inside the UR hideout (aka the hut) for sunprints

creating chalk art

searching for roly polies

bug explorer

the living shoe

the hole--which became a sting ray by the end of the morning and included some pretty thorough measuring and planning by a pair of Rangers who also kept a worm count by banging on the tin can with every find--18, 22, 34, 42...was that the last count?

developing sunprints--these were so awesome!!!

marigold planting

chalk artists

ever heard of the mud handshake?  It's a UR original!

final touches on the woven fence--will it survive the summer?

spectacular teamwork created this mud mural!  when I asked to take a posed pic with the artists, they made sure each member of this small, self-initiated group was present.  THEY made sure no one was left out!  The magic of multi-age!  Shown here: 5th grader, 4th grader,  and 2 third graders

there's something so special about fresh, juicy fruit on a pitch perfect summer day!

the fence-completed!

marking this planter as roly poly territory

traditional perspective drawing of the courtyard

Best part of the day:  Sharing with families!  

Thank you so much for joining us!

 

future Ranger--third generation from one family!!  It's in the blood now!

The most wonderful thing about sharing our work with families--this pic says it all--PRIDE!
We are so proud of all of you!

Happy Summer!!!!

**In reference to "Bird Genius" on PBS' show NOVA, Mr. G wants to share this info for those interested--definitely worth checking out:  http://video.pbs.org/video/2365218674/