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Ford Nature Center: Welcome to the jungle
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Guests at Ford Nature Center's Jan. 13 Jungle activity and story time were welcomed into the event and told to find certian animals in the trees of the jungle. Youngster Aiden DeVault had some help in finding a species of eagle in the jungle canopy by his grandpa James Klasovsky (right).
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Guests at Ford Nature Center's Jan. 13 Jungle activity and story time were welcomed into the event and told to find certian animals in the trees of the jungle. Youngster Aiden DeVault had some help in finding a species of eagle in the jungle canopy by his grandpa James Klasovsky (right).
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Story time host Carol Vigorito created a jungle canopy for her Jan. 12 story time, complete with many of the animals that live in that layer of the rainforest. Grandma Rosie Boehlke (right) helped her grandson Andrew Boehlke (front) place a spider monkey back in his space among the tree branches of the canopy.
By SARAH FOOR
The Ford Nature Center’s activity room was transformed into an Amazonian rainforest for Preschool Nature Hour on Jan. 13.
Story time host and Mill Creek Naturalist Karen Vigorito had much to say about the unique habitat of the jungle, but still managed to relate parts of faraway jungles to the environment here in the Mahoning Valley.
“They’re named rainforests for a reason — there is definitely a lot of rain there. Here in the Valley, our rainfall for the year will be about as tall as you preschoolers. In the rainforest, they get 400 inches of precipitation a year,” Vigorito explained to her audience.
Vigorito had her guests find photos of animals she placed among a jungle scene and hanging canopy in the Nature Center’s activity room. The group played a game where they asked “What can a monkey see from a tree?”
The monkey spotted each of the animals the students were holding and as they placed them back among the jungle scene, Vigorito shared interesting facts about each animal.
“There are turtles and hummingbirds that live in the jungle that are the same kinds that we can see right here in the Mahoning Valley,” Vigorito explained to the students.
The group read the book “Here is the Tropical Rainforest,” played a frog jumping game and completed a craft where the kids created a jungle tree and drew animals at its base.
Campbell native Andrew Boehlke enjoyed the event with his grandma, Rosie Boehlke.
“This is a lot of fun because Andrew really loves science at this age. We’re glad to come by because they do a great job here,” Rosie shared.