During the Earth Day event, children enjoyed playing with beads which had absorbed water and felt squishy! The purpose of the event, in part, was to start young children thinking about secondary uses for typical household items.
Lamguene Kindavong, recreation coordinator for the City of Merced, demonstrated how to make a bird feeder using a toilet paper roll, peanut butter and bird seed.
The City of Merced Parks & Community Services Department organized a fun and educational celebration of Earth Day at Applegate Park in Merced, which took place on the afternoon of April 19.
During the event, kids created bird feeders, transplanted fruit and vegetable plants, enjoyed sensory activities, and learned about animal species native to the area. The celebration concluded with the showing of an appropriate movie, “Peter Rabbit”, on an inflatable screen.
Earth Day is an annual event honored every April 22 which began in 1970 and is currently observed in more than 193 countries. It is coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network to demonstrate support for environmental protection.
Lamguene Kindavong, recreation coordinator for the City of Merced, explained, “Since 2016, I have helped the City of Merced rebuild special events. This is the third year I’ve organized an Earth Day celebration to promote the well-being of our planet. It’s a great opportunity to share Earth Day with the people in our community.”
Kindavong demonstrated how to take a toilet paper roll, generously slather it with peanut butter, and heap bird seed on top of the peanut butter. Children were enjoying making these bird feeders to take home and hang up outdoors.
When asked what type of birds use the bird feeder, Kindavong replied, “Any type of bird is attracted to it.”
He exclaimed, “It’s free food!”
Explaining the purpose of the Earth Day celebration in the park, Kindavong continued, “It’s to get families out here so that young kids can begin thinking about things they use that are household items, like a toilet paper roll, and looking at them from a different perspective, understanding there are secondary uses for them.”
Describing an activity which could result in the creation of a home garden, he said, “We’re doing transplanting of tomato plants, strawberries, mint, basil, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe and broccoli. We also have wildflowers they can start from seed.”
He added, “There are sensory activities for the little ones. You have to see them!”
Kindavong gestured to small beads sitting in containers of water, which were absorbing the water and expanding.
Children were enjoying playing with the beads. They felt squishy, according to the kids.
Others were creating stress relievers from balloons.
There was a bounce house set up for more fun.
Jeanne Knapp, Ed.D, who is a member of an informal group, the Merced Environmental Literacy Collective, was helping youngsters create nature journals. The subject matter was lagomorphs.
She said, “We are educators interested in environmental education, and we set up events like this. I chose this event because it is lagomorph season, it’s Earth Day, it’s Easter and the movie being shown this evening is ‘Peter Rabbit’.”
She explained, “ Lagomorphs are an order of hares, rabbits and pikas.”
According to Knapp, the species, hare, includes jack rabbits. They are fast runners with long ears and long legs. The species, rabbit, includes cotton tails, which are “hiders”, as well as riparian brush rabbits.
She said, “Hares and rabbits are different species. Pikas live in dens in granite boulders in the Sierra Nevadas and look like tiny hamsters.”
After the children made their journals out of a lunch sack and a folded over piece of paper, they could draw the lagomorphs.
Knapp was enthusiastic about the quality of the children’s detailed drawings and was happy she was invited to be part of the Earth Day celebration by City of Merced Parks & Community Services Department.