Home School Fair

Last week, my Master Naturalist chapter had tables at a Home School Fair – a hectic 2+ hours for us with between 200-300 people doing the 4 different ‘road trip’ themed activities we had: nature journaling (citing the Gateway Arch and Lewis and Clark journals), sand art (Mohave Desert), petroglyphs (Petroglyph National Monument), and petrified wood/tree rings (Painted Desert/Petrified Forest).

I appreciated my wagon to get things from my car to the tables!

We had a few pieces of petrified wood for the children to handle – realize that they were rock…and talked about living trees and tree rings with pine tree cookies. We opted to include the Highway 13 Butterfly Trail information on our table since it is a ‘road trip’ closer to home and many of the pollinator gardens/prairies still have plenty to see this fall.

I contributed a volcanic rock my husband and I got many years ago in New Mexico as part of the pan with black sand --- provided a clue about where black sand comes from.

The petroglyph materials were brought by another volunteer…those rocks were heavy! The pens used on the rocks were a hit with many children (they made more elaborate images rather than petroglyphs much of the time).

This was the third year I have participated in the event. Each one has been unique…but worth the effort for the number of interested students/parents that come to the fair.