2024 Refuge Outdoor Festival

Session Capacity: 20

Attention attendees: Online registration does not guarantee session access. Please arrive at least 5 minutes before the session begins and check in with a volunteer to secure your spot. Thank you!

Spring and summer are a great time to plant seeds and watch them grow. In this workshop, Sunflower the Storyteller will ask children to help her tend an imaginary garden. In the garden they will plant their seeds of ABC’s, water them, and watch them grow into words while enjoying the natural world around them.
With a focus on literacy, this interactive workshop encourages imagination and makes reading accessible through singing, movement, storytelling, alphabet games and building words.

1) Introduction: Sunflower and children introduce themselves through nature improv game (10 minutes)
2) Prep for song: Children receive Animals/Insects/Plants nature signs, get into groups and act out the Animals/Insects/Plants that they are holding (5 minutes)
3) Song - Planting ABC's song is introduced and Animals/Insects/Plants introduced in item 2 are played out in the song. (music and movement) (4 minutes)
4) Group sings their ABCs together (2 minutes)
5) Group counts together 1-20 (depending on age) (3 minutes)
6) Planting Seeds - Sunflower leads the group in planting seeds in the ground that grow into ABC's. Sharing, and improvisation around planting a garden, what plants need to grow, and then asking kids what letters they grew (10 minutes)
7) Group takes the letters they grew and work together to spell simple words about animals/plants/nature together. (5 minutes)
8) Group takes a nature walk together. On the walk they will be asked to observe, there will be quiet moments for listening, and also using senses such as touch and smell to remember their walk. (5-10 minutes)
9) The kids come back together. Sunflower shares a story of her experience and asks the kids to do the same. (7 minutes)
10) Song is replayed, ABC's reviewed, dancing and singing. End of session (5 min)

At the end of this workshop, participants will have learned/practiced/or reinforced their knowledge of ABC's, joining letters together to make words, writing (writing letters in the air), and reading words. From observing and acting out elements of nature (buzzing like a bee, waving like a flower, singing like a bird, wiggling like a worm, etc.), it is hoped they will grow in their appreciation (and or dispel some fear) of animals and insects that we share the world with. They will leave with enhanced storytelling skills (a key part of reading and writing) and learn the basics of gardening through the improv of planting seeds and growing ABC's.