June 17th was a WONDERFUL day to get OUTSIDE and learn about the animals & world around us!

Thanks to a grant from Kansas Wildscape, the Macksville City Library was able to host an O.K. Kids Program in our beautiful city park.The focus of the event was to learn about animal senses, animal coverings, and animal homes.

The GOAL of the event was to HAVE FUN! (Plus, we wanted to educate kids and help foster an appreciation of the outdoors!)

Above, you can see a group shot & views from the crafts & snack rotation, where participants put scales & eyes on foam snakes, and ate gummy worms, & fish & animal crackers.  Below are pictures of Lucy the bearded dragon, Sarah Cruz, educator from the Great Bend Zoo, speaking to a group, and Ono the hedgehog.  Kids learned about animal coverings at this station and got to touch a variety of things such as a turtle shell, snake skins, porcupine quills, and Lucy & Ono.

The animal homes station was led by Pam Martin from the Kansas Wetlands Education Center. Participants learned about and got to inspect a variety of homes, including different species of bird’s nests, honeycombs, a paper wasp nest, crawfish tunnels, and even a ‘Toad Abode!’

The animal senses station was led by Jean Aycock, also from the Kansas Wetlands Education Center.  She talked about how animals use their senses to survive, and she tested the kids’ senses of smell, & touch with different activities. They learned that snakes don’t have very good eyesight, but they do sense vibrations & have a keen sense of smell.  There was even a snake for kids to touch, and they talked about how it constricted its food.

“Thanks!” to Kansas Wildscape for the funding for this program (plus the 30 t-shirts we gave away!). To find more O.K.Kids programs, visit: www.kansaswildscape.org

“Thanks!” also to Pam & Jean from KWEC  and Sarah from Great Bend’s Brit Spaugh Zoo   And, “THANKS!” to Eileen, Debbie, Jacob, & Linda & all who helped make the program a success!