Friday, August 08, 2008

Tuesday Night at the Zoo - Part 7

The program this time was Batty for Bats, and was presented by our own Education Director, Katie Larson. Katie is from Kansas originally, and did her thesis work on bats for her degree in Biology from Kansas State University.

I had just spent the day with my “shadow” at work, so was a little bit worn out – but was in a good mood despite the burgeoning migraine. I was a little bit late in arriving, however, so they were already starting to set up by the time I got there.

Setting up simply means hauling all the chairs out of the greenhouse and setting them up on the lawn out in front of the coffee shop. Typically, the tent is already up, so we make use of that. Several tables go out there as well, one to set the big screen TV up on and one to set out any hands-on items that might be needed for the program.

This time, we tried something new. We had another set of tables set up at the opposite end of the lawn which had lots of crayons, papers, scissors, glue, and the like. Our intention was to give the kids something to do so that they don’t distract from the program. Kids can get a bit rambunctious, as I’m sure you all know, and they sometimes can’t sit thru a 45 minute program without running around, screaming and yelling.

I must say, the idea worked out wonderfully! We had close to 25 people gathered around the table, coloring bats and making bat puppets – while over at the presentation, we had another 60+ people listening to Katie. Not a bad turnout at all.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear the program. I ended up sitting on the lawn and playing with Katie’s 2-year old daughter, Elka. We had fun with a rubber band, some tiny apple buds (the apple trees are TRYING to grow something, despite the horrible weather we’ve had this year), and the grass.

Once the program was over, it was a matter of minutes to get everything put back into the greenhouse, and I finally got to go home to my own kids.

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