Week 7:
ittie-bitties

July 16, 2016

This week, I jumped straight from last week’s 6th-8th graders into itty-bittie preschoolers! They are so cute, I forgot how small kids that age really are. The camp is called Seafari, and it’s for both preschoolers and their parents. We had a group of 14 parent/child pairs. They come with their parents pushing them in little strollers because their little legs can’t make it all around the park. Seafari’s theme is to take kids on a ‘sea themed safari’ around the world, learning about animals that live in five different habitats: their home state of Florida, coral reefs, open ocean, land, and the Antarctic.

On Monday, we started with the Florida animals–manatees, sea turtles, and alligators! With kids that young, instead of spending a huge amount of time focusing on facts about the animals, we really try and facilitate a connection with an animal. If kids feel connected to animals and have special interactions with them, they’ll start to care about them as well. And if you care about something, you protect it.

On Tuesday we taught the kids about animals that live in/around coral reefs, specifically smaller species of sharks and stingrays. We taught them in the form of a little animal character named Sandi shark. Every day, there’s a magnetic board with a picture of our animal ambassador on it. There’s three magnetic pieces that are different adaptations the animal uses to survive. We hide the magnetic pieces at different exhibits, and the kids have to find them! It’s a great way of teaching little kids, because they get so excited about running around and finding the pieces. 

On Wednesday, our theme was animals that live on both the land and in the water. Specifically our pinnipeds, so sea lions, seals, and walruses. Our animal ambassador character was named Winston Walrus. At Pacific Point Preserve, I sat the kids down in front of the window and used two stuffed animals, a sea lion and a harbor seal, as teaching agents. Kids that young love the stuffed animals, and they help them focus and listen. After talking about the differences between seals and sea lions–what they eat, and the sounds they make–one of the parents came up to me and thanked me, saying I did a really nice job. 

The next day, our theme was the Antarctic. The kiddos got very excited about SeaWorld’s cool penguin habitat, which was adorable to see. SeaWorld Orlando’s penguin habitat is an open-air exhibit that is roughly 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and has several hundred pounds of actual snow inside that the keepers shovel out every day. There are about 250 penguins in the exhibit, of 5 different species. It was especially adorable to watch little camper Emmett, who’s favorite animal is a penguin. His eyes lit right up and he was smiling so much!

Friday at last! Today was Open Ocean day, so we talked about dolphins and whales. My favorite part was definitely Shamu Underwater Viewing, where we saw Kayla and Trua. I brought all the kids to the front window and we did the Shamu Shimmy (basically the hokey pokey) to try to get the whales attention! Kayla swam over to the window and looked our little campers right in the eye. They were ecstatic. There’s nothing else quite like seeing an animal that big up close. Especially when you’re a pint-sized 4 year old!

I was actually really sad to say goodbye to these kids. I had so much fun all week, and they were so cute! On the last day, a camper named Hannah gave me a picture of Ariel (my favorite Disney princess) that she had colored for me. It was the sweetest thing, and I kept it and hung it on my wall. And at the end of the day, my favorite little camper of the week (not that I have favorites…) teared up when we had to say goodbye. He then gave me what his dad called a ‘monkey hug,’ where he clung to me with his little arms. It was such a good week, and I’m so glad I got to be a part of these kiddos’ time at SeaWorld.