The students at Brassfield Elementary in Raleigh are really lucky: they became the recipients of a special new turtle book, unique to their school alone! The authors are a class of fifth graders at the school, aided in part by Vicki Corporon, their talented Media Center Coordinator. Mrs. Corporon started her budding authors down the turtle trail based on an article in Audubon Adventures, the natural science education program developed by the National Audubon Society and distributed to local classrooms through Wake Audubon.
Mrs. Corporon says Adventures helps her students not to loose sight of nature with the pressure of end of year exams. Indeed, her school is a testament to natural history learning: students in third grade start nature journaling and the school has a native flower garden that fifth grade classes created.
Adventures is an environmental education program designed for grades three through five. This award winning program was designed by professional environmental educators and is designed to help students achieve proficiency in language arts, science, and environmental studies. Each kit comes with supplies for a class of 32 students (individual kits for home schoolers are also available), including 4 editions of Audubon Adventures Student Nature News Magazine, a classroom resource manual full of ideas for using Audubon Adventures, an environmental wall poster, a classroom wall certificate, and full Audubon member benefits for the educator.
Jennifer Blakeslee, a teacher at Heartwood Montessori, another school that teaches the Audubon Adventures curriculum, said:
“I am so thankful for the Audubon Adventures Packet. I really enjoyed the program. The content was really good and gave a great jumping off place for journaling about conservation issues. The kids loved it, and it is cross curricular. My class was doing measurement and the replication of an eagle's wingspan really hit home! They were so surprised to know that the bird had such a large wingspan, and the work counted as a math requirement.”
 
Wake Audubon has offered the program to our community for almost 20 years. Over the years it has grown from just a handful of school to over 70 participating classes.
Click here for a list of schools that used Audubon Adventures during the 2007-2008 school year.
Click here for a pledge card.
Direct any questions to Becky Desjardins:
Phone: (919) 606-5352
Email: becky.desjardins@ncmail.net.
We need sponsors to help us distribute these kits to 58 Wake County elementary classes and 12 in underserved counties in Eastern North Carolina. The cost is $50 per kit. Please help us continue this great program by sponsoring a classroom near you. For more information, or to sponsor a class, please contact Becky Desjardins.
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